70 here. I raced long ago. My club vets told me I needed to set my beater bike up fix gear to educate my legs to pedal better. They were so right! Learned that winter that fix gear riding was like driving in snow with a standard vs automatic. Easier to stay upright. (And nothing to break when you couldn't.) Sold. That was 1976.
Since then I have always had one; that bike as a continuous entity with parts replaced as needed. (The frame 4 times. Once all but the Campy track hubbed rear wheel. Stolen with an inferior wheel on it.) And starting 2006, I added one, then a couple of fun, performance road fix gears. (That first was and still is a '70s-'80s frame, fenders, LowRider rack, U-lock and miles of reflector tape workhorse.)
Now I have two good ones. The bike of my avatar photo - a custom Ti Cyles, fix-fix hub - and sometimes a lightweight chainwhip you can see on the top tube and all the cogs from 12 to 24 teeth. And my old Peter Mooney, now running an 1/8" triple and fix-fix hub. For mountain days, I run a 21-17 double cog on one side and a little downhill cog on the other. Typically a 46-42-36 crankset. 3 very different gear ratios, 3 very good chainlines. And all on a regular horizontal Campy dropout. Fun! Both bikes have been up to Crater Lake, around and down.
As you might have guessed by now, I absolutely love riding fix gear.
Last edited by 79pmooney; 03-06-24 at 11:43 AM.
Reason: Accidental post. I was still typing