Quote Originally Posted by CrystalClear View Post
Ok. So I presently live in Seattle, a very trendy cycling city. I have only been riding a road bike for a little over a month but have made a few friends in the bike community. They are all very knowledgeable, ride fixies and think rather highly of themselves. I went on a ride with them today and they were using single speed and fixie interchangeably. To my knowledge they are two different designs for a bike. If anybody knows, can you please explain what a fixie and a single speed are please??? If they are the same thing, please forgive my ignorance.

I am also interested in learning basic maintenance for my bike, do you recommend any links or literature???
The League of American Bicyclists offer their Road I and Road II bike classes, which includes some basic maintenance. Road I is oriented more toward riding safely in traffic but includes some very basic maintenance pointers (fixing flats, brake checks & adjustments); Road II builds on that and gets a little more into routine maintenance. There appear to be a bunch of instructors in the Seattle area, but I don't see any of the courses currently scheduled. You might try the web site at http://www.bikeleague.org/cogs/resou...22&submit.y=15 and see if anyone will be teaching Road I anytime soon...