Fixie bike aesthetics/culture

[shootingstar]

Ok..maybe I'm using the wrong lingo, but anyway tell more about the aesthetics of fixie bikes-- the must haves, the "look", desired components, etc.

After hearing 2 guys tonight raving on about theirs and boasts of barrelling up the long hills past all other cyclists with gears, etc... really am just a baby here about all this. Of course no bike rack would ever be installed on one, right?

[Biciclista]

It depends on the kind of Fixie. My son has a Raleigh fixed gear bike. IT had a rack when he bought it, it's a commuter bike.
and yes, being always in a higher gear, they DO go up hills faster than those of us with choices.

[PamNY]

Here is a New York Times article about fixie culture in NYC.

Inasmuch as I am 58 years old and very much in need of granny gears, I can't vouch for the accuracy of this piece.

Pam

[Irulan]

well, since this thread is useless with out pictures,

[Tuckervill]

I was so appalled the other day. I went into the bike recycle place and they had a very tiny '70s Bridgestone frame there. It wasn't anything special, but converted to fixed gear. They wanted $300 for the stupid thing!

I very much doubt any woman small enough to ride it is going to want fixed gear--or want to pay $300 for it.

I was hoping the fixed gear craze had not quite hit it hard here, but it has.

Karen

[Irulan]

I very much doubt any woman small enough to ride it is going to want fixed gear--or want to pay $300 for it.

why would you assume that a woman wouldn't want a fixie? We ride every other kind of bike out there...

[Eden]

I guess short people can't be hipsters (either that or we are so weak we couldn't handle a fixie...)

Sorry for the sarcasm Tuck, but as a small woman I did find that comment tweaked me a bit...

[Tuckervill]

Because I live in Arkansas. In the Ozarks. I think if there was one woman out there who this bike would fit, who wanted a fixed gear, she would know about the bike recycler and would have already bought that bike and it wouldn't have been sitting there for weeks, unsold. I think they were taking a chance when they built that bike up as a fixed gear, and they're going to regret it.

When I said, "any woman small enough", I meant from the available pool of women cyclists *around here*.

Karen

[shootingstar]

So which TE members here have a fixie/single speed? I realize there has been the odd photo posted here and there in past.

Does anyone have a stable of several?

[lunacycles]

I have 2--one fixed, one free. Here's one (single speed).
http://lunacycles.com/UnaCanyonRoad.html

[PamNY]

What a beautiful photograph! Oh, and beautiful bike.

Pam

[newfsmith]

What is that bike's name? Jackrabbit? I agree, a fabulous photo of a gorgeous bike.

[SJCzar]

I have a single speed / fixed gear that I use mainly for my commuter bike. It has the option of being a fixed gear, or flipping it over to a free wheel. I use it with the free wheel.

I love riding that bike. It feels so comfortable and carefree. I really enjoy the quiet and simplicity of not shifting. I call him my "easy breezy sweet little single speedy". It's perfect for tooling around the city. There is only one hill on my route back home that I sometimes stand up for - and even that's more for just a position change, not because the gearing would be too difficult for it.