Terrierman

My gears are not broken, thus they do not need to be fixed. Are you guys hard on bikes or what?

*WildHare*

I prefer my mind cluttered and confused...but not about where the heck my brakes are and WTF just happened

oldbobcat

I rode a fixie to supplement my training for a few years in the 70s. I had this miserable Paris Sport "training bike" that was brazed so crooked that I had to dish the wheels to make it roll straight. Still, I could stop at Serio's and ride home with a sack of groceries in one arm and my feet in the toeclips. I'm using Look Delta-style pedals now, of course, but I'll go back to toeclips and track pedals if I can find traditional shoes and cleats that fit me.

Riding a fixie is refreshing. On a 72-inch gear, I grunt up the hills, spin my legs out going down, and the momentum of the back wheel pushes my feet over against headwinds and small hills. With such a small gear I can't hammer, but the spinning effect is great for burning calories, honing my technique, and recovering my morale.

Gurgus

I've been riding fixed for a couple of years now. It really is a fun way to ride a bike. I think that it got me back into cycling at a point where my interest was beginning to wane. Both my fixed gears have two brakes and resonable gear ratios. Try it, if you like bikes at all, I bet you'll end up with one in the not-too-distant future.

lhbernhardt

Mr. Haddrow displays an abysmal ignorance of fixed gears. A fixie is not defined by its lack of brakes; it is defined by its lack of gears and freewheel. I use both brakes on my Benotto track bike adapted for road.

A fixed gear bike is merely the ultimate in retro and elegance. At one time, all bikes had fixed gears, and the track bike represents the ultimate in simplicity and function. There are no wasteful parts; everything on the bike is essential and is in use when the bike is moving. You cannot remove anything and expect the bike to perform. On a standard road bike, you can remove nine cogs, a chainring, both derailleurs and you can still ride.

I'm surprised Mr. Haddrow should write such a thing in Adbusters. The fixed gear bike is anathema to the notion of bicycle consumerism. In the space of about 30 years, various corporations, mostly Japanese, have cleverly created a huge market for bicycle components, gradually bringing us from five cogs to six, to six in the space of five, then seven in the space of six, then click-shifting, then eight with shifters in the brake levers, then nine, then ten cogs. Every year, new things to buy, usually requiring the additional purchase of the rest of the "system." After a while, you get used to buying new components every year.

Back when I first started cycling, you just bought a bike with all Campag components, and you didn't need to upgrade it for a few years. Now it's new upgrades, or new bikes each year.

The alternative is the fixed gear bike. Eleven speed cassettes? Who cares, I'm not buying one. Yes, I believe in continuous improvement, so as good deals come available, I'll upgrade the bike. But I'm not buying into the Shimano-Campag-SRAM arms race. My steel-frame fixed gear Benotto has all-carbon forks and a carbon seatpost. Eventually it will have a 31.8 stem and then carbon bars. And maybe lighter wheels.

Anyway, here are some other advantages of a fixed gear bike:The last two points reveal some visceral emotions. I think most people buy really expensive bikes to try to prove "something" to others. The problem is, it doesn't work. Most people regard guys with new, fancy, expensive bikes as posers, unless they happen to be well-known Cat 2 or higher racers, in which case it is quite aceptable (they probably got the bike free from the sponsor anyway). What's curious is that what does impress other cyclists is riding a fixed gear bike. Novices and posers do not ride fixed gear bikes (well, until recently anyway). It really is cool to ride a fixed gear, because it's kind of an elitist thing. It's not for everybody, only those with the skill and confidence to do so.

- L.

rraabfaber

We visited some friends up in Trinidad, CO a few weeks ago. They own a little microbrewery. When we were doing a tasting at their bar, I noticed a PBR tap and asked about it. Brian told us that it was an homage to the last national American owned brewery. Yup. PBR is it, with Anheuser-Busch having sold to the Brazilian/South Africans in June.

Oh, and everyone's favorite watery swill, Coors Light? It's owned by Labatt's. So, I guess technically, that would make it Canadian beer, eh?

John E

S-A reportedly is developing a new ASC. Some of the purists didn't like its gear lash, but I do not see how one can build a 3-speed fixed gear without some play. A close-ratio 5-speed fixed would be really cool.

When I asked Jim "CyclArt" Cunningham about his experience riding an ASC hub, he noted that "it shifts you." The ASC was marketed to World War II amputees during the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, then faded into oblivion. It may well be an idea whose time has again arrived.

maddmaxx 

Civilization has ended so many times in my life that it no longer comes as a shock to me.

I just take it with a pillar of salt.

BengeBoy 

+1, again.

This 'scene' does not appear that different from all that came before it.

oldbobcat

The Pabst family was a pretty remarkable clan. After establishing their brewery, they established one of the early ski areas in Vermont, Big Bromley, so they could sell more Blue Ribbon at the lodge apres-ski. Well, actually, they just liked to combine their business with pleasure.

And Anheuser-Busch was sold to a Belgian corporation.

Tabor

True. But fear not, Miller is owned by South Africans.

bcoppola

+1 on all of the above. I think the momentum even helps on moderate hills ("moderate" by the standards of this flatlander, anyway). Taking the same hill on my fixed vs. geared bike I think the lack of that dead spot at the bottom of the stroke makes for less fatigue with the fixie.

trackhub

Awesome! My local shop is Harris Cyclery. They will probably be among the first to carry it, if it is in fact, on the way. I'd say that given the renewed interest in fixed gear riding, the time has definitely come again.

It will be interesting to see a new ASC hub, built with aforementioned modern engineering and manufacturing technology.

bckpck2rev

I am 25 and began riding fixed gear a few weeks back. I would not classify myself as "hipster" by any means. I began riding fixed-gear because of the simplicity of building such a bicycle. I wanted to get into the mechanics of bike-building, and guess whose site I found first???? Sheldon Brown's wonderful site, he is the one who made me think about fixed-gear bicycles. Someone should link the article's author Sheldon's site, maybe then he will be able to write a better article.

I drink PBR only because it's cheap, when I have a fat wallet....BELL'S or some local brewed wheat

trackhub

Someone pointed me to this item on Sheldon Brown's site. This concerns the rumor that Sturmey Archer may be heading toward producing a new ASC fixed gear hub.

The page has an email link directly to Sunrace / Sturmey Archer. Here is the page.

I'd urge all fixed gear riders to drop the friendly folks in marketing at Sunrace / Sturmey Archer a line or two, and tell them that if they bring it back, you'll purchase one. Yee-Hah.

GeraldChan

As someone who started cycling seriously in 1972 (when Campy NR was the current bling) I had always wanted a fixed geared bike but somehow never got around to making one.

Fast forward 34 years and I noticed that I didn't ride my vintage Nishiki much so I converted it to a FG by just removing the outer chainring, freewheel downtube shfters and deraileurs. Only needed to buy a single cog , BB lockring and spacers to move the inner chainring inwards to get the perfect chainline.

I loved the simplicity and the inability to coast. As someone posted earlier, in order to pedal fast downhills you need to relax and look farther down the road. You start reading the terrain like a chessboard. You learn to conserve your momentum and you get stronger fromrocking the bike out of the saddle up the steep stuff.

When you have the ability to coast and change gears then you train your legs much like an engine with a very narrow powerband. With a FG you learn to operate over a very wide range of rpm and you learn to produce more torque. It will make you a BETTER cyclist! But most of all it is BIG fun.

As for me I like to run 2 brakes. A yr after building my coversion I bought a real track bike (Waterford 1700) made with bosses for 2 water bottles and and the brazed on parts to run a F& R brake. I have ridden my FG bikes on metric centuries and plan on doing an English century next year.

At 51 yrs of age I am no hipster

Gerry

Robert Foster

I don’t know if it is a good thing to even get into this conversation because I haven’t mastered the technique necessary to optimize riding the bikes I already have. But when I think of a fixed gear bike I think back to some of the first bikes many of us ever had. I know there is a difference between a bike with a coaster brake and a fixed gear bike but I wonder if a fixed gear bike isn’t a step backwards for most of us? For me it is all I can do to spin 80-90 RPMs on the flat with a 50x15 let alone trying it with a 48x13. My motor isn’t what it was 20 years ago. I spent some time getting a Mountain bike with a megarange Cassette with a 34 big gear in back to climb some of the hills on the way to our local dirt trail. But that is just me.
As for beer, don't we still have Sam Adams?

GeraldChan

A bike with coaster brake has a freewheel. A closer analogy would be a "Big Wheel" trike as that is a fixed gear but unfortunately Big Wheels are front wheel drive and your feet are not securely attched to the pedals.

Not being able to coast, or more accurately, being forced to keep up with the pedals teaches us to relax in order to spin a higher cadence. If you run brakes (as I feel you should) then you always have the option of slowing your spin as you tire or tighten up from aniexty. I feel it is a point of honor not to resort to the brakes but they are there just in case.

Robert Foster

So I take it your down hill speed is limited by the drag caused by your legs? After all you can only physically spin so fast no matter how relaxed you are. Plus I take it you have to walk a lot more hills? On my cruiser bike I have hit 38 MPG on a short hill close to my house. A 48 x 13 fixed gear would need way more than 120 RPMs of crank speed to hold that speed. To climb that same hill it was all I could do to get up it with a 28x32 on my MTB. My best gear on the cruiser simply wouldn't cut it.

BikeWNC

I think the fixed gear revolution is just a matter of economics. Geared bikes have just gotten way too expensive. A fixie can be built up from a cheap track frame and parts and provides economical transportation while making a statement about simplicity, both mechanical and in one's life. Now that fixed gears have caught on it sort of becomes the rage like having a tattoo or piercings. People are generally herd animals whether following the trend en masse or bucking the trend en masse.

Robert Foster

"How much of a revolution is it? I haven’t seen many fixed gear bikes in our club but I also believe the nearest Velodrome is about 100 miles away. Does anyone know what percentage these fixed gear bike make?"

tcs

Always somebody that doesn't get the memo:

https://www.sunrace-sturmeyarcher.blogspot.com/

tcs

tcs

Do what kids have always done when a scene is over: intermarry and move to the suburbs.

tcs

GeraldChan

I ride a 44X17 (70") gear on my clincher wheels and a 44X16 (74") on my tubular wheels. You are correct that going downhill is the hardest part as you tire quickly spinning like a hamster on meth. I personally have gone 36 mph in the 70" gear but I don't know the cadence.
As for walking up hills, I have yet to get off my fixie to walk up but never say never.

The hipster craze is primarily an urban phenomenon. Us 50+ riders can remeber back in the 60's & 70's,when many serious cyclist would convert their road bikes over to FG for the off season in order to train. This did not involve removing the brakes, nor where flat, chopped handlebars part of the scene.

PS Is there still a velodrome in Encino? I have ridden the one in San Jose's Hellyer Park. They rent track bike for $5/day.

tcs

Google is your friend.

Sturmey-Archer has been rejuvenated under SunRace ownership. Quality is way up; they are improving the old products, introducing new ones and expanding markets.

BTW, Sturmey-Archer's parent company during most of your lifetime was first Raleigh and then a company called Tube Investments. That's the way things were then.

tcs