....over a year ago I read about cycling with a fixed gear or a fixed hub ("starre Nabe" in German) at first though Sheldon “the guru” Brown and then other accounts of fixed cycling and was so intrigued I desperately wanted to try it out. I remembered vaguely that as a child I had tried to cycle a very small fixed bike and not liking it all.

A very old sturmey Archer flip-flop hub came up on ebay and I thought flip-flop would be good in case I couldn’t get into cycling fixed and I bought it. My first look at the hub told me it was on it’s last legs but better than nothing I set about putting a bike together.

I got a frame really cheap and it turned out to be Columbus SLX tubing which seemed a waste for a fixed bike to me at the time (I was very naive) so I built a beautiful geared bike out that frame.



While I was building that bike, trapsing back ‘n forth to the local bike shop a neighbour Micha asked me if I was on the look out for parts. That was music to my ears but I realized quickly sorting through the bits and bobs he presented me that he didn’t have anything really worthwhile. He was very resilient and said he had a couple of bikes in the cellar.

Micha has a number of cellar allotments and they’re all full and in the corner of each he presented me a racer. They were all rusty and unusable until we came to the Elswick. It was wine red metallic made from Tange Champion plain gauge steel and had Suntour VX and Sakae parts as well Mavic MA4. The frame has a 58cm seat tube and I thought instantly it would make a good fixed bike as most of the parts had had their day. I gave Micha €30 for the bike and he threw in another wheel.

The bike sat in our cellar a month before I got the motivation to take it out and have a look at it but soon put it back again upon realizing that all the bearings were seized up.

I got my nephew a Raleigh for Christmas which unfortunately needed loads of work and parts so I took the Elswick apart. In doing so I realized what a beautiful frame it has. As the weather slowly got worse before Christmas I got motivated to turn it into a fixed bike. I had give my nephew the best of the parts so I had to hunt for a few parts.

I built up the rear wheel with old used spokes I had lying around and a Mavic rim which was buckled and attached to Shimano 105 hub whose axle was bent (not sure how you manage that).

I got a narrow shimano bottom bracket and a very simple steel crankset with 46 teeth for €30. Unfortunately I had already bought a sixteen tooth cog for the rear wheel and thought I probably wouldn’t be able for the resulting gear ratio (32km @ 90 RPM).

I couldn’t get the rear wheel straight but wanted desperately to try the bike out so I took on the train to Grunewald in Berlin where there’s a long wide cycle track affectionately called "die Krone" by the locals.

The moment I started and the pedals kicked my feet back up towards me I was hooked. I’ve always loved bikes with a bit of weight that seem to store the momentum you put into and the Elswick is one of those style bikes. I just tore up the track leaving everybody behind the buzz was incredible and then I came to the first major hill and tore up it at an incredible rate.

Before going back down I had to take a short break. For the first bit I was a bit cautious but then I just let it roll and spun my down my bottom hopping off the saddle all the way. After that I felt confident to cycle home through the city and from then on it seemed just as easy as cycling a geared bike except I had a permanent grin on my face. I’m not sure exactly what it is but it hasn’t worn off yet.



I cycled this bike fixed about 600 km before the thread on the rear axle was so worn that the bolts wouldn’t fasten anymore. The rim had split at one point and the hub kept filling up with sand washed in though the rain. Sand is the greatest enemy to the cyclist in north Germany.

At this stage it was unthinkable to do without a fixed bike so I made a visit to Werner Otto and he gave a great deal on the parts for a new rear wheel with Dura Ace hub, Mavic Open 4 CD and DT-Swiss spokes for €120. I converted my Peugeot peugeot (JPG, 3 KB) with Reynolds 753 to a fixed bike.

Now I’m cycling 46/15 …..Now no one can catch me ….although last week I think I saw Jens Voigt on the “Krone” he probably wouldn’t have too much trouble catching me.