sniks

this fixed thing? its crazy. every where you go, everyone is riding a FIXED GEAR.
it seems to be grow faster than any trend i have seen in awhile a specially for something that isn't that safe or main steam **** quicksilver was in the 80s

12XU

Join Date: Nov 2006

You likely started when I was first asking this question and I started (in early 2005) when other people were asking the question before me. It's been building for a long time, yet it just happens to be in a larger spotlight because the other edgy sports have fallen out of favor and cycling as a whole is bigger than it's been since mountain biking came to a head for the second or third time (early 90s).

krusty

I blame the parents.

queerpunk

Everybody should remember that anything didn't start getting out of control just after you started doing it... we're all part of the problem.

'cept for me. I get some kind of extra credit for racing on the track.

sp00ki

-cheap
-fashionable
-fun

queerpunk

there are lots of things that meet those criteria that don't tip the way fixed gears have, though. there are more elements to it - media coverage at the right times, the current urban boom, overlap with fashion and the general trend (thanks nytimes style section) of turning (intentional scare quotes) "extreme-y type stuff at the fringes" into the next hot thing.

andre nickatina

Was anyone immediately opposed to fixed gears before they got one?

I heard about fixed gears about a year and a half or two years before buying one. This was like '04, maybe '05 tops. I wanted to try it out but didn't go far with that idea because I didn't have any money lying around for a bike at the time, plus I was really into skateboarding still and doing that every day.

Then '06 came around, I saw some fixed gears parked downtown, the idea came back into my head to get one, a friend told me he wanted to try it out and I was initially opposed but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea, then we both ended up getting our bikes the same day. Incidentally this was around the same time I saw Sheldon Brown, rest his soul, and his fixed gear page.

I had one friend I suggested try them out, he said he didn't like the idea of them, a couple months later he got his first one.

I recently let another friend ride my bike and didn't tell him a word about it, he didn't know what it was, I told him I "crashed it" and it never rode the same since and from now on the pedals just kept goign for some reason.

A month later, that same kid said he wants to buy one.

What is this subconscious shift that happens? 2 years into riding fixed gears, I'm way more addicted now then immediately started.

Judge_Posner

'problem' is a very weird term to use for a boom in people riding bikes and having fun.

queerpunk

Oh, you're right.

But I can't click on a bike website without tripping over somebody getting their lycra in a twist about - you know - "the other kind of rider." The one who's less serious than they are, spends more money, knows less, and is pretty much a narcissist of small differences.

That's the problem.

skinnyland

Heroin?


Oh wait, you said cheap. And fashionable.

Surferbruce

mark my words the next hipster trend will be lycra.

bikerdfresh

Simple, easy to fix bikes. Took the hassle out of things as well as being cheap. Its care free and has a relaxed style to it all. Bikes don't have to be perfect, scratches, dings are welcome and just add to the greatness of these bikes.

krusty

with codpieces

sake bomb

There probably isn't really that many more fixed gears around, but now people make a conscious effort to seek them out instead of seeing "just another bike."

I commute every day and still see 10 roadies for every fixed rider, and I'm in a pretty big city.

ianjk

I am thinking old/vintage motorcycles. Cafe racers are kind of the fixed gear of the motorcycle world, old bike, stripped down to bare essentials, modded a little and made for speed.

Mofopotomus

Ouch don't say that. I totally want a Cafe racer too, nicer ride for longer distances than my scooter. I'm not really worried about fixed gears as I see them more as a vehicle of getting more people on bikes. For a lot of people it's a fashion statement and they will lose interest once it goes out of vogue (like skinny ties, which by the way are still cool), but for some it's merely an extension of their bike geekery (yay me), and some of the people who got into it for fashion will be hooked on bikes and having more people getting on bikes is much like fresh hot cookies. it's never a bad thing.

krusty

Manx Norton, with the featherbed frame. I want bad...

Surferbruce

i'd take a lambretta sx200 or gs160/ss 180 over a cafe racer any day.

Mofopotomus

Triumph Thruxton, or if I ever win the lottery one of THESE

Thetank

Look to your own sig for the answer. You like to advertise that YOU ride a fixed gear bike, even have picture sets of these said bikes posted on a public picture server that ANYONE can see. YOU propagate the fad, YOU are the reason the trend is growing so fast. . . give yourself a hand!

pdxJenn

blame it on kanye west!
that solves everything.

pdxJenn

on that note though, trek was doing casting calls for a commercial here in town, i had a buddy do it and he said that the lady who talked to him before his audition said to make sure and put emphasis on how he rides a fixed gear and was a messenger etc etc. and how they're aiming for that consumer group in the commercial, they're paying people $500 to weave in and out of rush hour traffic in downtown for it. but trek of all companies, who's next huffy.

Pennywize

youtube ?

Cynikal 

My feeling is that single speed movement, if you will, its a respose to the cycling industry. I think that people want to ride a bike but modern bikes are getting more and more complex and for no real reason but to sell the next bike. Personally, I love to see conversions all over the place. The recycling of older bikes is the biggest upside to this trend.

queerpunk

you have a decent point, but i don't agree - the cycling industry is growing in a lot of different places, including those ridiculous high-end things. "cycling is the new golf," more rich folks buying expensive cabron - excuse me, carbon, how silly of me - and custom frames. i mean, it's not just single speeds and fixed gears that have boomed, it's not just bikes that look like fashion accessories. it's high end things, too. there are way more custom steel framebuilders than there were a decade ago. and i don't know my ass from my elbow about mtb and bmx stuff, so i can't comment.

but cycling is on the up and up. fixed gears are a part of that - a unique part of that - but i think they're in line with the cycling industry, not in response to something different.