[Argentius]

My fixie's a converted road bike; it's got semi-horizontal dropouts instead of track ends.

The chain was a little stretched, the wheel was as far back as it could go, and there was a little sag in the chain, but it wasn't too bad. I thought, meh, it'll do.

Well, downhill in a corner, it came off the cog, jammed between the cog and 'stay. Locked up the rear wheel, pulled a Beloki and highsided something fierce. I'm just happy I didn't break anything. My hips are all sorts of blue, purple, and red. Very scraped elbows, bruised bones, and about 90 seconds that are erased from my memory.

Dammit.

 

[dtimms]

how did it come off the cog? dude, that sucks you got wrecked. hope you feel better. i'm doing the same type of tension on my fixie and know i''m thinking of putting my singulator on. i bought it but didn't use it since the tension was close enough. good luck man and i hope you get better.

 

[ssmessenger]

NO SINGULATORS ON FIXIES! For your own sake.

 

[TurboTurtle]

NO SINGULATORS ON FIXIES! For your own sake.

To expand: Chain tensioners, like the singulator, do not work on a fixed gear bike - only on a freewheeling single speed. On a fixed, when you back pedal you will tear it right off the frame. - TF

 

[Argentius]

hadn't looked at this in a couple days -- yeah, I'm feeling fine, but my shoulder's still damn stiff.

Yeah, singleators aren't for fixies, otherwise they'd be a ... fixedator?

My next fixie is going to have track ends instead of dropouts, that's for sure. I just couldn't get enough adjustment with the semi-horizontal old roadbike setup. If you were just puttering around the city, I suppose that wouldn't matter, but I hammer my fixie hard, up and down lots of 10-12% hills, and it was the transition between forward and backward pedalling. I went to "resisting" the pedal stroke for a moment, and all the slack came back into the chain. I was going around a light corner, and as I went back to forward pedalling, pop, clink, screech, bang.

 

[Kram]

Been there, done that. Fortunately my end result was just a jumped chain. I have horizontal dropouts on my fixie. Can't you just take a link out and tighten it up? Or, maybe try a different gear combo.