I understand that this is a bike forum, but I feel that fixies and SS are different enough to warrant their own sub forums. The whole BF is subdivided into advocacy, alternative, road, mountain, etc categories and I just thought that it would be cool to take it one step further.

I own several bikes, I love bikes. I do have a single speed rigid mountain bike that I use on trails and put on thin tires on it once in a while to use on the road. Though the 2:1 gearing is a bit low, it does teach patience but leaves me wanting a higher gear ratio especially when sprinting away from buses. I am thinking of building a fixie, I have friends who have them, I tried it out and found it really weird to ride. Or more accurately I found it weird with its absence of coasting and braking in the normal sense. I really like the simplicity of fixies and the whole new challenge it imposes skillwise.

My apologies if my original post irked people enough to elicit ridicule and insults. It was just a suggestion that I thought might improve the forum, no malice intended. Truth be told, I'm happy to see anyone biking regardless of what kind of bike they ride.

Anyway ride hard and often, and be safe out there.

I have to separate my fixed and ss bikes to keep them from fighting.

I tried to seperate mine, but somehow they got together and 9 months later I had a tiny tricycle.

lol, i like that post...

its interesting that tricycles are fg....so we all (any of us with trikes in our wee days of cycling) started on fixies.
(not that this is the first time this is pointed out or anything)

Hey!! Lets make one forum for people who are black and another for people who are white, one for gay and one for straight, one for tall and one for short.... Trying to divide riders even further is equally ********. Lets just all enjoy riding.

If you get your sub-culture small enough you'll be the only one left in it...

And how about a forum for one legged asian blind lesbian fix riders over 60 years old? They aren't represented at all!!

Going into a forum that you've been a member of for all of four weeks, having made a half-dozen posts, and making a flat declaration of 'how things should be' deserves some ribbing.

Seriously. That's like walking in to someone's house for the first time and saying 'man, this carpet is all wrong, and the colors don't match... put in hardwood floors. And paint the walls blue.'

If the forums needed dividing, the regulars would bloody well know it. Methinks you would have gotten a better reception if it'd been more of a question, or had more analysis, or less finality.

So, you want to sub-divide the sub-cultures?

I personally would like to see them all come together. We would learn and grow so much that way.

Sheesh, I never expected to draw such animosity from the members here. Chill guys, it was only a suggestion. Thanks for the replies, both good and bad. Have fun riding and be safe out there.

Seriously: The difference between a SS bike and a fixed bike in the grand scheme of things is pretty damned small. The only difference is one has a ratcheting mechanism in the rear wheel, and one has a cog and lockring (hopefully).

When you take into account the incredible array of human-powered vehicles out there, from recumbent tandems to mountain unicycles to mutant tall-bikes, you realize how little that difference means.

So if someone has a flip-flop hub, and they flip their hub from FG to SS, do they have to switch forums too?

Seriously, when the differences can be as small as that, why the need to have an entirely different forum? It seems to me that lots of questions folks ask here can be equally applied to both FG and SS, and lots of folks on here ride both.

It's not animosity.

This SSFG forum has a road/track slant, but check the pictures thread for some AWESOME Karate Monkey/other SS offroad jobs. If you really want just SS offroad, check out the SS forums on mtbr.com. If you want to hang out here and talk about SSFG bikes, that's cool too.

Actually this was his first post here. The others were in the mountain biking forum.

I guess I can see why, if you're a SS rider, you might want your own place since 90% of the posts here are about FG (well, 90% of the posts that aren't completely OT anyway). To me SS is sort of a half breed or something. It's not a geared bike, but only cause it doesn't have a derailleur and it's not a FG but only cause it can coast.

Still, I'm with everyone else here, there are enough similarities both mechanically and philosophically that there really isn't a need for further division.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I didn't intend to rile up this forum with my suggestion, far from it. Yes I do have an SS off road bike, a mountain bike and a road bike and I am interested in building up a fixie too. I'm not sure if I can learn to ride it but I sure will try. Anyway, thanks again to those who replied with reason, I really appreciate it and I do see now why it shouldn't be divided into sub-forums. To those who replied with ridicule and disdain, you have made your point, and I apologize for any perceived malice my suggestion has made. No bad things intended. Peace folks.

some of us can be a little harsh around here. frankly, i like it. it's comfortable, probably because i grew up around lacrosse players and members of punk bands. i ridicule my friends' words all the time. to me, that doesn't translate into ridiculing them as people. i appreciate, however, that not everyone is like me and that this place is not just for me. sorry if i was a bit harsh.

good luck with building up a fixed gear. building one up, and learning to ride one are great experiences for most who make the attempt. there's not a doubt in my mind that you'll be proficient at it soon. for some it replaces all other forms of riding, for myself i feel that it augments my proficiency on my road bike, as well as my poor neglected mountain bike.

remember, this is the internet. it's a great source of information and entertainment. and a pretty crappy place for human to human interaction.

love,
dp