fixies

[badger]

sorry if there's a thread on this, I'm still fairly new here.

Does anyone ride a "fixie" on here? one of them thar bikes with only one speed and no brakes.

I see quite a few people here zipping around in them, and I think they are the scariest, craziest things to ride in a city (and a hilly one at that). I've had so many instances where I needed to stop very quickly, how in the world do those riders stop in time?!

[SadieKate]

Um, did you try the search function? You might find some info from people who don't post a lot.

Many people do run a brake on a fixie for safety.

[badger]

that's what I want to find out. From what I've seen around here, though, I see no evidence of a brake of any kind other than using their foot on the rear wheel to drag, and doing that odd side-kick thing of the rear wheel.

[SadieKate]

Pressure from your feet on the cranks is the primary brake.

[jobob]

This might be of interest:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?p=376690&highlight=fixie#post376690

[smurfalicious]

*****Disclaimer: I am not hating on fixies or those who ride them, only hipsters who ride them to look cool, not because they dig bikes*****

Ugh, there are two schools of fixie thought. There are those that have been riding them for a while because they dig them, and then there are obnoxious hipsters.

I work with an old school fixie rider and it's her occasional bike. It's not something she adores riding all the time but it's fun now and again. The simplicity of the bike is nice, nothing to worry about, little to break. It's also kind of fun because you can take almost any beater old road frame from the thrift store and turn it into a fixie for very little expense as compared to updating the entire drive train.

Then in Boulder we have the obnoxious hipster crowd. They're easily identified by their trademark skin tight jeans with one leg rolled up, lack of helmet, short brimmed cycling cap and Chrome brand messenger bag that has never delivered anything but PBR to a party.

I don't get the no brake thing. They seem to operate under the assumption that it makes them cool. Right, single points of failure and no helmet are awesome when you're at the hospital because your chain broke and you rolled helplessly into oncoming traffic. The last thing I want to deal with when I've got a trailer full of horses behind my truck is try and stop all that mass without injuring my valuable horses because someone thought brakes weren't cool. I do value human life more than theirs but I'd be pretty peeved if I lost my valuable rope/barrel horse because someone's image was at stake.

I seem to recall a few brands selling fixies this year that were originally spec'd with no brake until they realized it was a law suit waiting to happen. Not sure how that slipped anyone's mind.

Fixies were designed for the track and in that, ummm, sort of controlled environment no brakes is safe. In fact if someone else braked on the track you'd be in a heap of trouble.

Soo that's what I know. Rant aside this video is funny as can be. We were all peeing ourselves at work watching at. I had to watch it again at home just to hear all the words because the laughter was so loud. Warning, this is borderline NSFW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3hhKVxOkSE

[SadieKate]

I have to watch again because 1) I had a hard time understanding them and 2) it's filmed at UC Davis so I became totally distracted once I suspected this.

Plus, our old LBS in Davis finally started carrying fixie and SS stuff about 2 years after we told them to. It's not like you need more than 1 gear on those flatlands. OK, two if you ride out of town into the headwind.

[badger]

funny how we have the same sort of hipsters here, too, and they wear the same sort of clothes - maybe there's some code?

Not long ago this girl on a fixie cut me off. I don't know why, because we were just up to an intersection and she does that silly side kick maneuvre almost taking my front wheel out. They tend to not care about the road rules and piss drivers off, which basically paints all us cyclists with the same brush. Mind you, she pissed me off and I was a fellow cyclist!

Vancouver's really hilly with a lot of start/stop traffic. I think it's suicide to ride one of those contraptions, but I guess they do have an image to uphold...

[smurfalicious]

The other day I was working at the pet store and was walking across the parking lot to Whole Foods for their wickedly addictive burritos. Next door we have a bike shop and there is much mutual love between us. I've caught them making pervy comments as they wheeled bikes out for the morning and pretended to be offended, made change for them, suckered them into reciprocating the discounts we had been giving their manager, and used my pouty face to get a gratis derailleur adjustment. They're a great shop but more the "wholesome family fun" and "40 year old guys buying Trek's with beer bellied aspirations of being Lance" kind of shop. Ain't nothing wrong with that in my book, hey anything to get people on bikes I say.

Aaaaanyway, as I was walking to by this totally tragic hipster boy rolled up on his fixie and I quietly started singing the fixie rap. He can shop wherever he wants and all, but for reals? Mister Hipster is shopping there? Nuh-uh! I just had to chuckle. There are several other shop within a few blocks from there so it amused me that he went there. I think that reset his hipster points to ZERO.

And yeah it is a little hard to make out the fixie rap, and once he said he had a copy of the Aggie I knew it was either Davis or A&M but since I doubt there's a fixie scene at A&M I knew it had to be Davis. Went to an Ani concert there once, unique school for sure.

[Andrea]

I ride a fixed gear on occasion, and I'm not a hipster.

As annoying as I find it to make bike riding into some sort of "clique-ish" activity, they are riding bikes, which is cool. I get pissed when ANYONE makes an a** of themselves by disregarding traffic laws/being a general nincompoop, but I think that it makes us more annoyed that people of a certain "clique" tend to do so on a more regular basis... or at least it seems that way because they stick out a little more than us "normal" cyclists.

[smilingcat]

vehicle code requires brakes on ALL wheels. If it has two wheels both need brakes. Here in California, riding a fixie without a front brake is illegal.

I also think it is irresponsible to ride a fixie without a front brake.

smilingcat

[OakLeaf]

vehicle code requires brakes on ALL wheels. If it has two wheels both need brakes. Here in California, riding a fixie without a front brake is illegal.

I also think it is irresponsible to ride a fixie without a front brake.

smilingcat

I agree that it's irresponsible to ride a fixie on the street without a front brake. BUT... your construction would make bikes with coaster brakes illegal. None of them have front brakes. Are you sure that's the law in California?

I covet a fixie... but I have no idea where I'd ride one. :p

[smilingcat]

Thats the way it was explained to me. maybe a fixie without a front brake is considered to not have nay brakes. ???

smilingcat

[fatbottomedgurl]

Well because of the fixie craze my 20 year old son asked for a bike. He has been sitting in front of a computer for seven years. I bought him a Fuji road bike on craigslist, we stripped it down, painted it grey, and I built it back up with new grey cables and housing. It is very stealth and pretty hip. He still would like a fixie, but now he is riding (in his tight jeans) every day and wants me to start doing some night rides with him. I am all over that! I never thought I would see him on a bicycle.

[lunacycles]

Waaay back in the day when I was a hard core bike racer, before there was anything hip about it, I converted an old road bike to a fixie. The point of riding one was that it helps, vastly, with helping you learn how to spin and eliminate the "dead spots" in your pedaling. It was a fairly common winter training machine amongst the boulder racing folks I hung with. A fixie is non forgiving: you cannot coast, and wherever you are not exerting effort while pedaling you notice immediately. Riding one for months on end means when you get back on your road bike your legs have the muscle memory that allows you to pedal at a high cadence for a long period with very little fatigue, which is a great benefit when you are racing crits week in and week out.

As long as there is a front brake, there is nothing dangerous about it, unless in a moment of non-mindful pedaling you forget that you cannot coast. Kind of the same surge of adrenalin as when you forget to pedal for a moment (or brake!) on rollers. If you are skilled rider, there is not much dangerous about it at all, even with no brakes, unless you need to stop suddenly. There are tons of big city messengers who ride brakeless fixies, as they know how to.

Also, most fixies and track bikes are very different animals as far as geometry is concerned. A lot of track bikes become fixies for lack of actual track riding, but a fixie can be any bike set up with a non-freewheeling cog in the rear.