Our buddy Vince Calvillo was at the City of Angels ride in the exhibitor area and he told me that I could take any bike to test, so I came home with a KHS Flite 100.
I picked this fixed geared bike because it is very unassuming; no flashy wheels, no weird handlebars and it comes with a front brake.
I prepped the bike last night for today’s commute, I added a rear blinkie, a mirror and a handlebar water bottle holder. Yeah, I know, the water bottle holder looks kind of hacky, but I do get thirsty on my 21 mile commute.
It has been a while since I’ve ridden a fixed gear bike, but fortunately I got used to it right away… except for the pedals. The Flite 100 comes with pedals with toe clips and straps; I never liked them, so for tomorrow’s commute, the pedal duty belongs to my Crank Bros Quattro Sl.
Today’s commute was interrupted by a phone call from my daughter’s school, she was not feeling well so I had to turn around and ride back to go and pick her up. Since I was a little worried about her, I was not able to compile a lot of detailed observations on how the Flite 100 rides. All I can say is that the ride was rather smooth and fast.
I’ll be riding this bike to work primarily — come back for the updates.
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11 responses so far ↓
1 RL Policar // May 6, 2008 at 5:02 pm
That’s a handsome bike!
2 Ghost Rider // May 6, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Oooh, I’m diggin’ on that matte black paintjob. Stealth fighter STYLE!
3 tad // May 6, 2008 at 6:32 pm
oooo that’s hot! I’d like to see some flat black fenders but it doesn’t look like there’s enough room.
4 aidan // May 7, 2008 at 5:07 am
Hey, this year’s is steel, not aluminium!
5 Ghost Rider // May 7, 2008 at 6:02 am
The Flite 100 has had a steel frame for several years…decent steel, too (Reynolds 520; not the best on the block but plenty good enough).
6 Vince Rodarte - KHS M.I.C. // May 7, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Ghost Rider.. I’m impressed! Yeah…you are correct. We’ve never done alloy in a complete bike but we did have a pursuit style alloy frame back in the late 90’s.
7 Lance // May 7, 2008 at 12:53 pm
GR is our very own bike/firearm encyclopedia.
8 RL Policar // May 7, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Don’t forget that GR is also the bicycle book expert.
9 RL Policar // May 7, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I forgot to mention how much I dig the crowned fork.
10 Ghost Rider // May 7, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Vince — I remember that pursuit frame. It was wicked! Seems like I saw one recently on Velospace or somewhere similar.
I totally agree with the use of the crowned fork…so many other companies “cheap out” with an ugly unicrown fork, so it’s nice to see KHS going the extra mile with little touches like that. Quite a striking machine!!! Can I have one?!?
11 Ghost Rider // May 7, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Here’s a picture of the pursuit frame that Vince mentioned:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindrobert/207172461/
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