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Is it Fixie or Fixed Gear?

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Singlespeed & Fixed Gear "I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

Is it Fixie or Fixed Gear?

Old 12-07-18, 05:35 PM
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Is it Fixie or Fixed Gear?

Change my mind if I'm wrong, but calling my bike a fixie sounds like someone calling their "heavily modified car" a legit car. When in fact, it's a ricer with an exhaust pipe that emphasizes what the car really sounds like. Calling a bike a fixed gear seems much more proper. A fixie to me is someone who believes in form over function, when in fact I believe it is always function over form. I'd rather have a bike that I'm not physically attracted to the appeal of it, but is very responsive and fits my needs, over a bike that looks very flashy, yet is uncomfortable to ride in every way. What are people's thoughts?
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Old 12-07-18, 05:40 PM
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Your definition of "fixie" versus "fixed gear" is highly personal, like they all are. Bottom line, "fixie" is just an informal slang-word used to denote "fixed gear". As far as I'm aware there isn't any additional inherent meaning.
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Old 12-07-18, 05:42 PM
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Personally I like to use the word fixie because it ruffles a lot of feathers among those who take themselves too seriously. I freely refer to my Wabi as a fixie and my Dolan as a track bike. To me FG bikes on the road are fixies and FG bikes on the track are track bikes.

So for me it's about the application and less the machine. But that's just the way I like to use those terms.
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Old 12-07-18, 05:46 PM
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faith trust and fixie dust
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Old 12-07-18, 05:54 PM
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I prefer fixed gear but I try not to get worked up if someone uses fixie. (Unless they say fixie but their bike actually has a freewheel, because that nonsense will not stand, sir!)
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Old 12-07-18, 06:10 PM
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Old 12-07-18, 06:30 PM
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fixie is the new black

edit: actually no, nvm, "fixie" is so 2012
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Old 12-07-18, 06:56 PM
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Originally Posted by REDMASTA
grease faith rust trust and fixie dust
Fixied that for you.
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Old 12-07-18, 08:12 PM
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Originally Posted by TMonk
Personally I like to use the word fixie because it ruffles a lot of feathers among those who take themselves too seriously.
Maybe I'll follow suit when I show off my Paramount to other cyclists. I'd like to see at least one person get flustered.
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Old 12-07-18, 08:23 PM
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@caloso (Unless they say fixie but their bike actually has a freewheel, because that nonsense will not stand, sir!)

-you said it. stand up to those frauds!
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Old 12-07-18, 08:46 PM
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Every time I hear fixie I think of the Schwinn Pixie. Imagine a Pixie fixie with training wheels.
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Old 12-07-18, 08:48 PM
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It seems like an almost pretentious thing, the ''cool kids'' in the know will scoff at anyone who calls it a fixie... and those who have never gotten into the ss/fg culture are predisposed to the term fixie so thats what they use. I've heard ''fixie'' come from really dumb college aged kids, to bicycle shop owners. Seems to be a if you know, you know kinda deal. Just my .02...

I personally call it a fixed gear, BUT do I care at all what someone else calls it? **** no! Call it a turd covered in more turd, don't care
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Old 12-07-18, 10:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Happy Feet
Fixied that for you.
i like it
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Old 12-07-18, 10:07 PM
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^
me too.

Originally Posted by hairnet
Maybe I'll follow suit when I show off my Paramount to other cyclists. I'd like to see at least one person get flustered.
Perfect. The irony of calling your Paramount a "fixie" is enhanced by the fact that it's a great bike! Blasphemy I tell you!!
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Old 12-07-18, 10:23 PM
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Originally Posted by hairnet
Maybe I'll follow suit when I show off my Paramount to other cyclists. I'd like to see at least one person get flustered.
Gotta go all-in and call it a sweet fixie.
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Old 12-08-18, 02:40 AM
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sw8
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Old 12-08-18, 04:12 AM
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Originally Posted by TMonk
Perfect. The irony of calling your Paramount a "fixie" is enhanced by the fact that it's a great bike! Blasphemy I tell you!!
Bringing a bike snob to melt down will be very satisfying, ya know??
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Old 12-08-18, 05:45 AM
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Fixie or Fixay are what me and my riding buddies say. We are all very gay and very flamboyant though.
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Old 12-08-18, 06:28 AM
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I find it baffling that anyone actually cares enough to be bothered by a word, or what kind of bike anyone else rides. I mean, it’s basically 2019. When was ‘fixie’ a major thing? 2011? 12? I mean, you’re welcome to such an opinion, I just can’t for the life of me understand why you feel the need to have one. Isn’t it tiresome caring about what strangers say or do, or ride?
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Old 12-08-18, 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by mtb_addict
fixed gear is diificult to say for me...English is not my first language. i think its due to the ed in the middle of a name. it sounds awkward when i say it.

fixie roll out of my tongue much eaasier and smoother.
for American English, I don’t think you’d have to actually pronounce the ‘ed’. You could easily enough just say ‘fix gear’ and everyone would know what you mean. In fact, I doubt anyone would notice you left off the ‘ed’.
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Old 12-08-18, 02:31 PM
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^
good point, could make things easier @mtb_addict
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Old 12-08-18, 02:41 PM
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I never liked that word it seems to have inherit distain. Fixie.
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Old 12-08-18, 03:55 PM
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it does, which is also it's appeal
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Old 12-08-18, 04:34 PM
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Mrs. Reagan also taught me to just say no to shifting and be kind to elderly bicycles.
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Old 12-09-18, 08:01 AM
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30–40 years ago, the term in British English was usually "fixed wheel" — for the same reason that you have a "freewheel" rather than a "free gear".

"Fixed gear" seems (to me) to be a modern expression, no better or worse, but a new way of saying the same thing.

"Fixie" was initially used as part of the trend for hipster urban types and at that time seemed to refer mainly to fashionably minimalist bikes with over-styled handlebars.

However, in the normal course of events, language develops, words lose their meanings, or gain new meanings, and new words take their place. Awful and awesome used to mean the same thing as each other; expect and anticipate used to mean different things. I think the overlap in meaning between "fixie" and "fixed" (either gear or wheel, or just "fixed") is now bigger than the differences.
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