Coasting Is A Pernicious Habit

For some irrational reason (fun), I stripped the derailleurs and back brake and stuff off of my bike, and got a wheel with a track hub. I also replaced the bottom bracket and cranks, which were totally shot anyway. So now I have only one gear, I can't coast, and my legs are sore in weird places from using my legs as brakes. And I can almost do a track stand (which is possible on a normal bike if you are on an incline), except for my pesky lack of balance (which is improving).

There are a bunch of supposed benefits to riding fixed, but the most important is fun. If I get stronger, that's good too. This Sheldon Brown guy has lots of good info on all things bike related, and even helped me out on Usenet by telling me what tool I would need to remove the bottom bracket bearing cups (very old non-standard Shimano stuff).

So far I've ridden only two fixed trips, but we plan on going to Sydney tomorrow, so that will give me a chance to really get a feel for it.

There are photos from out little trip downtown available. This was the first time I ever took pictures from on the bike. It was set on the wrong mode though, and we had more than the usual number of rejects. Gallery generated with Ryan's Cornice mod, but the plain jane template is my own. Cornice mod is cool.