A couple of months ago, I bought a new bike. This one was no ordinary road bike. It’s what’s known as a “track bike,” which is a single-speed version of a road bike that cannot coast (the pedals move as long as the wheels are moving). This track bike is a Specialized Langster 10th Anniversary edition, white frame with blue and red accent stripes; a very clean, simple design. Having only one speed and a fixed gear makes this bike a totally unique ride that takes some getting used to. The purist wouldn’t even have brakes on the bike and would apply back pressure to the pedals to slow and stop the bike, but in my case I prefer safety, so I had front and rear brakes installed. Then I had an idea, or more so a vision … this bike is made for fun, so why not add some flair?

After a minute or so of some very intense deliberation, I decided to add some gold features to the bike because, well, because it’s ridiculous. So I had Winter Garden Wheel Works install some gold bar tape and gold brake lines. I liked the outcome, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the Mr. T in me, so I ordered some gold wheels from State Bicycle Co. and a gold chain from KMC. Now, it was starting to look like something, but why stop there? Amazon and Google shopping searches became my new best friends for the next few weeks as I found more gold parts for the bike. In came a gold bottle cage, gold seatpost and seatpost clamp, and gold mounting screws for the chainring.

Then I realized something … this bike looks super bling, but had I lost the intention of the “track bike”? Track bikes are made to be raced on a velodrome track; they need to be able to achieve very high speeds. So I took the bike out and tested it to see what maximum speed I could clock on an all-out sprint. Remember that this bike only has one gear, which is based on how many teeth are on the front chainring, and the rear cog. A larger ring in the front and fewer teeth in the back makes for a higher top speed potential, but from a standing start can be a struggle just to get going, whereas the opposite will enable faster acceleration but limit top speed.

During my test run, I was able to get up to 28 mph before I was pedaling so fast I risked damaging my knees. This was about eight to 10 mph less than my flat ground capability on an 11-speed road bike. This simply would not do, so I decided to change the gearing setup from the standard 48t front and 17t rear to a 52t front and 16t rear. I then went out on the Sunday group ride with Nona Cycle to test the new limits. During the fastest sprint of the day, I managed a 33.3 mph max speed at 130 rpm, which was definitely the cadence limit of what my knees could handle. This is much better than before, but now I have to find the absolute limit, therefore a new 14t rear cog is on the way, and I expect to be able to comfortably ride up to 36 mph on flat ground, plenty enough to get pulled over for speeding in the neighborhood, which would probably be the only speeding ticket I would proudly accept with honor.

Now that this bike is in its final stages of completion, the last and probably most important requirement for any project bike is to name it. Therefore, I officially declare this bike to be named Goldmember. Obsessed Cycle is now working on a video featuring the “Goldmember” track bike, which should be released by the time this edition of Nonahood News hits the press. Please hop over to Obsessed Cycle on YouTube and Facebook to check out the final product! Also, to stay up to date with what’s going on with Obsessed Cycle, please follow, like and subscribe to our YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages. There’s plenty more to come!