Why I rock a fixie

I read this idiotic essay in Adbusters on-line that tears into hipsters. You know an article is going to be insightful when it refers to the fad for riding fixed gear bicycles as “the apex of absurdity.” Really? Does a fad for a kind of bike really merit that kind of language?

I can’t help but think that “the apex” is something a little more meaningful. Like the widespread belief that Barak Obama is a Muslim Extremist. Or the Banking Sector’s continued insistence that it doesn’t need to be regulated. That seems like the apex to me.

That 20-somethings prefer a bike style… that doesn’t seem like such an apex. Thanks.

And, memo to Douglas Haddow: if you were really paying attention to hipsters well enough to merit writing this essay, you’d know that the fixed-gear is no longer the in-bike. To the untutored eye it would look like they are, but, in fact, most hipsters are riding single-speeds these days. Once “fixed gears” became a “thing,” of course, hipsters had to move on, ‘cuz that’s how they do. I bet in some secret hipster cabal, many are starting to drink Schlitz rather than Pabst, now, too, as Pabst is soooo 2003.

Anyway, single-speeds are like fixed gears, in that they only have one gear ratio, but they are unlike them in that they have a free wheel.

So there, Douglas. Try to keep up. Cultural phenomena move quickly, but this one started a couple years ago.

I ride a fixed gear. I’m not a hipster.

It really annoys me when people rip on fixed gears as pointless bikes that people only ride for style points. I love fixed gears. Meanwhile, I don’t dislike hipsters. I know I’m not a hipster because they don’t much like me. I’ve just never really been able to worm my way into that scene in anything but a superficial way. I also wear white shirts and ties too often (neither are vintage) to really make the cut.

I do have certain hipster accoutrements, though. I have a courier bag (though I’ve been wearing my backpack lately). I wear American Apparel polos sometimes. I like Indy Rock, so sue me.

Oh, and I have a fixed gear.

I love it.

It’s true that I started riding a fixed gear around 2004 because they just seemed cool to me, but I have a feeling I’ll still be riding one ten years from now because I just think they are the way to go for me, as a commuter.

The story of the fixed gear is a little more complicated than Haddow seems to understand. I’m pretty sure it started with messengers riding genuine track bikes on the streets of New York because they wanted to be tough and cool but also because there are advantages for the the truly hardcore urban cyclist to riding a fixed gear.

Riding bikes designed for track racing evolved, though, as everything in biking does. Grimy bike mechanics with lots of old parts lying around realized that there was no reason why they couldn’t put fixed gear hubs on other kinds of frames, making for an easy to build, very simple, low maintenance bike. Complex gearing is touching. Single-gearings aren’t. The result was that you don’t see many true track bikes on streets today (the true track bike has the absolute smallest, thinnest frame that can bear weight and no eyelets for anything so that it can be as absolutely light as possible). What you see are old road bike frames that have been retrofitted with fixed gear hubs and a very simple overall bike system.

And, yeah, Douglas, most of us rock a front brake on the bike. It’s not absurd. The front brake is every bit as practical as the fixed gear hub, for those who like to ride that way.

Why I like my fixie with a brake:

1) The geometry of a track bike works for me. I do ride a true track bike frame, as it happens. At first I rode a fixed gear with an old road bike frame but then I hit a car with it and bought a track frame to replace it, and I like its geometry. It’s responsive but it doesn’t stretch me out like my road bike. I had to ride my road bike for a couple weeks recently and I missed my fixed gear very badly. It’s just, for me, more pleasant to ride on the shape of my track frame than my road frame, I don’t worry about having super skinny wheels and I’m not always thinking about my gears.

2) Fixed gear versus the mountain bike. The mountain bike has some advantages over the fixie in an urban setting. Bulkier tires hold up a little better and have no fear of trolley tracks. Suspension can be kind of cool for our seriously effed roads, but the things are just too damn heavy. Sometimes you gotta take your bike up stairs. A mountain bike is a pain. A fixie is just a bit of a chore.

3) Fixed gear versus the single-speed. Here’s the heart of the matter: I like the feel of a fixed hub. I like it at very slow speeds where I can stay upright while waiting for a chance to jump through traffic. I like the fact that my feet don’t stop. I like being able to slam backwards on the wheel as well as applying my break if I really have to stop. And I don’t like the way, with a free wheel, that the wheel disengages from the pedal at higher speeds when your legs aren’t keeping up. Which leads me to,

4) Workouts. You’d think that when I went for a bike workout I’d want to rock out on my super fast road bike and tear away from all those spandex wearing mofos on there $3000 Greg Lemonde specials. Not so. The truth is, I prefer to workout on my fixed gear. Why? Because with no free wheel I can’t absently coast and give myself a break. At the very least, on a fixed gear, you have to keep your legs moving fast enough to keep up with the wheels, even if you aren’t really adding much momentum. It makes the workout much more intense and satisfying.

5) Anti-theft. In general, I just don’t think thieves are after fixed gears. They have a cobbled together look to them and they really do have less value added. No fancy gearing systems or breaking systems. No fancy suspension. Just the most stripped down bike possible. It just doesn’t seem attractive to bike thieves.

I happen to be a guy with really thick legs, so even going up significant hills on my fixed gear really isn’t a big deal. In a city, I find gearing to be more of an annoyance than an assistance, and I like the simplicity of rocking along with one gear set. Of course, I could give myself a coasting option and get a rear hub with a free-wheel, but, at the end of the day, I really do feel more in tune with my bike when my legs have to keep up with the rear wheel and when my legs have some control over how fast that rear wheel can move.

So, sorry Mr. Haddow… some fixed gear enthusiasts are riding these babies because we really love them, not because we want street cred.

Note from 2020: Believe it or not, still rocking that fixie.