whats so good about a fixie bike. i see them posted for sale on websites and they’re all between 700 and 1500 dollars? whats so good abiout them. i know this is a unicycle website not a b*ke site but still just want to know so
and really why is it such a big deal? its a freaking bicycle that isnt very useful for riding anywhere. wtf
Hipster culture. They are trendy, that is what makes them great. Any sort of largish city, with some schools, you can see bunches of young on them.
Ahh, I’d beg to differ. I have used a fixed wheel as my main road ride since the early 1990’s, and back in my solid road racing days (1970’s and 80’s), many of us used fixed wheel for our training bikes (they encourage excellent pedal technique, which transfers well to riding a freewheel). If you don’t believe in the benefits learnt from riding fixed, haul yourself off down to a velodrome and give it a try. There is nothing quite like riding at high speed around steep banking amidst 30 others with no brakes to promote smooth riding. I do mean it - give it a try.
In our club coaching of junior racers (2 of whom are current Junior World Champions, with one riding in the Giro d’Italia at the moment), we have a healthy period of riding fixed on the road, in combination with track racing (which is all fixed). Their improvement is palpable, particularly in time-trialling.
I personally don’t give a flying toss about trends. I ride fixed because I like it. I occassionally still race fixed on the road, depending upon the circuit. I also learnt to ride (in 1965) on a fixed wheel that my grandfather built for my mother and uncle to learn on. The same bike was used a few years ago for my neice and nephew in learning how to ride (and they both now ride uni’s).
Fixed wheels are not a new phenomonon - They’ve been around a lot longer than freewheels.
If the current trendy affiliation gets people riding bikes, that’s fine by me. Trends are only a concern for people who feel they have something to prove. From my perspective, the more people riding cycles on the road, the better, and I don’t care if they are on trikes or penny farthings.
OK, now you tell us about your non-uni fixed wheel experiences that have left you so disenchanted;).
Cheers,
Eoin
EoinC, thank for saying what I thought I was going to have to type.
I’ll add just a couple of things.
I’ll add that the benefit of one fixed gear road bike was improvement in climbing, endurance, and in spinning. Also it was a nice way to break up the monotony of 200-300 mile training weeks. The feeling of deep cleats with laminated toe clip straps (no coming out without loosening the strap) on a SS was a great feeling of oneness with the bike.
I had mine from about 1975 to 1980 but we called them Single Speeds and it was just accepted that they were fixed (since they were road SS’s) and Mtb SS’ were still to come along.
And along came the 26" SS MTB. Some of those 26" SS’s morphed into Urban Assault Vehicles. I think those 26" SS hardtails were part of the ramp up to the current popularity of Fixies
Both wickedbob and eroinc are correct. They do serve practical reasons but the majority of those sold are probably for trend.
Fixie bikes are supposed to be about simplicity and make good city bikes, you can use cheap old frames and it is a very simple way of traveling around in a city. However, single speed bikes offer pretty much the same simplicity, and are much better for city use in my opinion. I don’t want a fixed gear bike, but that is mainly because if I wanted to ride fixed, I’d unicycle. I LOVE coasting on a bike, it is amazing, and when commuting or riding downtown I feel more relaxed if I can coast.
I can understand it, and if I wasn’t into unicycling I would probably have a fixie bike just to mix it up. I hear a lot of cyclists say how fixies are the best for cities, but I usually argue that a single speed bike is a much better ride for the city.
You, too, know the great feeling of control and flow riding fixed. It’s a good feeling on a hill (of the right gradient) to be able to outclimb a carbon fibre campy SR / Zipp-equipped wonder, using an old steel frame on doggy 36H Mavics that should be hibernating in a museum.
On the down side:
I rode fixed in a road race over in Sarawak in Malaysia a few years ago. It was pretty much an out-and-back course, with no climbs. We had a howling headwind and horizontal rain heading out along the coast. Being the biggest bus shelter in the race, and stuck to churning a 48x15, I had 50 riders tucked in behind my grind all the way to the turning point, whereby they all then changed up another 500 gears and left me spinning silly rpm all the way back for the ~40km return run, while they took advantage of the South Sea Typhonic Tailwind blowing us along, using their 53x11’s to good effect. I would have done better if I’d taken the chain off and coasted…
I have a fixie as well as my roadie…
My fixie is my daily commuter - I ride this about 40kms daily.
I LOVE it, riding fixed means you are fully in touch with the bike.
It is something that you need to experiance and get used to to understand.
It is also fun busting skidzzzz after a few beers.
I dislike riding a freewheel now - after riding my roadie after being on my fixie the lack of control I feel when coasting (for the first few hundred metres) is chronic.