What's the point of a Fixie?

Hi all,

As per the title. I really don’t get it, I see know benefit at all. Surely there’s got to be a point? Fat bikes, I get you. Road bikes, I even get you. Fixies, what you for?

If it’s not on the track it’s simply a darwinian mechanism to control the parts of the population that cant get anything in or out of their trouser pockets.

Same as with all bikes, they are fun?

They have a point, they are fun. I miss my Pompino as it was fun. I would have another in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

Gets you fitter, I use mine to commute on. an hour a day, of constant work, no way out if you come up against a hill either.

Improves your technique

Means you can wear your younger sisters jeans

I didn’t ride very much until I got a fixed, then every day. I can now get up hills, I’m not very technical off road, but won Bikefest the other year in one of the team events and as yer man msays it’s fun. I love my fixed Karate Monkey, it’s brilliant for fire roads and tracks in France where I take it twice a year, it even makes a nice change from the SS riding it round the Ashton Court / Leigh Woods trails………..

I’m faster that you on my fixie,
That’s the point.

DrP

It’s often more fun to ride with a fixed wheel, and it certainly makes steep climbs a lot easier.

Reliability, control, fun.

When I was a gen-yoo-ine messenger I kept blowing up freewheels. So I went fixed. A lot of club riders use them in winter for the same reasons.

It gives you more control of the bike in traffic- just seems being connected straight to the back wheel gives you more control.

It’s a laugh. Unless you’re a peenarse with no brakes. Then it’s dangerous.

Make riding on the road not boring

Because it bends peoples minds.
Especially offroad.

It also bends mine when I’m offroad but in a good way.

It’s fun, it’s a laugh, it’s another skill that makes you feel good. It’s interesting, messes with people’s heads.
It’s doing something a bit different.

All the reasons you started riding bikes in the first place.

Ride one! Had my ‘Triggers Broom’ for over 20 years and has been my bike of choice all that time. Use it for commuting, as a general run-around, winter club runs.. It kinda gets under your skin..

Fat bikes, I get you.

Fat bakes I don’t get at all.
Funny ol’ world, innit?

I sort of get the appeal of fixies for commuting purposes now, There’s a couple of them now that I spot regularly along my own route to work…

Mechanical simplicity has got to be the major selling point IMO, especially during winter I would include low cost too, but it does seem possible to spend pretty astronomical sums on a bike which by many peoples estimation would be “Un-ridable”…

Personally I dislike the whole hipster/bleeding edge of “Fashion” associations they seem to have, but that fad will pass and TBH it’s not the most terrible thing if poseurs in their sisters jeans want to ride bikes its overall better than if they suddenly all adopted huge 4x4s as the must have form of transport innit… and the flouro colours at least deter accusations of not making themselves visible…

Do I want to own one? not especially, I may still get a flip flop fixed/free job to give it a go or take it down the local track to try out…

I don’t quite get fat bikes TBH, having ridden a couple bikes with slow, heavy, draggy 3.0″ front tyres in the past I can’t see why you’d want to go even further down that route really, but horses for courses, we can’t all like the same things…

mikewsmith – Member
If it’s not on the track it’s simply a darwinian mechanism to control the parts of the population that cant get anything in or out of their trouser pockets.

warton – Member
Means you can wear your younger sisters jeans

Does it also mean that you can’t pull your trousers up so the waist band is on your waist?

Answer is the three F’s

FUN.. It’s more fun cos it’s more involving

FITNESS… It makes you super fit as you have to pedal 100% inc downhill

FFICIENCY… It’s more fficient as there are less moving parts, very simple bike to own and maintain, and ride.

From over a year ago…
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fixed-a-niche-too-far

I never did try it. I still can’t see any advantages and the novelty factor doesn’t outweigh the disadvantages.

its a legitimate training methodology for winter road riding, with a simpler bike and much more tiring riding.

or.. it offers simplicity and ruggedness for couriers, commuters etc.

or.. it’s bought into by a few ponces that wear ridiculous kit, ride their bike twice a year, and push it round the rest of the time.

and yet option 3 is the one everyone jumps on. but what aspect of sport doesnt have ponces? in fact option 3 could describe downhillers, 90% of the riders at glentress, ‘pump track’ builders etc. etc.

I’ve got one, rode it to work today in fact, I like it, that’s all the matters. I don’t ride it or any other bike for anybody else’s benefit.

Not ridden it much recently and I’d forgotten how nice it is, always seems to really carry momentum well if that makes any sense.

Each to their own.

tracknicko +1

Same as anti-cycling motorists who always go on about the Lycra wearing Red Light jumpers endlessly, whether that’s representative or not

I love the clean and simple look of them.
I can see the fitness and technique benefits of them.
I love the very few mechanical issues with them.
I own one.
I can’t ride the thing! It scares the life out of me.

tracknicko +1

Same as anti-cycling motorists who always go on about the Lycra wearing Red Light jumpers endlessly, whether that’s representative or not

cheers. it just seems very ironic for mountain bikers to take the piss out of other cyclists on the basis of fashion.

have we (collectively) taken a look at ourselves recently???

glass houses and all that.

can there be a rule in this thread that every person to pass judgment first declares whether they’ve ever owned or even ridden a fixed gear bike?

my answer – because it’s an extremely pure sensation of riding that is very addictive. and fun.

+1 on the control thing, seems in my opinion to be much more suited to riding in traffic than a bike with a freewheel, definitely fun, definitely makes you fit, a bit shit going down big hills.

I hated the idea of a fixie, then I got invited to Manchester Velodrome for a taster day. And I flipping hated riding that thing. Then I realised I hated it because it felt so different to my regular singlespeed which felt so natural to me.

So when I got home I bought a cog and thought I would give it a go. (I still hated it at this point – I do this alot, forced myself to eat lime pickle until I enjoyed it – now I love it!). A few week later it started to feel natural and I began to enjoy it.

Now I would not switch back on my CX commuter. Its fun and efficient. In no way it is dangerous (I ride with brakes mind you!). I actually prefer it to SS. Covered 4k Miles on it now.

Its just different, not bad. Lime Pickle is good too.

In 3yrs of owning a fixie (Spesh Langster with flip-flop hub), I replaced about 3 sets of brake pads.

And that was it.

Reliable commuting machine.

I love lime pickle

Patak’s or Geeta’s?

One reason you should try it is that it’s so different to a normal bike, you have to learn to ride all over again, learn new skills, and get the satisfaction of mastering something new.

Once you have on road sorted, go offroad, clip your pedal on rocks, get launched, pedal round corners, lock the rear to brake. Pedal whilst in the air.

What’s the point of a Fixie?

It allows you take the moral high ground looking at some of the replies on here. I had a fixie when I was 6. They’re pants & I won’t be owning another one 😛

[ducks & runs for cover]

can there be a rule in this thread that every person to pass judgment first declares whether they’ve ever owned or even ridden a fixed gear bike?

I wasn’t exactly passing judgement, I was just asking why I should try it.
As I explained on the other thread;

On a SS, I can maintain 24km/h comfortably, or briefly sprint up to about 30km/h at the crest of a hill, then build up speed freewheeling down.
On a fixie I would be stuck at 24km/h.

Going down steps or short drops, I put the pedals at 3 o’clock/9 o’clock and hang off the back.
On a fixie, I would have to get off and walk.

Remounting at the top of a steep push up climb, I scoot along with one foot on the pedal and one on the ground to get the bike moving before jumping on.
On a fixie I would have to stop.

So, for me, it looks like a fixie would be slower down hill, slower up hill and slower over obstacles.
It doesn’t bother me what other people ride, but I’m going to need a bit more persuasion to want to try it myself.

dont see the point in fixed offroad. i predict pedal strikes and crashes.

It’s the bike Collin Chapman would probably ride if he hadn’t been a petrolhead.

“Simplify and add lightness”

Fixies make sense to me when all corners are banked (i.e. on a velodrome). Everywhere else they seem a bit of a liability!

It’s the bike Collin Chapman would probably ride if he hadn’t been a petrolhead.

“Simplify and add lightness”

You’ve obviously not owned a Lotus or Caterham….They all came with gears !

Pointless

Fixies make sense to me when all corners are banked (i.e. on a velodrome). Everywhere else they seem a bit of a liability!

‘proper’ (as in designed to be) fixeds have higher BB.

Try one, you might change your mind, I did 😉

I too, miss my Pompino, for a simple do it all bike, it was great fun to ride, one day I will get another.

What’s odd is going from riding a fixie for a length of time, then jumping on a freewheeled bike – it feels like your knees ‘lock out’ at the dead points! Weird!

DrP