These are some frequently asked questions we get from first time fixed gear / single speed buyers.
It’s a bicycle without a derailleur, without a cassette, without gears. Less complicated drive train, less to go wrong. You pedal and the bike goes forward. You stop pedaling the bike will coast along - to stop you use the brakes.
Fixed gear means you’re using a track/fixed cog on the rear hub. This means there is no freewheel - you control the speed of the bicycle with your legs whether it’s speeding up or slowing down. You’re always pedaling and you’re always in control.
Our flip-flop hubs are threaded on both sides. This allows you to have both freewheel / fixed cogs on your ride. You just need to flip the wheel around to choose fixed or freewheel.
Skidding fixed requires practice, but once mastered, it’s a very effective way to stop your fixed gear bicycle. You’ll be locking up the back wheel using only the power of your legs. Start on grass, build up some speed and then pull up on your leading foot and push down on your trailing foot. This should stop the back wheel. Then take this to wet bricks, then dry bricks, then the road. Always practice with at least one brake.
We build our rides with square taper BBs and square taper crank arms. We lightly grease the square taper before we ship your ride, but in the first 100kms this grease can dry out. You’ll need to re-grease the square taper on you BB.
1: Loosen the Rear Wheel 2. Remove the chain 3. Using a crank puller remove the drive side crank, then the non-drive side. 4. Check your square taper is still nicely square on the removed crank arms. If not you’ll need to look at replacing your crank set. 5. Make sure your bolts or new bolts are free of grease or grim and are dry. 6. Make sure to clean your square taper BB on either side and apply a very thin layer of grease to the Axel. This will stop any creaking once assembled. 7. Seat the Drive side crank onto the square taper BB using a rubber mallet. 8. Apply 3 small dots of loc-tite thread lock to the drive side (longer) bolt, and tighten into the socket. Tighten only enough so that it’s secure. 9. Repeat this process for the non-drive side.
NB NB NB: Do not OVER TIGHTEN. The BB is made from Tooled Steel and will strip almost any bolt if over tightened. It’s crazy strong. Make sure you loc-tite both bolts and leave for 24 hours to cure before hitting the road. If you're in Cape Town, our workshop will gladly do this for you.
Our bicycles are track inspired and thus have no internal cable routing for brakes. If you’re riding fixed, a front brake is more than sufficient as you have loads of stopping power using your legs. As a basic guide line:
Freewheel mode, mostly flat roads: Front Brake Only Freewheel mode, mostly downhill: 2 brakes Fixed Gear mode: Front brake is usually sufficient
Good question. Our philosophy is to build uncomplicated beautiful bikes that ride great and last a lifetime! Adding gears, and the cables and derailleur that comes along with gears complicate the bike as well as the ride. Our standard ratio is good for most hills most of the time and your bike requires far less maintenance. There is a time and place for a geared ride, but we’re not building those bikes.
There a few main differences: Weight, materials and geometry. The Race weighs in at just on 8kgs. The One is a smidge over 10kgs. They’re both quite aggressive riding styles, with the Race being slightly more so. The Rook One frame and fork are constructed from steel. The Rook Race is built from 6061 aluminum tubing with a carbon fibre fork. Novatec hubs are standard on the Race builds.
Depending on the parts and/or frameset we work with various suppliers in Taiwan, Europe and China. We then assemble the bicycles in our Cape Town workshop and ship all over South Africa.
No.
No.
We do not inflate our prices just to discount them as some other bicycle brands do. We feel that we're hooking you up with the best price possible and no not generally give discounts on Rook products.
Unfortunately not. Horizontal dropouts ftw.
Yes get in touch: orders@rookcycles.com
Our workshop is usually busy building our own bikes and we’re small team so we don’t have much extra capacity to be fixing up your old shredder. We will however do minor services on Rook brand bicycles as well as any warranty repairs.
Damn son! Everybody wants a free bike! Before asking to be part of the Rook Cycles team, get sponsored or endorsed by RC, you'll need to at the very least have the following: - Enter Races - Podium at Races - Ride - Ride More - Kick ass Instagram - Have a rad outlook and attitude - Look the part - Live the lifestyle If you feel like you're already doing the above, get in touch with hello@rookcycles.com
