I didn't say anything about fixed-gears not being suitable for long rides or commutes, nor did I make any comment about your own riding, nor your friends'. Plenty of people do ride fixed-gears hundreds of miles a week – I'm just saying that most people tend to use geared bikes for that purpose and always will.
And while it is an issue of semantics, most fixed-gear riding is road riding. That's kinda neither here, nor there.
All I'm saying is that there's probably less of a divide between fixed-gear riders and geared riders than you're making it out to be. I've gotta say, most people I see commuting or riding, even here in Chicago, which is more conducive to fixed-gear riding than most other places, are on geared bikes. I understand that there's a subcult of cyclists who are into fixed-gears for whatever intrinsic quality they have (or whatever they ascribe to them), but when you get down to it, fixed-gears are just bikes that can't coast. That's it and that's all they'll ever be.
I will agree that fixed-gears are here to stay, but if you think about it, they've been around longer than geared bikes, and it's not like they ever went away in the first place. A bunch of companies have found that they can make a whole lot of money off people, and they're doing so, hand over fist. Nothing wrong with that, because if I had the means, I'd do it too.
Funny enough, it seems more and more that people who used to ride fixed-gears and track bikes on the street exclusively, are getting more and more into geared bikes.
And again, a fixed-gear is just a one-speed bike that can't coast. That's it. That said, I love 'em.
