RaeFixie

wow ur first bike is nagasawa

andre nickatina

'06

1. I was already into bikes and riding around a crappy Schwinn that I got off CL. Before that I'd ride my mom's Varsity around town in the summers (****er weighed like 30lb). I had heard about fixed gears a year or two before but didn't really commit to getting one until my friend and I both decided to go into it together, years later. I also saw messengers and non-messengers riding them downtown and it got me interested. Reading Sheldon's site got me pretty motivated as well.
2. First bike was a conversion, I didn't even know what a track bike was at the time. Got my first track bike 6 months later.
3. 503/541.

hockeyteeth

1. Sheldon's site
2. Conversion
3. Gainesville, FL
4. Mr. Brown seemed psyched on it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

NitroPye

'07

1. Was drunk and accidentally bought a frame on ebay. Decided it seemed like a good way to keep training for mountain biking in the winter. Turned me on to so many types of biking I never thought I would like. Stuck with it because it was just as fun as mountain biking.

2. Yes (it is a conversion)

3. Providence, Rhode Island USA

4. Suburb: Fixed feels a lot more comfortable in traffic and in any sort of urban setting for me. Even longer road rides in rural areas I enjoy the "feel".

schooner

Built my first one in '97.

1. Wanted to do some track racing, had a track bike, but it had sew ups and all, and figured a conversion would be good training while also getting me to and from work.
2. Both, Revolution track bike, and a Centurion conversion. Similar time frame, but the track bike did come first.
3. Seattle, WA

redxj

1. At a local MTB event talking with a local shop employee
2. SS specific (sliding dropouts) 29er Mountain bike
3. Ann Arbor, MI
4. see #1, I rode single speed only at the time, and he convinced me to give fixed a try. I said I would, and did.

::velolove::

well, you can still come. Gotta start some time right? Do you live any where close to me? we're gonna meet at colonel sumners park on 20th and belmont for some pre-race stuff and then the race and then an after party. i'm hoping for a good group of riders (a lot of friends and friends friends from out of town and a bunch of riders i know. should be fun and friendly so you're welcome to come.

chore4n

1. Friends, but I needed a bike, so I decided to try something new. And skid videos...heehee.
2. No, I was about to convert my dad's 52cm roadie, but it was too small.
3. Near Berkeley, California.
4. Lots of flats, few hills, super fun, lots of garages too.

qcsky

i started riding it because i used to ride mountain bike when i was little, stopped after moving to america. after hearing and seeing friends riding fixie, i decided to pick up riding it as well. so, yeah, friends.

i tried to convert an old fuji i found but it turned out to be too big so i got a pista instead.

Davenport, iowa. this place is a straight up midwest small town.

i just simply wanted to start riding again and fixie was the best choice for my busy studio hours. i dont have to worry about maintaining it all the time. plus, because my town doesnt have a strong fixie scene, i get to be very close to my friends who all ride either fixie or ss. i dunno, i just love it i guess.

travsi

'03

1. i started riding at the velodrome.

2. no

3. basel, switzerland

4. i was living is a small town when i started, but the
velodrome were i rode was in stuttgart, germany.

Sixty Fiver

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)?
Saw them around (usually messenger bikes), did some reading on the subject and saw their merits, and decided to build myself a fixed gear as there really was no way to find out any other way. I also appreciated the efficiency, simplicity and the aesthetic of running a single speed bike with no deraileurs to clutter things up.


Building my first fixed gear and already fielding questions... lol.

2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion?
My first bike was a conversion and I have ridden it more than 5000 km without a spec of trouble... coming from riding ss bikes there really was no big learning curve, my legs were well readied, and from day 1 it felt pretty natural. I was doing skip stops and track stands pretty much right off the get go.

3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and province/country for outside of the US)?
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - There is an ever growing number of fixed gear riders here and on any given day I can usually spot a bike that I built or had a hand in building

4. NA

Since building up my first fixed gear I have built 4 more for myself, purchased a vintage fixed gear road bike and built so many fixed gear and single speed bikes for people at our shop that I have lost track.

I am now looked to as the fg/ss guy at our shop as well as being the guy who knows everything about old and vintage bikes, especially 3 speeds and coaster bikes, and have written a few articles on fixed gears and single speeds for our co-op's newsletter.

I am also the shop's senior mechanic and came into this with a great deal of knowledge on bikes, wheel building, and proper set up of single geared bikes.

I have only been riding fixed since last summer but have really immersed myself in learning everything I can about what has become my ride of choice and could sometimes borders on obsession. I am now planning on building a fixed folder with a Phillip's Twenty and am hoping to ride across Canada on a fixed gear as well.

Build 1 - My baby... "Bridgette"

1962 Peugeot fg conversion

Build 2

1987 Kuwahara Cascade fg conversion

Build 3

1973 Raleigh/Carlton Gran Sports fg conversion

Build 4

1940 CCM fg conversion

My vintage fixed gear

1955 Raleigh Lenton Sports, Reg Harris road model - factory original fixed gear with a double stepped rear hub.

Sixty Fiver

I even built an fg mtb for off roading but gave this to a friend after I built up the Kuwahara because having two fixed mtbs would be crazy and because the "Kark" was a little tall for me.


GT Karakoram fg conversion

CF4L

2005

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)? Ellis Kim
2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion? Yes
3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)? New Brunswick, NJ (Pop. 45k) and now Albany, NY (pop. 96k)
4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed? N/A

brett jerk

2007.

1. a friend that I biked with all the time sold me on the simplicity and cheapness of them (as I'd been riding my ****ty trek mountainbike into the ground)
2. my first fixed gear was a conversion and its still the bike I ride
3. I live in Burlington, VT
4. Burlington is a medium sized city with a ton of hills and I decided to ride fixed because its way easier to maintain on the amount of rides and distances I put the thing through (I live right at the bottom of a pretty decent hill, so to go anywhere means going straight up).

hudsong

1. My friend bought one out of the blue, and I thought it was really fun to ride.
2. Nope.
3. Lincoln, NE, but soon to be in Portland.
4. I got fed up with my massive Gary Fisher hybrid bike. It was a pain in the ass to get up the stairs into my apartment, and I wanted something simpler and lighter.

diff_lock2

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)?
Sheldon Brown
2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion?
Yes
3. Where do you live (city and s tate for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)?
Finland
4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed?
Bought a classic road bike, rear wheel was in bad condition, found a cheap fixed wheel set off a guy who rides track.

sfcrossrider

When I started racing track in 1986.

1. I lived near a velodrome and couldn't stand road. I used track to train for mountain bike racing.

2. No, it was a track bike (ROMIC). I converted a Raleigh in 88 to train on and ride to school. When I was a messenger I rode a mountain bike with slicks... like most of us did.

3. San Francisco

tinydr

1. What influenced you to ride fixed: I was a messenger and got tired of having to deal with a lot maintenance, and had to replace a rear wheel anyway, so I made the switch.

2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion? My first was, yes... a Rossin Cromor (that was an awesome bike). I've had a Team Miyata Pista since 96 or so.

3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)? I live in New Orleans atm, where you don't see a lot of FGs, but before '04 I lived in Boston.

4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed? Doesn't really apply, I did spend a year in Iowa City, which is pretty damned small, but every once in awhile I'd see another FG tooling around town.

Not that it applies to me, but it might've been good to have a "93 or before" option.

urplasticfacade

2001

sfcrossrider

I had a scorcher for a week in 94 before it was jacked. I cried like a baby for almost an hour. I was 21.

crustycog

mid 07
1.meeting a bunch of guys from the bike school when i moved here(UBI)
2. nope. pista
3. Ashland OR
4.i started riding fixed because i kept breaking s**t on my geared bike that i couldnt fix myself

Peedtm

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)?
I started commuting when living in Seattle and my ride home was up the hill out of downtown. When I started I was walking my geared bike up the hill. Eventually I'd ride home all they way. Seeing the messengers in town going up some of steepest blocks on a fixed always mesmerized me. Now that I'm in Boise and the town is flat, riding fixed actually became a legitimate possibility.
2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion?Yes, Schwinn Traveler. Just ordered a Mark V Pro frameset on Saturday with my tax return.

3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)?
Boise, ID
4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed?
See #1

jdms mvp

well my first fg bike

noisebeam

April 2005 is when I started riding fixed.

It as I had my dad's 1984 Centurion frame in the garage and wanted to get it working again. Converting it was easy and fun.

Al

trace215

1. Converted my crappy 10 speed to SS in July of 2007, then went fixed in October. Had a few friends who rode fixed and raved about it, read Sheldon's site, saw bike porn, gave it a shot.
2. First bike was a conversion, still in service but is now the beater.
3. Philadelphia, PA
4. This doesn't apply because it's not a small city, but I'd just like to note that like 1 in 5 dudes between the ages of 18 and 30 rides a fixed-gear bike in Philadelphia. Seriously they're everywhere.