Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Fixie popularity waning?

now before you jump down my throat, ive noticed less bikes submitted on fgg this year and less people in the ssfg forum in general. my hometown isnt really fixed gear central so i was wondering if you have noticed less people riding them around than in years past?

now before you jump down my throat, ive noticed less bikes submitted on fgg this year and less people in the ssfg forum in general. my hometown isnt really fixed gear central so i was wondering if you have noticed less people riding them around than in years past?

bro its only one day into 2010, give it time!

bro its only one day into 2010, give it time!
hahaha

..**** my brain hasnt registered the new year yet..i wish i hadnt made this thread.

All fads eventually die.


A few hardcore fixed riders will continue on because they actually prefer to ride fixed. The rest of the frat boys and hipsters will eventually sell their silly-colored bikes, get real jobs, put on weight, and forget they ever had a bike.

i've seen high school kids in the suburb or dayton, ohio that my parents live in riding fixed gears.

once something hits suburban dayton, it's dead.

because people get sick of the jerks on here and split

Fixies server their purpose. Track bikes, City Commuters, and Messenger bikes. Riding a fixie in a normally non hilly city makes a lot of sense as there are far fewer parts to worry about, repair, maintain, and have stolen. Plus people really do like having crazy ass colored bikes. Perhaps Lawrence Fishburn's bike in quicksilver was flashier than we all once thought?

FGs are more popular now than they have ever been. I see more and more of them every month that goes by. What has decreased is their coolness. I don't think they are considered cool anymore, so eventually they will probably lose some of their popularity. But at the moment, I would say there are more FG bikes on the road than ever before. I am seeing them go for really cheap on CL, though. Just the other day there was a stock Pista on CL for $150 obo.

There is not any grindcore in the MASH movie.. haha. There is like one hardcore song if I remember

I agree with ATX.

Simplicity has always been cool, and always will be.

I don't think the popularity is waning, but I think that bikesdirect and other makers have put enough fixed gear bikes on the market to meet the demand, so anybody with a can of spray paint and a 15mm wrench can't just throw a wheelset on an old 10 speed and sell it for $400+ any more.

Plus, it's winter.

I have a feeling that once spring returns, it'll kick off again.

I don't think the popularity is waning, but I think that bikesdirect and other makers have put enough fixed gear bikes on the market to meet the demand, so anybody with a can of spray paint and a 15mm wrench can't just throw a wheelset on an old 10 speed and sell it for $400+ any more.

Plus, it's winter.

I have a feeling that once spring returns, it'll kick off again.

I'm sad that I missed that opportunity.

mountain bikes were a once a fad. Countless full suspension bikes existed exclusively on paved rec trails. Today a casual rider is more likely to buy a hybrid. Same will happen here. It will never die.

I wish to go back to the very quiet and mature fixed gear scene of the mid-90's.

I just now want to get into the fixie scene so i hope its not dying

All fads eventually die.


A few hardcore fixed riders will continue on because they actually prefer to ride fixed. The rest of the frat boys and hipsters will eventually sell their silly-colored bikes, get real jobs, put on weight, and forget they ever had a bike.

Well said!:thumb:

I track sales very closely to try and be ahead of trends and when they might turn down.

Our sales in SS/FG have been growing every month for the last 5 years. 2009 saw a steady increase. Our percentage of bikes sold that were SS/FG was higher in the last 3 months of 2009 than same perod in 2008.

my feeling is: if a SS/FG can be a reasonable price that it will sell as a ultility bike for many, a training bike for some, a winter bike for some, a sport bike or primary bike for many and just a fun spare bike for lots of people.

in Florida you might be surprised how many houses with 2 people living there have 4, 5, or 6 SS cruisers in the garage {same idea, a simple bike that anyone can enjoy**

bikes are fun and if the price is right; why not have several? a SS/FG I think should be one of the bikes in everyones collection

I just now want to get into the fixie scene so i hope its not dying

I hope that's sarcasm.

not really. Fixed gear is more like a sub-genre than a fad. One disadvantage is that it is difficult to market advances in technology when you only have one gear. Of course it will be a passing phase for some. It will likely reach a saturation point like everything- where sales flatten. Plenty of riders own multiple bikes of various types.
Well said!:thumb:

Bicycling itself is a fad, at least in the USA, and the "fixie" fad is just a subset. I see new people coming to the track, getting all excited and buying an expensive "serious" track bike, entering a few races, getting their butts kicked by experienced riders on less expensive bikes, selling their bike at a loss and getting into something else. Same goes for road, MTB, triathlons etc. Very few people use bicycles for their original purpose: transportation.

I was riding FG on the road, usually cheap road bike conversions, for winter training to get my leg spin back long before the words "fixie", "hipster" and "tarck" were coined. For me it's a life commitment for health reasons and I expect to do it until I drop.

My current "fixie" and SS:

130989 130988

bro its only one day into 2010, give it time!

Feels like a ghost town here....guessing the "new and improved" change to the forum has a lot to do with it. Personally, the change sucks.

Fixie/sspeed scene out here in California continues to grow. I have a nice Bianchi road bike gathering dust because of my inexpensive SS...fun and simple...and did I mention stronger legs? Happy New Year everyone...ride safe.

I track sales very closely to try and be ahead of trends and when they might turn down.

Our sales in SS/FG have been growing every month for the last 5 years. 2009 saw a steady increase. Our percentage of bikes sold that were SS/FG was higher in the last 3 months of 2009 than same perod in 2008.

my feeling is: if a SS/FG can be a reasonable price that it will sell as a ultility bike for many, a training bike for some, a winter bike for some, a sport bike or primary bike for many and just a fun spare bike for lots of people.

in Florida you might be surprised how many houses with 2 people living there have 4, 5, or 6 SS cruisers in the garage {same idea, a simple bike that anyone can enjoy**

bikes are fun and if the price is right; why not have several? a SS/FG I think should be one of the bikes in everyones collection

What Mike said. I got one of the Clockwork SS from BD and LOVE it! The cro-mo frame rides very s m o o t h and it's my go-to bike for road riding now...even got in a 50 miler on it last week (hills included)..all good.

Feels like a ghost town here....guessing the "new and improved" change to the forum has a lot to do with it. Personally, the change sucks.


That's not necessarily a bad thing. If you go read the "history lesson" thread, you'll learn why there is less traffic here. While the info in the thread is woefully one-sided and self-serving for a lot of uninformed people, the net result is that this site is a lot more civil having lost certain members. Other sites have popped up that have less ads, and the general population there is a lot nicer. Releasing vB4 didn't help this site at all.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. If you go read the "history lesson" thread, you'll learn why there is less traffic here. While the info in the thread is woefully one-sided and self-serving for a lot of uninformed people, the net result is that this site is a lot more civil having lost certain members. Other sites have popped up that have less ads, and the general population there is a lot nicer. Releasing vB4 didn't help this site at all.

Link?

I'm a total noob, but I'm already addicted to the SSFG simplicity. Simple to build. Simple to customize. Simple to ride.

I could care less if they become unpopular. Still gonna ride em.

I'm a total noob, but I'm already addicted to the SSFG simplicity. Simple to build. Simple to customize. Simple to ride.

I could care less if they become unpopular. Still gonna ride em.

+1mil

hipsters.


there i said it.

I fell for the romancing a lot of folks at work my expressed for fixies, and I liked the 'bare-bones' mentality of the bike style so I decided to give one a try. Don't think I could ride anything else, the control is a lot of fun. Definitely not a hipster...

I don't think FG popularity is waning so much as it has been in one of the periods of being "cool" and now things are going back to a state of population stability. There has always been a (hard)core group of riders who enjoy the benefits and simplicity of FG, and periodically the general cycling community notices them and sees them as "cool". Then after putting one together and riding it for a while, the "normies" either convert it back to multi-geared or sell it to someone else while proclaiming all of the benefits of riding one (such as "learning to spin circles").

It's a great example of Stephan J. Gould's theory of "periodic equalibrum". The core FG group rides around barely being noticed by other riders, then someone spots the single cog and excitedly discusses it wth other "normies", then there is a rash of enthusiasm in the general population that changes the scope of the FG population for a period, then the "normies" seek out the next "cool" thing and the core FG population stabilizes again. This is how younger riders get involved, to replace the older riders that die off, all the while maintaining the size of the core FG population. :lol:

The same thing happen with unicycles......

More and more FG/SS bikes all the time here in northern Wisconsin, which if the pattern follows other fashion trends means FG/SS is dead and buried everywhere else.

I'm a total noob, but I'm already addicted to the SSFG simplicity. Simple to build. Simple to customize. Simple to ride.

I could care less if they become unpopular. Still gonna ride em.


+1mil

+2mil

:)

There is not any grindcore in the MASH movie.. haha. There is like one hardcore song if I remember

I agree with ATX.

The band was Skin Like Iron. An awesome hardcore band from the bay. Fixed riders in Santa Cruz have died down for sure. I could really care less.

I was a hater of the fixed gear until my friend let me try one out. It really is a different experience. Now I have one, and I don't think I'll ever flip my rear wheel back to the freewheel.

All fads eventually die.


A few hardcore fixed riders will continue on because they actually prefer to ride fixed. The rest of the frat boys and hipsters will eventually sell their silly-colored bikes, get real jobs, put on weight, and forget they ever had a bike.

Hahahaha the latter paragraph never occurred to me. I gradually switched to single speed w/ coast brake to fixed in the past 11 years I've been riding. I just LIKE the control, feeling, and work-out of riding fixed gears. The though of worrying about aesthetics over quality (cough Urban Outiftter bikes? "LOL") and looking through Craigslist for some cool Deep V's to color coordinate with the rest of the bike... That never entered my head as the primary reason to own a bike. Although, as a person of art and fashion, I do consider the aesthetics somewhere after quality of the ride.

hipsters. Are they waning????

hipsters. Are they waning????
nope, they'll just jump to the next cool thing.

I don't know about ya'll but... Los Angeles has soo many fixie riders.. LOL

I've noticed less recently too.

I think it might have something to do with winter happening right now.

is there like a hipster almanac to predict future cool things??

is there like a hipster almanac to predict future cool things??

Yes. The Pista is out. Only guys named Wayne Kerr own them these days.

is there like a hipster almanac to predict future cool things??

vice

Hahahaha

Yes. The Pista is out. Only guys named Wayne Kerr own them these days.

Excellent! :thumb:

can you buy one off the shelf at Walmart or Target yet?

Don't forget, it's also winter and BRICK in a lot of the country and northern hemisphere. Once march-april rolls around things will pick up in the entire forum a lot with the fair weather riders.

I think you're just noticing a drop off in users of this forum ever since the re-design..... I'm one of them. Okay probably not what you were referring to, but I rarely use this forum anymore... I used to check this forum constantly throughout the day, and ever since the re-design, I can't stand to look at the front page anymore. There was something about the old site that was so much easier to browse. This one feels way more cluttered.

everybody is moving onto hipster road biking.

http://bikefag.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/hipster-road-biking/

everybody is moving onto hipster road biking.

http://bikefag.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/hipster-road-biking/
i can totally relate to the part of the article talking about passing roadies on a 7 speed vintage lugged steel italian bike. that was a great feeling, until they smoked past me 10 minutes later.

I was riding FG on the road, usually cheap road bike conversions, for winter training to get my leg spin back long before the words "fixie", "hipster" and "tarck" were coined. For me it's a life commitment for health reasons and I expect to do it until I drop.


Hipster (1940s subculture)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Hipster, as used in the 1940s, referred to aficionados of jazz, in particular Bebop, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster adopted the lifestyle of the jazz musician, including some or all of the following: dress, slang, use of cannabis and other drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic humor, self-imposed poverty, and relaxed sexual codes.


Did you storm the beach at Normandy on your "fixie"?