The FIXIE
Rollin’ with breakless, the gearless and, oooooh yeah, the fearless…
As an XC rider, generally, I like the idea of more gears. When they came out with an 18 speed, I traded in my 10 speed. Then when they came out with a 21 speed, I naturally upgraded again. To me, having multiple gear choices means better riding, so I found the concept of the single-speed bike intriguing; last summer I got beat in an 80km XC race by a guy on a single-speed – nuff said about that. But, as foreign an idea as a single-speed was to me, the FIXIE is something else all together…
One gear, no breaks and no freewheel. These bikes are built based on the velodrome concept of less is more, less is lighter, less is faster! Why complicate a bike with things like multi-gear cassettes, derailleurs, hydraulic breaks and rotors when you don’t have to? Sometimes complete with spoke cards, and flashy frame designs, the Fixie popularity, sparked in the urban bike-courier community and Alley Cat races through the early 2000’s has grown into a bike phenomenon. This has brought major brand bike builders on-line with pricey models gleaming on show room floors everywhere, including right here in Edmonton. But, at the core of the Fixie revolution lies a search for simplicity and therein is the original allure of this unique and purest style of bike.
Simplicity of design aside, the fixie is not something anyone can just hop on and ride though… With a fixed gear set-up and 
no breaks, you really have to know what you’re doing, if you value your physical wellbeing. When I met with my friend Sam, I got to try my hand on his bike, and getting used to not being able to coast is really hard – and skid stopping, or skip stopping is not-so-surprisingly, tricky to say the least. If you don’t throw your body weight far enough forward while you put reverse resistance into your pedal stroke, you essentially just thrust yourself forward off the bike! Good times, good times…
Once a rider gets the hang of it though, there is a real skill, and beauty to the riding style and the appeal quickly becomes clear.
Here is another link to a particularly great example that I found – Enjoy
11 Comments
Sheldon Smart on March 8th, 2009
Yeah, there seems to be some consensus on advantage to your pedal stroke, or the souplesse. Here is a link to an interesting blog I came across while researching fixies:
http://velophoria.blogspot.com/2008/12/souplesse-refined.html
Kirsten on March 8th, 2009
Thanks Sam! I think the video came out really well.
K8 on March 11th, 2009
Big fan of the fixie! Great Vid!
Big Ben on March 13th, 2009
Yeah, the whole mass-produced, high-end model fixie takes away from what they’re about, at least for me. I shake my head everytime I see a hipster/possenger on a $2000.00 single-speed.
Ken Hurd on March 13th, 2009
@Big Ben – I hear ya… It’s especially prevalent now, where having a ‘fixie’ is effectively some sort of alt-status thing. Who knew ‘commuter culture’ would catch on in such a big way?
Sheldon Smart on March 13th, 2009
I can see you now, Ken with a pair of red All-stars, dark blue skinnies, tweed blazer and canvas book bag…
Graeme & Myra on March 15th, 2009
Hi Guys. Time for a bit of controversy. You’ve incited/enticed us to weigh in on this one.
We don’t agree with the above line of thinking. Although a few people will choose to ride an expensive and/or mass produced ss/fixie, in no way does having said bycicle entail that the rider is a poseur. Granted, anything cool does attract a few of these people without exception – skateboarding is now more of a fashion than an activity. I still won’t wear skate shoes because I don’t skate anymore, and turn up my nose at those who do, but as much as it urks me to admit it, that’s my problem, not theirs.
We all know which of us has at least one mega-expensive bike. We don’t seem to have a problem with that. So why is having an expensive bike with 27 gears acceptable but having an expensive bike with one gear mean that your trying to appear to be part of a subculture without earning your dues… which could be a whole topic of debate on it’s own… Why can’t a person genuinely like to ride a ss/fixie but also pay more than the amount deemed acceptable by the ruling members of said subculture? You don’t have to be rich to be a poseur either. Look at all the fake hippies out there. I think that if you’ve invested that much of your identity in the type of bike that you ride, there are bigger problems at hand.
Home made or expensive, it’s getting people out there riding bikes. If that results in more bike lanes, more trails, fewer cars, and more bike awareness, then I think we can all agree that that’s a good thing.
Ken Hurd on March 15th, 2009
Now this is what I’m talking about! ;-)
Although I totally agree that bottom line, it’s about getting people on bikes, and ultimately I couldn’t care less whether they’re on a junkyard salvage, or a über high-end hand-built european carbon bullet. I think this is a little bit of a different case.
When you look at a $10k Pinarello FP7, or a $7,500 Trek Top Fuel, a lot of what you’re paying for is technology. Cutting edge carbon frame technologies, top end components, wind tunnel testing, infinitely tuned suspensions, etc. The bikes are built for the most extreme situations and they perform.
When you look at a fixie, even a really nice one, you might be paying for some slightly better parts/frames, but I find it hard to believe that you’re paying for an actual ‘better’ bike. Just a fancier one.
I guess I might use a different analogy… Handbags perhaps…
Where a ‘normal’ bike is just a regular purse, and high end performance bikes are really nice purses, with lots of pockets, made of better, more resilient, lighter material, I would imagine an ‘elite’ fixie to be a Gucci purse. Granted it still does what a purse should do, but you’re paying a premium for a name and the status that comes with it.
With that said, I fully admit that I’m a whore for fancy blingy new bikes, and if somebody gave me a $2,000 fixie, I wouldn’t be complaining ;-)
Big Ben on March 16th, 2009
Yeah, ummm, not really… The whole Hal and Joanne Bodybreak feelgood philosphy of “hey at least people are getting out on bikes…” doesn’t fly with me in this case because it’s about major manufacturers wiggling their way in to what was a movement born out if the rejection of the major manufactured bikes. You rode a fixie because you wanted a ride that was not going to cost you an arm and leg to buy, or maintain. You go buy a 2K fixie, that’s fine, but don’t then pretend to be all bohemian-urban and about it, because you’re not. You’re literally ‘buying’ into an image and in so doing devaluing the original fixie movement.
Graeme & Myra on March 17th, 2009
Oh boy, oh boy! Look what we’ve started.
First off, Ken, we agree with your point completely. I have no doubt that almost no-one could practically tell where a $10,000 bike is actually better than a $5000 or even a $2000 bike. Really. The incremental improvements in quality/weight become increasingly more expensive as you upgrade, and past a certain point won’t make any difference to anyone except the guy leading a breakaway in the Tour (and even then…). What no one will argue is that a $2000 bike is very much better than a $300 bike. My bike isn’t super expensive in the grand scheme of things, but I will admit that I’ve silently wondered to myself if I really needed the bike I have, while still coveting a nicer wheel-set, or anything else I may see in the shops.
I can certainly identify with the mentality that “outsiders” infiltrate the scene that you are part of and that they have no business in, because they aren’t in it for the apparent reasons that the “real” scenesters are. I’ve been having a debate with Myra about this this morning. As part of a few non-mainstream sub-cultures in the past, I still carry with me a sense of entitlement over my credentials in a particular scene, and still get annoyed at those who, once the scene becomes popular, start to wear it like nothing more than a fashion. “They’re not in it for the right reasons”, I say to myself. What a bunch of wankers. The fact is, every group has a unwritten (or written) set of rules for which to judge it’s members. While some may narrow their eyes and huff at expensive fixies, I know for a fact that you can still have a basic and ultimately not that expensive fixie but still have a set-up that others covet – fixies are still judged as better and worse, perhaps not in terms of a monetary value, but maybe someone has that super rare/cool late 1970’s french frame that they restored or an ’80’s frame that has the right kind of paint job or anything else that gets the right look down. There are still cooler and less cool fixies within the fixie community. People have a need to authenticate, and they’ll do it with everything, usually at the expense of others.
Now, I’m not pointing fingers or saying that everyone does this. However, “he who is without sin may cast the first stone”, and you can bet that those who don’t also won’t care if someone has an expensive fixie. Are you bohemian-urban (which is a completely different issue)? Are you really? Do you have an iMac or MacBook? Maybe even a MacBook Pro? Probably. Did you get the iPod or did you get the Sandisk MP3 player? They play the same music, you know. Not so simple anymore. The question isn’t, “do you genuinely like cycling”, but “do you fit the mold to be a part of our surprisingly narrowly defined community”. I like bikes, so I’m going to appreciate a finely sculpted and finished carbon frame. I like HiFi and really get off on a nicely finished and finely tuned speaker or a sexy looking amplifier, which can be horribly expensive. (I can pick out the difference between the sound quality of a £100 speaker and a $300 speaker, and I have no doubt that with experience my ear could pick out the sound quality difference between a one which costs $500 and one which is $1000. Do I need anything better than the $100 speaker to enjoy the music? Probably not, but will I appreciate the better quality of the more expensive one? Absolutely.) It’s not the mainstream manufacturers moving in our your type of bicycle, but rather someone moving in on your idea of what it means to ride a fixie; it’s no longer about bikes, but it’s about what you think about someone else who has some sort of connection (however superficial) with the type of person you think you are. It’s ultimately a question of how you qualify your self worth and your identity. It’s what people who are not perfect do in a world which has a skewed sense of self worth/identity. We judge ourselves mainly by comparing ourselves to others; often by what we are not. You ride a fixie because you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on your bike? Fine. I don’t think anyone has an issue with that. You, on the other hand, have an issue with people who don’t at all mind spending an arm and a leg on a bike with only one gear. Simplicity can be defined in many ways. You’re mostly looking at the cost of buying or putting together a bike, and not the simplicity of riding it. That’s not about bikes at all. It’s about judging others by our own standards which we ourselves can’t live up to. Elitism is a two way street. Even if you’ve managed to simplify the your whole life, live in the woods, eat from the land, etc, etc, if someone were to ride up to your cabin in the woods, past your goats and free range chickens on an expensive fixie wearing skinnies and donning a currier bag, and you think, “friggin’ poseur”, you’ve lost.
If riding a cheap fixie is representative of you living a simplified life (in terms of your possessions), then how is someone else riding an expensive fixie going to devalue that or have any impact on your life at all? Are you doing it for yourself or are you doing it to be seen by others to be “down-to-earth”? I’ll say it again: I understand and am still vulnerable to that type of thinking, but that doesn’t mean that I agree with it.
p.s. in the spirit of fair play, and with not even that much honest reflection, I am guilty of the same selfish judgements, as I believe my line of thinking to be superior to yours. See? Were all equals! ;-)
For what might apparently be a controversial view point, check out:
http://www.bicyclingculture.com/2008/09/cycle-chic-goes-global/
Ken Hurd on March 8th, 2009
Nice work Sam! – Singlespeed bikes are all the rage here in Calgary as well. If I could ever get some time I’d like to take one on as a ‘project’ bike – good fun!
The other nice benefit, is that training-wise they do wonders for your pedal stroke since as you put it there’s no way to stop pedaling.
One thing I’ve seen a lot of riders here in Calgary doing is adding a front brake. It may ‘degrade’ the fixie mentality a bit, but it does make the braking distances a little more respectable ;-)