Adding a Road Bike

kcjchang

There is a reason they are referred to as track bikes; they are intended to be used in a velodromes. I got one to work on my sprints/pedaling back in my racing days and only used it on back roads with little or no traffic. I find it crazy for folks that use it riding them in traffic. If you look closely, the gear are mostly not fixed and have brakes. To me it just for show. Incidentally it great someone can climb with it but what's the point? Maintaining a said cadence is dependent on your engine and mental ability. You can handy cap yourself just as well with a normal cluster without being a danger to anyone one else, especially coming down the hill. There are too many riders that can't decent as is.

Each bike type has its intended purpose and although you can use it to suit any, you can only get so far without compromising (think SUVs verse 911). If you lack upper body strength, a road bike is going to give you hell. It'll take a few rides for the adjustment but it's worth it - a new horizon awaits. Personally I have a mountain bike, two road bikes (road and criterium setup), a track bike, and at one time a modified cross bike. (A touring bike turned to cross with flat bars used to go between classes in college and around the town until it was stolen.)

TheBigYin

my Fixie was far from being a "track bike" - it was a old second hand Carlton Clubman 531 Frame, with Mudguard Clearances and front and rear Brakes, which I basically had the rear dropouts removed and track ends brazed in (they're the rear-facing slotted "dropouts" for those who don't know)

So it was pretty much just a standard "clubman training frame" but with a single fixed gear, just so I could a) work on my spinning technique b) keep warm in winter and c) not ruin my expensive Campag Record gears by riding the bike in all the *kitten*, salt, sleet and snow of a typical british autumn - spring.

If anything, it most strongly resembled the classic british "road path" type machines of the 40s/50s - where clubman racers had one bike that had to do everything from riding to work and back through the week, club time trial on a Tuesday night, grasstrack racing on a Thursday evening, Roadrace on a Saturday afternoon and the clubrun on a Sunday... At most, they may well have a spare set of "race wheels" - which you'd take with you on wheel-carriers that attached to the front fork dropouts - ride to the race on the heavy wheels, swap to the sprints/tubs for the race, then switch to the normal wheels and ride back home after the race.