Back in the day, mid-seventies Boston, the word from the bike racing guru (John Allis), the mechanic I worked with and the guru-to-be Sheldon Brown was ride a fix gear! I started riding fix gear summer of '76 at the suggestion of the club vets to improve my pedaling style. Rode it into the winter and - breakthrough! - what a system for riding on snow and ice! Kept riding it through the winter. And other benefits just kept coming. Frozen chain links? Slide the wheel forward to get the proper chain slack and keep riding. After the second or third I would lube the chain. (This was the short days of winter. I never saw the bike during daylight hours or had it near running water until spring and outdoor faucets were back on. Road salt everywhere was a fact of life.)

Another benefit. Crashes happen, especially on ice and snow. Good thing is that I was well dressed and padded and rarely got hurt. And that fix gear? Well it mattered not whether I crashed to the left or to the right. No derailleur was going to get trashed.

To sum up. The fix gear is the one system that can be operated without sight or lube, slammed by a blunt objects and have the most corrosive salt there is injected anywhere with just enough water to maximize its effect and it still works. That it gives far better control on slippery surfaces and therefor crashes less and provides a superb winter training effect and costs less to operate; well those are just perks.

Ben