look up anything having to do withTRACK RACING---- look up Major Taylor---
look here: GO TO THE FLIPPIN VELODROME AND RIDE A TRACK BIKE---- fixed riding on the streets is deadly..... do it if you want--- but don't ***** and complain like a little girl because you get no respect or you hurt yourself........

bro down time!

It's totally true. Once you start spinning higher cadences you look like a highway on ramp to oncoming traffic and they'll tend to merge onto your face at anything higher than 110 RPM

i ride fixed because its unique (as stated before) takes skill, and i love peoples' reactions when they see me riding or skidding. They ask so many questions since most of them have never even heard of a fixed gear bike

I ride fixed cause putting odd colored deep Vs on a road bike is just STUPID!

I don't ride fixed but I want to so that I can be cool like everyone here.

But seriously, I can almost feel what everyone is talking about when they say that there's a more direct connection to your bike. I can still remember the first time I drove a manual car - as I was struggling to engage first, I kept thinking 'why the hell would anyone NOT drive an automatic?'

Now, four manual cars later, I could never go back. It really has very little to do with 'cool' but more to do with the amount of control you have, the connection you feel to the gearbox and the throttle, and the increased skill you develop as a result.

Yep, that's my inane manual car metaphor coming from someone who's yet to ride fixed - now if I could only find that perfect bike.

Set your bike up fg/ss but start riding it as a fixed gear. You may never turn the wheel around. Then my friend you will have found the one, true, Church.

There is no logic to it. That's the appeal. Either you understand that, or you don't.

I think I'm too olde to roll fixed gear bikes on a daily basis. On a recent trip from Vancouver, WA to Olympia, WA I frayed my front derailleur cable, rode for 90 miles in the 42 ring, and have since popped a 44T on there and gotten rid of my big ring and front derailleur. One fewer derailleurs is nice, but I don't think I can do away with the 8 gears in the back.... or the freewheel.

I <3 simplicity, but gotta get up the hills somehow.

I think I'll stick with a single gear bike then. For what I want fixed gear just seems the wrong way to go. Maybe once I move to somewhere slightly flatter I'll have a bit of a fiddle.

Yeah, it really IS. I hate the fixed-gear-seeking locust swarms that come after you. The lack of respect is my biggest fear, though! For shame!

Seriously... wtf, mate.

you don't need to move, you need stronger legs

I think you may have missed what I was getting at here. I don't need stronger legs... as an experiment I took my mountain bike (a heavy full suspension deal) out around town last night and didn't take it out of my flat cruising gear (gets me up to about 20mph at 80ish RPM, don't know what gear raito that would be but I'm sure someone could figure it out if they really want (using 26" wheels whith knoblies on).

Anyways, the point is I made it up every hill the area, the thing that I'll miss though is that going down the hills I wouldn't be able to go as fast.

Also I really don't see what this more control thing is about... learn to use your brakes properly =P.

u kno whats best without dissing all the kiddies that dont know how stupid they sound making up fake reason to fix it u leave let others tell them but stay and talk of singlespeed

You never will "see" what it's all about until you ride fixed. Not that you have to ride fixed- but there's only one way to understand how it feels.

Ok, just quickly, do you honestly have any more control than a guy with good braking skills or does it just feel that way?

Yes

You can go extremely fast downhill on a fixed gear. You may need some practice to get your leg speed up. I sure did. That is much of the appeal. Yes, having to spin does limit your potential top speed, but you would be surprised at how little that actually comes up. I used to have to ride my brake down some of the longer, steeper hills I ride, but now I get down them with ease and speed thanks to my vastly increased leg speed. You could develop this with a freewheel, but once you hit your limit, you coast and cannot help it. Sucky! With a fixed gear you stay connected to the rear wheel, which forces development.

Going up a hill on a fixed gear is actually easier and faster than on a freewheel. More efficient drivetrain without a freewheel ratchet. Freewheels have more mechanical friction and power loss as your effort has to be transferred through additional mechanisms.

You definitely have more control on a fixed gear. Everyone does, no matter how much skill they have with their brakes. You can make minor speed changes with your legs and directly feel any changes in traction at the rear wheel. Brakes + fixed gear > brakes alone. With a fixed cog you are connected to the rear wheel at all times. In comparison, a free wheel feels disconnected. And it is. Any time the input shaft (crank/chainring) fails to spin as quickly as the output shaft (rear hub), they become disconnected. Being good with your brakes doesn't change that fact.

If you do not want to try it, that's your loss. Not everyone likes it, but you will never know until you try it.

I run a freewheel on my mountain bike so I can use the pedals/cranks as a platform when going down rough hills and over bumps. I have used a fixed gear on dirt roads/trails/mountains and did not like it because it drastically lowered the performance of the bike. But on the road I will never, ever ride/buy/use a freewheel SS over a fixed gear. No reason to have less control just so I can coast (which I do not want to do; waste of time). A FG has *better* overall performance on the road than a freewheel, not worse.

And really, even if you hate it, there is probably somebody put there who will be stoked to buy a gently used cog and lock ring for the price of a freewheel.

of course you do. I have brakes on my fixed gear, and I use them. But a fixed gear still has more control then a freewheel, brakes or no. You are able to control the speed and cadence of with just your legs, it's a direct connection. You feel everything, and you're more in tune with the bike,

why?

+587 street cred points
+30 hipster points

I like when my legs feel like jello after I ride a lot.