Originally Posted by 79pmooney

I moved from single speeds to gears in 1964 when I got my first 3-speed at 11 years old. Moved up to a 10-speed 3 years later, a Peugeot UO-8. Over the next 4 years I had so many derailleur disasters that the right dropout was mangled enough that I couldn't get good shifting so I took the derailleur off and shortened the chain. My first "single-speed". A couple of years later, I bought a sew-upped raceable bike. Started racing. The vets in my club said I needed to take my beater (the Peugeot) and set it up fix gear to learn good pedaling. Sewups and the fix gear went on. 1976. Tried to coast and crashed first ride but I was sold. That bike is still in my stall, just with every part including frame replaced at least 4 times. (The Peugeot seat pin is still in use but on my Peter Mooney. 53 years old in June and in use almost the entire time.)

Still sold on fix gears. I now do more fix gear riding than geared. Half my lifetime's mileage is fixed. (Had a fun day 3 years ago. Went out for a 25 miler on one of my geared bikes. Rode in town that evening fixed. Passed lifetime mileages of 100,000 for both modes that day. I knew 18 months before I was close enough to be able to do that so I just started choosing my rides so that would happen.)

For many years I had my good bike and my fix gear. During some of my racing I had 2 geared bikes. 2004, after my divorce, I started collecting older frames and fixing them up as fun rides. First the "Team Dumpster", a ~1990 sport Peugeot that I set up as a light road fix gear. Fun! A series of frames that were road specific geared bikes. A custom ti geared bike. I stopped trusting Team Dumpster (it saw a hard hit from probably a SUV before I owned it) but loved it so much I had a ti version made. Basically a pure road racing late '80s fix gear for a fictional world where gears and freewheels were never invented. Fun, fun ride! (Just need to put sewups on it. When I do that, it's all there. Pure race. Pure ride. It's going to happen and in the not too distant future.)

I also converted my Peter Mooney to fix gear 3 years ago for the Crater Lake Cycle Oregon with its promised gravel. Loved the new ride so much it has stayed. That bike is now a classic English fix gear road bike like they have been riding for the past century. (Except I cheat. 3 chainrings. Three chainlines. Three very different gears - flat ground and small hills, mountain up and mountain down.) So currently 3 fix gears in my herd of 5 bikes. (The other two will never go fixed. One has a BB way, way too low! and the other, vertical dropouts.)

Ben