[Midwestern Biker Dude]

I noticed that Bicycling Mag this month has an article about a neat program that is run by a bike messenger. It is a fixie love fest! Little reviews of fixes at the end, the works. Doesn't that mean that we are at the absolute peak of the fixed gear movement? Once the mainstream press starts to write about bike messengers, changing the world, and nonprofits isn't the end in sight?

 

[brock]

Peak Fix has arrived.

 

[danl1]

Close, but not quite. First the market has to become flooded with Giant Bowerys, and whatever Trek will bring out next year as a response, and the couple of dozen Chinese knockoffs that will find their way into Sharper Image and Wal-Mart.

Then all we need to wait for is the 60 Minutes episode about some moron removing his brakes and T-boning a city bus his first time out, and the cry will go out that these things are inherently unsafe. A few useless, unenforceable laws will be written that will overlap into mainstream bikes, and that will end it. The few still riding them (not the same folks as at the beginning; they will have moved on) will be seen as mildly insane but mostly harmless, and we'll be back to where we started.

 

[MB1]

Why exactly does it matter?

I noticed that Bicycling Mag this month has an article about a neat program that is run by a bike messenger. It is a fixie love fest! Little reviews of fixes at the end, the works. Doesn't that mean that we are at the absolute peak of the fixed gear movement? Once the mainstream press starts to write about bike messengers, changing the world, and nonprofits isn't the end in sight?

Fixtes are just another kind of bike-some folks like them some folks don't. The bicycle peak arrived in the late 1890s, does that mean we shouldn't be riding?

MB1
Fixing to work everyday.
Weekends too.
So what?

 

[Pepe]

I noticed that Bicycling Mag this month has an article about a neat program that is run by a bike messenger. It is a fixie love fest! Little reviews of fixes at the end, the works. Doesn't that mean that we are at the absolute peak of the fixed gear movement? Once the mainstream press starts to write about bike messengers, changing the world, and nonprofits isn't the end in sight?

There's a limit to how many times they can rehash the same articles of counter-intuitive health tips (spillover from the related Rodale magazine Prevention) or publish glowing reviews of their advertiser's products or tell you that the bicycling in Tuscany is suberb. They don't cover racing, other than the occasional Lance or Hincappie spot, so they can't fill pages with race coverage. At least you gotta hand it to them for branching out.

But to answer your question, yes, the end is nigh.

 

[Chainstay]

Not the end at all

It's mostly a North American thing right now and from what I hear it's starting to get legs in Europe so it has a ways to go there. It's cool, it's inexpensive and has a lot of youth appeal so it will stick around at least with a certain hard-core. Also track racing is a great sport so some fixie nuts will get into that. Roadies and mountain bikers are finding their way to it as yet another way to enjoy cycling. It's a great way to show your appreciation for steel frames and classic parts - campy large flange track hubs are reason enough to want to own a fixie

It's got a lot to offer. I've been cycling 30 years and have never rode a fixie, so now I'm building one, (with campy track hubs and a classic Reynolds 531 frame).

 

[Dereck]

Chainstay - fixed gear bikes had legs in England back in the 1960s, and even earlier!

Two uses - one, for the masses of fixed distance, flat road time trials that formed the bulk of English racing from shortly after the first two guys on bikes in England met... As those TTs were all out and back - a 25 was 12.5 each way, or as close as could be arranged, for example - and held on flat roads, a fixed gear was ideal.

The other use was as a winter bike. English roads were pretty messy in Winter, most racers were basically hard up to support their sporting aims, so a cheap fixed gear hack was the cheapest way to ride to work, do Sunday clubruns and the odd night-time rides in winter. It also saved the precious 'best bike' for the racing season.

It was much more fun when everyone was on one! We'd run real low gears - low 60's, say 45 x 18 or 19 - so every group ride was a screaming spinning session. Come start of training season - January, for the early March crit series - back onto gears for serious riding.

I have a Bianchi Pista that I exercise on stuff like down to the post office. Keep saying I'll take it out on my touring club's "fixie friendly" rides, but find when crunch time comes, "you can pry my cold, dead hands off my STI levers". Perhaps old age brings wisdom, but am not sure about flying around pedalling like a crazy thing with no ability to freewheel in a pack does't have the attraction it used to.

So, ride one for the heck of it, have one hanging around in the garage to impress the gang, or spend much of one's riding time 'fixed' to the back wheel's rotation - who cares but you? Go enjoy!

Regards

Dereck
Who has a crazy wantin' for a Bob Jackson track bike with chromed dropouts and round-bladed steel front fork - and can't figure out why!

 

[Chainstay]

Point taken

I was thinking of the courier fixie fixation in North America and some of the recent posts in the fixed gear gallery from Italy where it's just starting.

I was forgetting about you nutters in Britain, my apologies

 

[M.J.]

It's mostly a North American thing right now and from what I hear it's starting to get legs in Europe so it has a ways to go there. It's cool, it's inexpensive and has a lot of youth appeal so it will stick around at least with a certain hard-core. Also track racing is a great sport so some fixie nuts will get into that. Roadies and mountain bikers are finding their way to it as yet another way to enjoy cycling. It's a great way to show your appreciation for steel frames and classic parts - campy large flange track hubs are reason enough to want to own a fixie

It's got a lot to offer. I've been cycling 30 years and have never rode a fixie, so now I'm building one, (with campy track hubs and a classic Reynolds 531 frame).

having just arrived at my desk after my morning commute - I can confirm that approximately 20% of the bikes I saw on the way in were fixed

here's my commute:
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=36913

 

[Midwestern Biker Dude]

Close, but not quite. First the market has to become flooded with Giant Bowerys, and whatever Trek will bring out next year as a response, and the couple of dozen Chinese knockoffs that will find their way into Sharper Image and Wal-Mart.

Then all we need to wait for is the 60 Minutes episode about some moron removing his brakes and T-boning a city bus his first time out, and the cry will go out that these things are inherently unsafe. A few useless, unenforceable laws will be written that will overlap into mainstream bikes, and that will end it. The few still riding them (not the same folks as at the beginning; they will have moved on) will be seen as mildly insane but mostly harmless, and we'll be back to where we started.

I think Dan has the winner. I'm not sure if we will see them in Walmart, but this is funny stuff.

 

[ChuckUni]

Post peak?.....Just as long as there are some left over for me.....fixed is FUN.

I took the geared bike out yesterday and I was missing the fixed gear....except for the 40+mph downhills. That's about it however.

I hope it contiunes. If it brings people in to cycling or makes people bike more often....more power to it.