When did you start riding a fixed gear (all inclusive: track bike, conversion, fixed gear, etc...)

Also, please, if you will, answer the following (reference the numbers)


1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)?
2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion?
3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)?
4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed?


Thanks for answering the questions for this survey.

Although it is innevitable, i would appreciate if people would refrain from posting bull**** in response to this, thanks bike forums.

Just started in the middle of last summer.
1) Sick of buying gas for my car driving to work everyday in the summer. Picked up a crappy 80's road bike from a rummage rode that to work for about a month. Then Sheldon's site really influenced me to try fixed, saw a Pista my size on craigslist snatched it up.
2) Pista
3) Milwaukee summer, Eau Claire during school
4) Ride to work, school, fixed is fun.

1. Began racing them when I was young.
2. No.
3. Washington DC

Long answer:
I began when I was 7 and started racing at the velodrome in San Diego as part of a youth program. I raced to make my BMX riding better, which it did. I was also locally competitive on the velodrome. I then stopped due to moving to Texas but continued racing BMX. Moving to northern Virginia stopped BMX racing as well because there were no tracks then. I then worked at a bike store where we built a few at a bike shop I worked at so I rode them a bit. Then I stopped riding all together due to breaking my back. I then started mountain biking, then road biking again. A year ago I bought another fixed gear since I was tired of the maintenance on my road bike and the relatively limited distances I ride.

1. YouTube videos, sounded cool, I needed something to do.
2. Yup, frame is very nice too. Came from steve hed's shop.
3. West of Minneapolis, MN
4. I've only seen one other in my town.

I bike to school, around town, and just to relieve stress. I love that my bike is so simple, it just seems elegant.

Mid-2006

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)? My husband had a fixed womens Hercules frame, he loved it, so I tried it and also loved it..

2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion? Yes, it was a converted italian folding bike from the 70's (in my sig, its the Hyda Bike).. then i got my husbands old Hercules when he got a Nishiki that he converted (which subsequently got stolen the day after he finished it)

3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)? I was born and lived in Torrance, CA most of my life, then lived in Long Beach, CA for a while, but now live in Portsmouth, Dominica in the hot ass caribbean.. soon to be in NYC this coming fall (for like 5 years)

4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed? I ride fixed in my small village here in Dominica, cuz my fuji track is my fastest/lightest bike, and all my bikes are fixed.. it is a little brutal on the giant hills here, but i love it..

I started riding fixed in mid 2007.

1) When I was a little kid my neighbor helped run a track team. I went and watched the races at Hellyer and I thought it was cool, I liked his bikes too. Early last year I started commuting on a road bike. It was loud and didn't shift right. I already liked the track bikes so I just got one.

2) Nope.

3) San Jose, CA

2006. roommates had one, tried it out, liked it, done. pleasantly surprised here was such a big community around it

Just under 2 years ago.

1. I was having trouble motivating myself to ride, and felt like I needed something new. I had already converted a mountain bike to single speed, and Mr. Brown's site pushed me over the edge to try something new.

2. I skipped the conversion step. After pricing ENO hubs, and other options, I finally just jumped in with an NYC Bikes CityFixed due to the Low cost of the frame.

3. I live in Boise, ID. When I built my rig, I had seen 1-2 other bikes around town. 2 weeks after getting it running I went to my first alleycat which had about 20-30 riders and 10 people on fixed gears.

4. Isn't this the same question as #1?

Just about a month ago.

1) Several guys in my club had fixies, and I jumped on the bandwagon too.

2) Converted Sanwa 700

3) Houghton, MI i.e. the very end of civilization

4) Because ridin' fixie through an annual total snowfall of about 200 inches is absolutely the best thing ever. And because people give me funny looks when I'm trackstanding and waiting for them to move their stupid ass car.

1994/Echo Park

The Ibis Scorcher review in Road Bike Action magazine. So I ordered an Ibis Scorcher as my first fixed gear bike.

started in Feb 2004 with the purchase of a 2003 Bianchi Pista

1. had seen them around, had a friend in town who had one, and have always liked bikes very much. I wanted to try them out so I test rode one in the parking lot and liked it, rode home the same day. I was debating a cross bike and a fixed gear, but the cross bikes I was checking out were about 3x more expensive and didn't seem so different than my mtn bike in skinny tire mode.

2. Bianchi Pista

3. had just moved back from three years in Tokyo to New Haven, CT (pop, 120,000). now back in Tokyo...

4. I guess I answered this in #1

05

1. 2004. Had a spare mtb and decided to to try s/s after a friend recommened it. Got a fixxer cheap and decided to try fg riding.
2. Yes, both my fg were/are mtbs.
3. Toronto Ont/Can.

1. What influenced you to ride fixed (friend, professionals, seeing others, messengers)? I heard about fixed gear and thought it was really stupid. Eventually I started riding around a lot, and found I spent too much time coasting, also, I couldn't afford a good geared road bike, because they are all 1000s of dollars new, or at least in the stores I checked. So I decided to try the fixed gear thing. I hopped on and liked it alot, the simplicity of it really attracted me, because I don't know how to do any bike repairs myself.
2. Is your bike (or was your first bike) a conversion? Nope. I suck at bike repairs, I bought an Urbanite for about 800 at Urbane in Toronto.
3. Where do you live (city and state for US, city and provence/country for outside of the US)? Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
4. If you live in a small city or suburb, how/why did you decide to ride fixed? I don't know if my city is considered 'small', but I don't see why fixed is limited to urban cities. One gear works in lots of places.

summer 2006
1. All the guys I worked with had them. I thought not being able to coast was a stupid idea.
2. Yea, i got a free road frame from the boss man.
3. Kennewick/Ellensburg Wa.
4. Yea two small towns. not many people even ride bikes much less fixed.

2005
1. jordan smith, cheap, easy,cool lookin'
2. no
3. lived in valparaiso, in, a small college town at the time, have lived in new orleans and chicago since
4. small towns have hipsters too

spring 2005.
01. friends, acquaintances... i didn't want to rely on my car when i moved out to college.
02. my first two bikes--schwinn continental (lasted for about eight months or a year. i think it's in pieces in my grandmother's garage at home), and then my fuji "special road racer", which i'm planning on rebuilding.
03. i live in pennsylvania. when i picked up riding i lived in paoli (outside philadelphia), and now i go to school in lancaster (small town, rural area).
04. i enjoy the challenge. my bike is aesthetically pleasing to me. my hipster index in this place is much higher than it would be in a town with more of a fixed gear presence...

2007
1. A friend of mine rides them and he was the first finisher in a 200 mile race.
2. Conversion vert drop outs magic gear 18 pounds
3. Atascadero, California
4. Because I feel guilty about making so much money and kinda wish that I was a hipster.

mid '05
1. A series of failures in my crappy old 10speed slowly evolved it in to a singlespeed, which upon taking it to a shop, the guy explained fixed to me, I gave it a shot, and loved it.
2. Yeah, worldsport rotafix
3. Chicago

Interesting responses all around.

spring 05 is my fixed start date.


1. I bought it (03 Fuji Track) at my LBS after my previous commuter POS was stolen.
2. see above
3. Toronto
4. I chose it cuz there was a Fuji stand up floor poster of a velodrome that asked "Do You Want To Go Fast"? and i replied hells yeah!...that and it was the cheapest option for a new ride. My shop was dumping the last remaining 03's since it was just shortly after they took delivery of their 05's. I didn't realize that I joined the cool kids by doing so.

Late Summer fall 07
1. My friend who rode a singlespeed got me into singlespeed, then through other friends started playing around with their bikes. like it
2. i have a half completed conversion at my parents house for me to finish this summer when i've got nothing to do/possibly have money.
3. Athens, Ohio
4. I live in a small town, but the entire population is either weird hillbillies or college students, there are a lot of fixed riders here on top of a big cycling community.

Late February '08

1. I was going to buy a Trek 820, but then Lance (my friend) told me to get a Road bike, so I was going to buy a Trek 1000. A few family and financial problems later I ordered a Fuji Track 08 from the somewhat friendly Mall 205 Performance.

2. It was going to be when I joined BF and trolled SSFG.

3. Portland, Oregon in the SE area.

4. I decided to ride fixed because it looked cool and fun. I read testimonials on Sheldon Brown's site. I wanted to get into track racing.

SE? where at?

i live over on 35th and hawthorne.

We're having an alleycat the week around the 23d of march. wanna race?

just curious.

But I'm like, a 13 year old :/

1. i saw a fg rider on the street and my dad explained to me why that type of bike was used
2. no, it was a nagasawa
3. inbetween DC and baltimore
4. i ride a road bike around my house and just do stupid stuff on the fg