adriano 

only a loser would have a front brake, unless you mean you do front wheel drive skids.

roadfix

Yes, front wheel dive skids with a rim brake.

adriano 

same.

the rear steering is touchy, but i wouldnt change a thing.

nahh

I went the other way... When I first finished my fixed gear conversion I rode fixed for a week, then flipped the hub to the freewheel side one day, and hated it. If i'm going to coast, I'd like to have multiple gears as well.

PluperfectArson

I am originally from Tacoma, so I know about Seattle and its hills. I have never actually ridden in Seattle, but I will be up there in about a week. We will see how lost and tired from riding I become, seeing as I have not been up there in forever!

Yeah, my difficulty with hills is not that great, just more out of shape since it has been a while since I have ridden a bike this much. I ride 48x16 at the moment, and I have managed to climb every hill I have approached except one, but I was just dead tired from the night before (as well as it started raining hard and I was freezing ).

Also, I am thinking of changing my gearing to something like 53x13, so, when I hook that up, we will see how much difficulty I have climbing hills.

Critical Jeff

have fun trying to stop that.

Clordio

I've just gotta throw this in here but,

If you're trying fixed for the first time give it an honest week. It's new and unsettling but it really is alot of fun.

The more I ride my bike the more I fall in love with it (although it is a conversion) and I can't stress enough how much you really need to just get out there and ride ride ride.

Plus skidzzzz are crazy fun

sherbornpeddler

I pull hills faster FG than my 10 spd buddies using my fear of busting gut at 5 rpm or tipping. I also need to make up for being slower on the downhills.

Not to put a damper on ya'll but I'm a geezer touring fixed gear and started because
3. FG makes a great winter bike in salt, sand, ice and potholes in suburban northeast
2. FG is different and provides renewed interest in riding to keep fit.
1. I wanna be like you young-uns but from a safe distance. I'm 58 nearing geezerhood, my BMI says I should lose 15-25 lbs and pretty darn dull. My store-bought FG has 35c tires and reflectors on the spokes. I average 15 mph FG and 17.5 mph 10spd for 35-65 miles on moderate hills.

I can slow but use brakes to stop fast.

Saberhead

I love Tacoma!

chriswnw

I currently ride a singlespeed freewheel. I might go back to fixed (all I have to do is flip my wheel over), but here are the reasons why I currently do not:

1. Cornering - I finally got decent at cornering, in part by following the standard technique of applying downward pressure on the pedal to the outside of the turn. Impossible on a fixie.
2. Backpedaling is not good for your knees, and I was definitely able to feel the effects of doing it far too frequently after long rides. A couple of track cyclists who own a shop in town have vouched for this, and say that it should only be done to make subtle modulations to speed. However, if you're using your break that frequently, it seems to undermine the point of riding fixed.
3. I ride a low-gear, and would end up spinning like a madman when bombing a large hill. (I'm not riding a low gear to to being in poor shape -- I do Muay Thai, which to me is far more exhausting than even riding 50 miles. However, I was suffering knee problems when riding at a higher gear. Dropping down a few gears and getting a bike fit resolved the problem. I also like almost never having to stand up while riding.)

aMull

^ How is resisting the motion of the pedals to stop any different from pulling up and pushing down during normal pedaling? Seems to me the forces that act on the knees would be the same, no?

chriswnw

You're not resisting motion when engaged in normal pedaling. You are starting from a state of rest, and you have momentum on your side once you begin pedaling.

jhota

because i'm fat, lazy, and like to coast.

seriously.

anthegreat1

When first started riding fixed i only resisted pushing down and my knee started hurting, i started pulling up against the straps instead and haven't had issues since.

I will say since riding fixed my legs are alot stronger than they were when i rode a geared bike.

zacked

I've ridden fixed for 3 or so years now, and I'm just about to convert my last remaining fixed-wheel bike to a freewheel. I feel like fixed doesn't add anything to my experience anymore, I've done all the challenges with it that I'm ever going to, and lately coasting is just way more fun. My commute is now entirely downhill and spinning all the way to work got old, plus I'm growing to prefer platform pedals.

If I decide to switch back it's just a matter of flipping the wheel so it's not really a big deal.

noglider 

I had a fixed gear a long time ago. When I built that bike, I finally got the hang of climbing hills -- on any bike. Since I couldn't shift down, I had to attack.

I also learned to spin very fast. That's a useful skill.

I do not enjoy going down hills on my new fixed. I mean, it's OK, but it's not outright fun. It's a lot of work.

I rode 20 miles over hills yesterday. I'm pretty sore. My riding partners were riding multi-speed bikes.

PluperfectArson

It has been quite some time since I have been back up there, so we will see how much I still like it.

Enthusiast

I've tried fixed for a couple thousand miles over the years but I still like singlespeed more. I appreciate coasting because I have less to worry about in high speed corners, bunnyhops, and downhills. Its about simplicity for me and fixed gears have more complicated handling than singlespeeds. (just my opinion...) I also trackstand better at lights with a singlespeed though I think that's just practice.

I started out mountain biking and learned my "zen" connection and intuitive bike handling from that so I never found any added feeling of being connected to my bike with the fixed gear over a singlespeed. I'm uninterested in most sorts of "fixie tricks" so that holds no appeal.

chriswnw

I do sometimes feel slightly absurd that I have a track bike frame but never use the fixed cog. Oh well, I'm sure I'll deal.

Sangetsu

I got a fixie for the same reason that most people did, because it was fashionable. There is no "advantage" to riding a fixie, other than the mechanical simplicity of the bike itself. A fixie doesn't do anything as well as a single speed or derailleur equipped bike. It can't climb, it can't descend, it can't accelerate, it can't decelerate. Why ride one? Because they are cool, and nothing else.

I liked the "momentum" comment on the previous page, it was ludicrous. What was more ludicrous was that people agreed about this non-existent momentum. This is the type of crowd mentality of those who think that a fixie is superior in any way to a garden-variety bike.

I enjoyed riding my fixie for awhile, then the novelty wore off. I that found my pedal stroke (developed after many years of riding) had more or less disappeared, that low-speed maneuvers around obstacles were difficult (because of toe overlap), and the previously mentioned problems with climbing and descending hills. I recently put a freewheel on the bike, and I'm now in heaven. It's a far different (and better) ride now, and I'm putting more miles on it than I did before.

Metzinger

I've spent exactly two days on a fixie. An introduction to track cycling at a velodrome in Calgary. I was a road racer at the time. We brought our own pedals and rode club bikes. I liked the rigidity, the power, the acceleration. Had a blast riding the corners up high. People didn't ride fixies on the street much back then. I wasn't tempted to ride my borrowed rig home. Nor could I have justified to myself the expense of yet another bike.

Still can't. My road bike does everything I ask of it. I have started to spectate at the big track competitions they have here in Holland. Watched Zabel and Bettini battling each other in Amsterdam last fall.

Great fun, but I'm humble enough to know that I'm not like them.

And old enough to know that I'll never again be cool.

aMull

There are plenty of advantages of fixed and it does many things better than either SS or geared, but if you couldn't see that then fine. And maybe there is no momentum, but the rear cog IS spinning thanks to the wheel moving and not just because you're spinning the pedals, and i believe that helps. Can't climb, descend, accelerate, decelerate? What?