Because I'm not a very good bicycle mechanic.

...and so that after signalling while jumping streetcar tracks and yelling at a cabbie for cutting me off, just narrowly avoiding the oncoming pidgeon/pothole/pedestrian, i don't have to think about shifting down and then back up again too!

Nice work contradicting yourself. Have you ever even ridden fixed? I love people who judge something that they obviously have little to no understanding of :p

Yes I have, on a velodrome, when my coach took our junior road racing team to Trexlertown PA to tear around the Lehiegh Valley Velodrome. I had the bike at full speed, perpendicular to the banks and challenging my teamates to Match Sprints and Pursuits, so yes, I have ridden a fixed-gear bike as they should be ridden. I've been on training rides where a few roadies had fixed gear in the early season on sparsely-trafficked roads where they were only concerned about building leg speed and strenght, and not hipster status, and would never ride those bikes on a city road.

I've been doing the sport for a long time, I've ridden and raced road and mountain bikes, ridden a lot of cyclocross, and commute daily on a single speed. I've been doing this sport since before it was "cool", back before Lance and when the name of the big hero was Greg Lemond. I've been riding since before carbon fiber and before suspension, back when only "pansies" shaved thier legs and wore "spandex".

No, it's not being judgemental, it's called being experienced enough to know that riding fixed on city streets, or on the road at all is a personal call where the individual assumes all risk. It's similar to those of us in the rock climbing community as well who understand that while experienced free-solo climbers are some of the best climbers in the world, anyone who climbs trad, sport, or aid has all the right to dismiss them as suicidal and dangerous because they climb ropeless and gearless. I personally would never recommend riding without brakes ("brakeless") on the road. It all comes down to a limited ability to slow down or stop. If it's your choice to ride "brakeless", then fine, but don't expect acceptance or approval from those of us who choose the safety element over the coolness element, or the personal statement element for that matter. I use my crankset to go fast and forward only, not to slow down and stop. That's what my caliper brakes are for.

Just a heads up, if you are trying to not be judgemental, you should stop judging all fixed gear riders, you know, judging them to all be hipsters.

Wow, ALL THE WAY back to Greg Lemond? You practically
invented cycling!!!

I dunno. I think we've all had experience as kids with freewheeling SS. So I don't think there's much wetting of one's feet to be had. I actually wasn't aware of FG until last year, when I returned to cycling after almost two decades. And I tried my first FG at an LBS last December. It freaked me out right away, but after the initial shock I was hooked.

If you want to try FG, I say just go for it, and bypass the freewheel.

I tried FG before SS - my tricycle I rode when I was 2.

Is all you needed to say. BTW, you said you had, so why do you ride them now?

I ride them purely cause it was something different and turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. I still spend 60-70% of the time on a geared bike cause lets face it, you can't race on a fixie, there are too many variables. Oh yeah, 12% hill climbs through singletrack are freakin hard on SS mtb.

Brakeless?

Because the clyde in me throws my derailleurs out of alignment once every 200 miles and I get sick of adjusting my commuter this much. And because my lady loves the monster quads.

I like SS because of the challenge. You have to spin fast, grunt out the climbs and learn to conserve momentum. Riding around town on my geared commuter, I found I was using 2 gears out of 24. I figured that I could get away with one gear, and I did. I also ride a rigid SS mtn bike for short off-road sessions, and it has improved my geared/suspended riding significantly. Everyone I know rides a FS mtn bike, so it's a real challenge to keep up.

Oh, and when I'm riding home from the pub, gears are the last thing I want to worry about...

A fixed gear and brakelessness are not the same thing, dumbass.

I suspect it is a little different for each rider. I've riden them for years, but one of my great joys in life is wrenching bikes together in new configurations. I'm currently working on an old Follis with half-step gearing and am getting the parts together for a three-speed Sturmey archer hack on an old Paris Sport road bike. Every bike rides a bit different, each is a trade off over something else, each has it's own joys. Being older than most fixed riders, I understand there is some fashion element, but that has always been apparent in cycling, no matter what anyone says. It's just fashion has landed on this particular segment for now; it'll move on soon enough to English three speeds or something else equally unpredictable.

I do see a lot of awfully uncertain riders on FGs in RVA, no brakes, no apparent ability to stop. But whatever they pick up, they're likely to be tenative at first. And if fashion leads someone into something as usefull and good as cycling, who really cares in the end, anyway?

Wow, I've never heard so many responses to a stupid comment (jpearl's) in a forum of any kind that hit the nail so square on the head as I did in this one. Perfect.

I'm starting to like this place.

It's not just about 'hipster status' for everyone, jpearl. If you ride a fixed gear bike for long enough you may learn to understand that.

Once I began to question why I was carrying around 26 superfluous gear combinations the reasoning behind single speed became self-evident.

Singlespeed is simple and quiet...so is FG, except for the 'oh ****' internal monolog. There are a lot of "Weeee!" moments to both.
I'm a bicycle junkie and these are just two more different ways to enjoy cycling.
I suggest you just try what you're comfortable with and enjoy the comfortable difference.
Oh, yeah, I love this place!

Single speed bikes are a tax for people that can't afford derailleurs.

REVOLT!!!!

Ride fixed or succumb to the madness.

Started out as curiosity, the bikes looked sleek and minimal.

Welded a hub solid and rode it till it broke, did this a few times before investing in a proper wheel.

My commute was getting really easy (25 mile round trip of hills), once I started riding it fixed, it became more of a challenge (fun).

I can carry a chainbreaker, few links, and and adjustable wrench and fix anything within a min. or two, should it break.

When I hop on a geared bike, I can go much further, much faster.

I can grab a bike from the dump, tear everything off exept the front wheel/brake, stem/bars, and crank, toss my wheel on and have a new bike.