[Mighty Drop Off]

Is it fixed as in whenever the bike rolls, the cranks turn, or is it like a coaster brake like I had on my old schwinn? I really want a single speed road bike with a coaster brake for around town, what do I have to buy to have a coaster brake?

 

[the locust]

Is it fixed as in whenever the bike rolls, the cranks turn, or is it like a coaster brake like I had on my old schwinn? I really want a single speed road bike with a coaster brake for around town, what do I have to buy to have a coaster brake?

fixed gear is a bike that whenever the cranks turn the wheel turns and vice versa in otherwords the cog is fixed to the hub. if you havent tried it i highly recomend it. quite fun

edit: and if you want a coasterbrake you must buy a coasterbrake hub i beleve

 

[Bikinfoolferlife]

There's also the consideration of a flip-flop hub with a fixed gear on one side, and a freewheel for the other....and you'd need a rim brake instead, bu IMHO that'd be better than a coaster brake anyways. Lots will depend on what frame you want to do any of this with...

 

[Fungazi]

A coaster brake is a special hub that has a freewheel mechanism in it, and a drum brake the activates when you turn the cranks backwords. They aren't generally very strong, and the 700c wheel on a roadbike would make them seem even weaker.
A fixed gear, as others pointed out, can not freewheel, and its not really a brake system. They are fun to ride, but so is a normal SS with a freewheel and rim brakes. Most hubs that will work for fixed gering will also work for freewheeling SS, but the reverse is not so true.

 

[WadePatton]

search for "fixed" or "fixie" in the SS forum.

Fixed makes road riding interesting again. Some even off road that way. 63xc.com Sheldon brown 'splains it too: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html Lotso good info at his site.

I've got a fixed roadie. And coaster brakes are not only weak, but will fail dramatically when overheated. Okay for the beach I suppose.

I found it: The techno paper where coaster brakes melt when tested.
excerpt--3) Using the coaster brake destroyed it.

rims vs internal hub -- http://www.bicyclesource.com/bike/choosing/brakes-paper.shtml

 

[Quasi]

A "fixed gear" is what you have after you weld a broken gear back together again..

 

[Mighty Drop Off]

Man, I never thought the gadget that let me do all those cool skids as a kid was so fragile.

 

[ickyickyptngzutboing]

That coaster brake article was something else... wow, ditto to the above post, I didn't know they were soo fragile. If I had known when I was 7 that you could make those bad boys smoke I sure would have tried!

 

[Fungazi]

Kids don't weigh much and don't go as fast as adults, so coaster brakes work ok for them, even allowing wheel lockups. An adult has a harder time "skidding" a wheel because thier greater weight means greater ground friction means more stopping force is needed to lock up the wheel. Rear wheels lock up pretty easy anyhow.
Kids also don't generally do 700+ foot descents...

 

[Ultra Magnus]

Isn't repack DH run (I think in mamoth) named after the fact that in the old days with coaster-brake-beach-cruiser-converted-mtb you would have to re-pack your hub because they'd be oh so cooked after one run?