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/showt...xie#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