Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Where are you from and what's the bike community like?

Will be finishing nursing school in about 10 months. Looking to relocate from PA to anywhere in the country. Will be working as an emergency room nurse would i would like to commute to work every day. Building up my fixie now. I also road race. Interested in an area that has a strong biking community (fixed/ss commuting, and road riding/racing).

Just looking for people to chime in where they are from and what their area is like. Maybe i will get a few more ideas of where i can move to. Thanks!

Toronto. Awesome city but the bike community is very fragmented. There's a lot of people riding bikes, but not a lot of big bike events it seems.

I'm an RN and a cyclist. The bike community here is pretty nice with a couple racing-oriented clubs and several more recreational groups. Biking facilities are decent, traffic reasonable at most times (I ride to work from March through November). FG/SS is small but growing. For many years I was the only FG rider in the area and got many strange looks and questions from other riders but that is changing.

I'm from Austin and it's a great cycling city. I commute nearly everywhere on my fixed gear bike. There are tons of fixed gear riders, so there are always cool rides going on (critical mass, moonlight ride, etc). It's a pretty friendly community.

The road racing community is what is really great about Austin. People here do not mess around. Every weekend there is about 20 group rides leaving from various bike shops w/ various difficulty levels. I know some good cat2 riders and triathletes.

Also, Lance Armstrong lives here so if you're ever bored you can just call him up for a ride ;)

Anyways, that's just the cycling aspect. Austin is bad ass. I would tout the virtues of Austin to any willing ear. If you wanna know more about the actual city itself, PM me.

i live in norwalk, ia. the bike community is almost nonexistant. but recently there was a cycling club started. rides usually have 8or so people. but des moines, ia is really close and there's a good bike community there. i think it has one of the best trail systems in the us.

I'm from South Bend, IN... don't come here. Cars will hit you and everyone will laugh at you for riding bicycles. lol. Okay maybe its not that bad... but for a college town... its terribly unfriendly to bikes.

I'm from Atlanta. Bicycling magazine says that my city and Houston are the worst cities to bike in, in America. I am not surprised. Atlantans love cars. Last time I checked, it even says that on Wikipedia. In a city so dominated by cars, the streets are insane. Tons of lanes usually that just absorb heat in the summer. The motorists can barely drive. Personally, I've been hit by cars twice in the past 3 years. Just yesterday some old dude in a pickup truck tried to push my friend Nathan off his bike as he was riding. The city sprawls so much that if one place is convenient to you, another location you wanna get to is miles away. Public transit (MARTA) is some of the worst in the nation, if not THE worst. Geographically, Atlanta is hilly as hell. There are routes around large hills, but inclines are unavoidable. Being landlocked, we have no oceans, bad sushi, and are surrounded on all sides by rednecks, suburban soccer moms, and evangelical christians (those three things might all be synonyms). Atlanta is barely a city. More like an overgrown suburb. The urban area sprawls and the city isn't dense at all. In the city proper, the population is something like 500k, compared to the metropolitan area, which is something like 5 million. When I first moved to Atlanta, I thought it barely could pass as a city at all. It is nothing like New York, San Francisco, Boston, or even Baltimore.

Despite all that, I've grown to love Atlanta. All the things that made it a difficult city to live in, also make it interesting. Atlanta's culture is very distinctive from other cities I have lived in. We have our fair share of fair weather bikers and those who view their bikes as fashion accessories, but at the core are people who ride their bikes every day everywhere they go. For a city of our size, there aren't that many bikers. But Atlanta is a large city and I am constantly meeting new people who ride bikes. The people who do ride bikes have to love it, because it is really a trial by fire. Some cities, anyone can ride a bike. They don't have to love biking for the sake of biking. In those cities, riding a bike might just be the logical thing to do. It makes a lot of sense in Atlanta, too, but with the factors of cars, sprawl, and derelict infrastructure, you really have to love cycling to do it.

Anyhow, I love Atlanta. It is a flawed but interesting city. I won't live here forever, but I will always remember the wonderful times I had on my bike flying through traffic on Peachtree, bombing Marietta Street, weekends at the Silver Comet, etc.

I live in the suburbs of Durham, NC, biking isn't really the best way to get around with our cities layout, but, we have trails and paths bulit for them, so it's not so bad. There are a decent amount of competition riders around the area, though. I go to school in Raleigh where everything is much closer together, so biking is simple. In my experience, it's not hard to avoid irritating drivers in the area, which is always a plus, haha.

Davis, California, home of this year's U.S. Bicycle Hall of Fame.

As a fixed gear owner heres what i think the community is like:
-Other fixed gear riders will hate you because they all think they have better bikes and know more about riding a bike than you.
-Road riders will hate you because they think they are too professional and think they have more money than you. also because you fixed gear owners ruin their cycling scene.
-The rest thinks fixed gears are cool but cant afford one so they ride their walmart bikes but abandon them when their chain falls off and insist on calling our Tipsy Taxi for a ride home. They do however show interest by always coming up to you and asking "hey so how do you stop?"

Road riders will hate you ... because you fixed gear owners ruin their cycling scene.

Haha, is that true everywhere? It's certainly true here.

Detroit proper here! The bike community is pretty tight knit. There's a bit of fixter snobbery, but it's tolerable. Everyone I know that rides in the city loves it.

The suburbs are way more dangerous for riding, and should be avoided unless you're in a MetroPark. The metroparks are great places to ride uninterrupted for miles and miles.

Cheers!

Sacramento, CA

Kind of a lot of bikers. Id say sacramento is the smallest "big" city (if you can call it big) Dowtown area is about 10-15 square blocks. then midtown, then just residential. Most fixed gear bikers are not tightly knit togther. There are many cliques in the fixed scene, all who think they are better. Its not a bad city for cycling, but since there is not to many cyclists some drivers are not very good at sharing the road.

+1 to Austin.

Plus, we have the Veloway! 3.2 miles of paved non-pedestrian goodness.

Ft. Lauderdale.

def a small but growing fixed community. between the forums and the blogs, i feel like i know pretty much everyone at least enough to have a light hearted convo with them. obviously there are cliques and people who dont like eachother, but i have to say its nice to feel like i know just about everyone.

as far as the city goes, haha, no. its too hot and spread out to make cycling a reasonable method of commuting. its more about exercise for most cyclists down here cuz youre sweating the second you leave your air conditioned house/apartment. personally i dont sweat much on the bike cuz of the wind but as soon as i get off, i am drenched. unless you dont mind smelling like a caveman on the reg, biking is rough round here for most of the year.

also, florida as a whole has the most cycling related deaths (or maybe its just accidents) per capita of any state by a HUGE margin.

NYC is a great place for racing. Huge bike community - or should I say, many different overlapping bike communities. Recreational folks, activists, advocates, racers, alleycaters, messengers, fakengers-with-cred (said firmly tongue-in-cheek), freakbikers, framebuilders, mechanics, and by and large not a lot of death-before-derailleurs types... we have a velodrome, a couple weekly race series, weekend races in the park, and lots accessible by car or train.

Sacramento, CA

Kind of a lot of bikers. Id say sacramento is the smallest "big" city (if you can call it big) Dowtown area is about 10-15 square blocks. then midtown, then just residential. Most fixed gear bikers are not tightly knit togther. There are many cliques in the fixed scene, all who think they are better. Its not a bad city for cycling, but since there is not to many cyclists some drivers are not very good at sharing the road.

Another Sacramentan here; I don't entirely agree with your opinion, aside from that I agree that we have a lot of bad drivers here. I had no idea there were different cliques among the fixed-gear riders, aside from friendly rivalries between downtown and the suburban groups. I would also agree that sometimes my fellow riders can be a little gruff, but even a dork like me can get a spot in a polo game whenever I ask....

Downtown Sac has a HUGE cluster of hospitals- UC Davis Medical Center, Sutter General, Mercy General, Shriners, etc. It's also far bigger than '10-15 square blocks'- 'the grid' (downtown and midtown) and East Sac (where all of the hospitals are) is roughly a 25 x 55 -block rectangle of cool old houses, parks, and more restaurants than you can count, in a forest of shady trees. There's a 35-mile-long riverside bike path from downtown to Folsom Lake (to the east), it's possible to get to downtown San Francisco entirely by commuter rail systems (Though its about $30 one-way). Sacramento (and Davis, next door) host a number of rides for-fun (for instance, Foxy's Fall Century) and competition (the Nevada City Criterium was yesterday, and the Tour of California rolls through every year).

At any rate- my city is better than all of your cities.

At any rate- my city is better than all of your cities.

dont be rude and no, you're not better than San Francisco~ Nice try ;D

dont be rude and no, you're not better than San Francisco~ Nice try ;D

Well, my rent is still 1/3rd of your rent :D

Edit: wasn't trying to be rude, just making up for the previous lukewarm response from my fellow citydweller

Reno, NV

We have a really strong biking culture, and a great place to go with it, great mountain biking all around, great road biking all around, and a great city too...

Reno is changing for the better if you ask me... we are going away from the cliche Vegas casino resort town type thing and into the more chill sports and arts type of thing. I like it.

Our downtown is getting really nice really quick too, lots of local art and bars and restaurants, not to mention a kayak park and tons of awesome chill space by the river, including concerts at the park, ect.

Venice FL. I guess it's a little counterproductive to post just to tell you not to come here, but sometimes it feels good to complain. I think I'm one of about three people in this town that rides a fixed gear. There's a pretty great cycling community if you're a road rider, but not for fixed gears. Still, it's not as if you really need a community of people to ride a bike, so the fact that there is an abundance of off-highway routes and biking trails (paved and unpaved) speaks pretty highly this town.

The biggest drawback is the heat, of course. The heat index in some parts of the county has been pushing 110F for a week, now, but the flip side of that is that even the most sissified person can ride all winter. The other drawback is the population's median age: 65. Most of them are in the advanced stages of macular degeneration, so they have next to no peripheral vision. Every ride is sort of a crap shoot. I guess you could say it's a good place, though. Maybe you should come here.

++ to AUSTIN! my boy pretty much called all angles though. give us a chime for a ride (if you do indeed decide to move here out of all cities in the united states). :)


I'm from Austin and it's a great cycling city. I commute nearly everywhere on my fixed gear bike. There are tons of fixed gear riders, so there are always cool rides going on (critical mass, moonlight ride, etc). It's a pretty friendly community.

The road racing community is what is really great about Austin. People here do not mess around. Every weekend there is about 20 group rides leaving from various bike shops w/ various difficulty levels. I know some good cat2 riders and triathletes.

Also, Lance Armstrong lives here so if you're ever bored you can just call him up for a ride ;)

Anyways, that's just the cycling aspect. Austin is bad ass. I would tout the virtues of Austin to any willing ear. If you wanna know more about the actual city itself, PM me.

Pueblo, Co
Eh it's okay. Just a normal city i guess, nothing special.
I'm interested in what city you choose to go to, keep us updated!

virginia beach

i never ride outside my neighborhood really, because i've seen people get killed on bikes. I'd have to ride on shore drive to get to the beach, a section of which is 5 miles long, through forest, 55mph, and no streetlights. last time i checked 88 people have been killed on it. no thanks. never seen another fixed gear bike here. ever. 20 years. that said, if you're in the area and wanna ride, hit me up! the boardwalk would be fun but i don't have anyone to roll with :(

blacksburg

really fun for biking, hills kinda kicked my ass at first but now they're just fun. biking on any campus would be fun, virginia tech is no exception. There is a group of guys who ride fixed here but i can't wheelie long enough to hang out with them. which is just as well, i have plenty of fun racing roadies around.


pretty much flying solo in both cities, sigh.....

Another nice thing about Austin is that if you go 15 miles in any direction, you get Texas hill country. Nice rides and nice scenery.

Bicycling magazine says that my city and Houston are the worst cities to bike in, in America.
My ex/on and off girlfriend/friend etc. lives in Houston now and she was telling me that its recently gotten better but only after a bunch of cyclists were killed in short succession or something(not sure exactly, we only talk when we're both drunk these days).

I live in Athens, Ohio. Not really a town to move to unless you are a recent high school graduate that wants to go to Ohio University. The town has a pretty solid bike scene, we've had a few events, a good bike coop, a real good bike shop(though small) and there is a great 18 mile bike path that runs along a river through some wooded areas. Not sure if there is much of a racing scene around here, though i do see roadies riding the bike path a lot. Any direction outside of town are country rides that provide for great, although challenging rides. The area has a lot of hills, but you get used to it real quick.

Because its a college town, tons of people ride bikes, so drivers are fairly used to us, although some are still dicks about it.

Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Ca.

Santa Cruz = bicycles.

Great for MTB, freeride, CX, road cycling, chillin', cruisers, BMX... many major bicycle companies stem from my hometown or in the outskirts.

I've been riding BMX forever... if it wasn't for Santa Cruz being the type of town that it is, I doubt I would be so into bicycles.

NYC is a great place for racing. Huge bike community - or should I say, many different overlapping bike communities. Recreational folks, activists, advocates, racers, alleycaters, messengers, fakengers-with-cred (said firmly tongue-in-cheek), freakbikers, framebuilders, mechanics, and by and large not a lot of death-before-derailleurs types... we have a velodrome, a couple weekly race series, weekend races in the park, and lots accessible by car or train.
ditto and ditto . I love riding in NYC. So far I haven't met a person on a bike I didn't like in this city... theres definitely a label of the "Hipster" if you ride a fixie or single speed but we all ride for the same reasons and there is always a sense of community when you pass another cyclist in the street. ive also met many people who I would never expect to ride fixed or be hardcore into cycling, just by owning a bike

Canton, Ohio here. It's a mid sized city with a mid to small bike community. There isn't too much traffic to deal with and I can get to some really nice rural areas very quickly. Ohio has some really nice country scenery, rolling hills and the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley. All in all I am very satisfied but the city itself is not quite geared towards cyclists. Hey...we have the Pro Football Hall of Fame!

Milwaukee, WI here. Milwaukee is a nice little city. It is pretty bike friendly and has a pretty large biking community. There are a fair amount of year round bikers even though it gets pretty cold here in the winter. There are also a ton of great shops here. The only two real downsides I can think of is that the roads are terrible in some places and the weather.

I'm originally from Chicago though and I'd probably say I like Chicago more simply because, well CHI and MKE are really similar cities except that bigger means more. So Chicago pretty much has more of everything.

Wilmington, NC - Bike culture seems to be coming up, city is investing in bike paths now, a few clubs (cape fear cyclist is one), several bike events, and triathalons seem to be getting popular. I know that they welcome fixie riders at the local rides (several weekly) and events. There are two main hospitals here, NHRMC (new hanover regional med center) is the main one. you can ride most places with no problem. Nice beaches, small but nice downtown. Not much fixie crowd, a few here and there, but it is gaining interest according to my contact at the LBS. On the plus side the rodies don't seem to be as egotistical and a-hole-ish like i hear about other places.

Currently, Knoxville, TN. The cyclign scene here is diverse enough to find what you are looking for. We've got the racer clubs, plenty of sweet mountain biking in every direction, a nice greenway system for recreational cyclists, and a small hipster/urban/FG scene. Weather is pretty mild year round (gets into the 20-30's in the winter but rarely hits the teens, and it rarely tops 100 in the summer although ti is very humid.)

We do have the unique distinction of having the second worst air quality in the nation. (L.A. always beats us) this is a product of living in a large "bowl" created by the cumberland plateau, the smokey mountains, and some various other hills.

Overall not a bad place to live/bike.

Next week I'm moving to the DC/Baltimore area (Laurel, MD) and I'll be car-free so I'm excited to learn a new bike scene up there.

Dallas, Tx.

This scene is a little weird. When I moved here after college in Tucson, I had my dirt jumper. But that was like me and 3 others. Everyone else rides roadies.

Now there is a fixed revolution happening in my neighborhood; I live in the Austin-y type hood called the Mstreets. I don't, however, see too many fixed gear rides. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? There's only one fixed gear shop here anyway, and it's in a ritzy, yuppie part of town and it's being run into the ground by the ego-driven hipsters that started it. Last time I went in the shop was all but cleared of inventory. I don't know how they pay the rent for the space every month sitting next to stores like Ralph Lauren etc.

You'll occasionally see SS and 29ers, but Dallas is mostly a road bike community, with full lycra, shaved legs, and carbon.

Honestly, I find myself riding solo way too much of the time. Austin is where it's at. I pack up my bike and meet my friends down there when I want to get in a solid, satisfying ride.

Richmond, VA here. The bike scene in 'ole RVA is pretty active. We have a yearly bike festival of insanity put on by a local bike crew called Slaughterama, which is a big gathering and not to be missed.That being said, the style of cyclists really varies depending on your geographical region in the city. So does the attitude of drivers for that matter. Down close to the VCU Monroe Park campus there are a LOT of "tarck-stars" and hipsters. In Oregon Hill, you have a good mesh of hippies and bike crew types. The Fan and Museum District have your commuter/roadie crowds. There is a decent MTB scene too, thanks to a pretty well done system of trails in the local parks. As for the attitude of the drivers, most are pretty cool with you taking up a lane. You get the occasional *******, but on the whole theyre pretty alright. Bus drivers suck though; they will pinch you within inches of parked car mirrors. Also, the cops are somewhat cool about cyclists. I havent ever gotten a ticket, but i have been "pulled" and warned about lights and "Aggressive Riding" going through Carytown. Overall: RVA is a good bike town.



I'd have to ride on shore drive to get to the beach, a section of which is 5 miles long, through forest, 55mph, and no streetlights. last time i checked 88 people have been killed on it. Yeah, Shore drive through Sea Shore State Park is a suicide wish on bike and in car. Good call to stay off it.


the boardwalk would be fun Oh it is. Go during the on-season and dodge tourists. My dad lives in Croatan and when I go down there I always make a sport of Boardwalk tomfoolery.