I got hit by a car last night! It was a rather cold night and unfortunately I was not prepared for it. I mashed my way up North Avenue trying to warm my body with some sprints. The streets in Chicago are so straight, flat, and deserted at night that it’s hard to keep from sprinting. I ride a blue Nishiki fixed conversion I built it out of my mom’s old road bike. It’s very pretty and I am in love with it.

I was eagerly chasing down the horizon of eventual warmth when a car making a left turn hit me. I flew onto the hood and tumbled to the ground. I got up to a crowd of panicking witnesses. The crash had snapped off my left pedal, crank arm, and a toenail. The front wheel of my bike was nearly folded in half. All sorts of important uniformed people started asking me simple questions, which helped to calm me. They wanted me to take an ambulance and they took my bike to a fire station where I can pick it up at my convenience. I went to a hospital and was discharged at three in the morning. The taxi driver on the way home shared her strategies about how to extort money out of the driver who hit me. It was his fault completely.

So what happens now? I suppose I will build a new bike. Until then I will borrow some bikes and try to get back to work as soon as possible. I do messenger work downtown, so not having a bike or working legs is going to make coming up with rent quite hard. People from the bike culture here are already helping me get back on my feet. I will probably be able to build a bike for very little money at west town bikes. West town is an awesome community bike center run by volunteers and supported by donations. I am a responsible biker, I like to go fast but I am always aware of my surroundings. This crash reminded me that no matter how safe you are biking there is always the possibility of an accident.

Submitted by Mike Locker

I love riding fixed gear. I love the control, the connection, the aesthetic, and the history of Velodrome racing. I love that I can confidently fix anything on my bike. I first went fixed because I needed a light and responsive bike but I was very poor. At the time I was racing at the San Diego Velodrome weekly. One day I borrowed a Bianchi Pista Concept and rode it around San Diego. It was wonderful; it felt pure in the way that my first bike felt to me.

I found a frame at a swap meet and put some wheels and a crank set on it. The bike was beautiful and only set me back a couple hundred dollars. It weighed sixteen pounds. The frame was a fetish custom track frame. I was planning to use the bike to race on the track and on the street but I could never afford regulation track drops. I chopped and flipped some old road handlebars into bullhorns. I never raced this bike on the track but I loved going up and down the hilly streets in San Diego.

To me, the fixed gear bike is a very empowering thing. I had built my own bike for very little money and it kicked ass. Recently I have built nice bikes for nearly no cost. I feel like everyone should have a right to transportation and the fixed gear bike is such a feasible mode. The learning curve was fairly intense. I learned to gauge the terrain and traffic, which soon became almost subconscious. The thought behind using the bike in the streets is fascinating. Fixed gear technology was not meant for street riding. Track bikes are built for the track. The bikes are designed to go very fast for a short period of time and never stop. I find the vision of earlier messengers very inspiring. They started using these bikes on the streets because they needed to go very fast with the least amount of stopping. It inspires me when people use technology in ways that the inventors never intended. Now fixed gear bikes are an integral part of the bike culture amongst people who may never even see a Velodrome in their lives.

Submitted by Holy McBain

In the world of fixed gear bikes, there is an ongoing debate whether to have brakes or ride brakeless. Most long time fixies say only posers or trend-riders go with brakes because they have no idea how to ride or control their bike. On the other hand, if you are new to the sport, having the ability to stop quickly will cut down on accidents and avoid potential hazards that only seasoned “fixies” can maneuver through.
Part of the problem of going brakeless is most people learned to ride a free-wheel bike which requires a brake as there is no possible way to stop easily. It has been ingrained into your psyche that a bicycle must have a brake. However, if you recall the bike you first learned to ride (possibly a tricycle) then you already know how to control a fixed gear mechanism. I know, it sounds really simplistic and silly, but think about it for a moment.

Now, if you are just converting to a fixed gear bike, you definitely need a brake – for your safety and those you share the road with. Yes, it’s a crutch, but a necessary one unless you want to end up on top of someone’s car or squished flat on the road. In fact, you should practice riding your “fixie” on a huge open parking lot where the chance of hitting a car or going off the road is mute. Practice making turns while pedaling, stopping with and without the brake, signaling turns, and emergency stops. It is important to protect yourself with riding experience prior to venturing out into the unknown world of streets and roads where cars pop out of nowhere and animals love to jump out in front of you.
Once you are ready for the open road, keep that brake on your fixed gear bike. I know it means looking like an amateur, but guess what? You are an amateur and need the security of the brake for a while. Once you feel comfortable with your fixed gear riding abilities and have practiced long and hard stopping without applying your brakes, you can choose to remove your brakes and enter into the realm of hard-core fixie!
The answer to Brake vs. Brakeless is simple – yes to having a brake if you are a newbie to fixed gear riding; yes to going brakeless when your abilities and confidence merit the advancement in your riding.

GRAND PRIZE – Have Your Bike Be Featured As The Main Bike Picture

Yes that’s right, you can have your bike seen by thousands every single week on this site. All that hard work you put into your bike, show it off to everyone. Maybe you want to rep your city, your crew, don’t matter… if you win you will be one the homepages.

Runner Up – will get a blog post featuring the bike and any other details you want me to include.

So how is this contest going to work?

1. Use the Contact form in the upper right to submit your bike picture AND tell me why you should win.
2. I will pick 10 finalists from the submissions.
3. Will let people vote on the winner (if i feel like it… or if there is a clear winner I’ll just pick that)
4. Contact the winners and tell them the good news
5. Deadline for Entry: April 17th 2009

Belt drives, they work on motorcycles, so why wouldn’t they work on fixies? A new trend that is tempting the waters of fixed gear biking is belt driven cycles. Your traditional cycle is driven by a chain and crank. If anyone is familiar with motorcycles they are driven by a similar yet totally different system. Instead of a chain a motorcycle uses a belt, which wears after time, and needs to be replaced. The idea of putting these same belts on cycles, is a bit too space age for me, why change when what we have works. Yes I wouldn’t be against giving it a try, but if it turns out to be any more expensive or any less reliable, I’d rather stay with my chain.  What else is there to say about it? I guess I’ll leave it open to your opinion, If you give it a try and you find you like it I support you for that, and if you never try it, you still got your chain to fall back on.  If you have tried it, and you like it or not, leave a reply to this post, and we’ll see if we can have some information for people who are considering using it when it’s more readily available.

Flickr pic thanks to Eelke

Speed vs. tricks it’s a mad question when you’re talking about fixie, which better, which is more rad, and which is more dangerous. Well let’s through all these questions out the window, and say they are both nice, both rad, and both dangerous. When ya see a fixie haulin ass down a hill, or barspinnin it backwards in the G-store parking lot, you’re gonna say holy crap that’s sweet. So what’s the debate for, is there really any need to argue? Maybe, or maybe not, I personally ride for fun, sometimes a little bit of speed and once in a while a little trick here or there. Whether you do one of the other, you’re still having fun right? So why argue about who’s better?

For all you tricksters out there, my congratulations go out to you. Your bmx like tricks are some of the sickest I’ve ever seen, you lay your body on the line every time you ride, and let me tell you it’s looking good, keep on keeping on.
For all you speedsters out there, my congratulations go out to you. You flash like speed is indescribable, you get me my package in record time, and you can do laps around that track faster than my car. Your legs are like your engine, when you fly around town on your two wheeled self-propelled speed machine. So for all you speedsters keep on speeding on.
For anyone else I might have missed here, my congratulations goes out you, you ride your fixie to get to work, you ride your fixie to get to school, and you ride your fixie to make it to the store. No worries you don’t have to be fast, you don’t have to do sweet tricks, just keep on riding on.

Flikr photo by A Continuous Lean

If you are just starting to think about making the transfer to fixed gear riding, there are few things you may want to consider, when looking for the right fixie for you. There are a few I can think of, off the top of my head. Start with something simple, make it cheap, and finally consider a break, and a flip-flop hub.

Something simple is probably the best thing you can start on, if you are not sure how to ride a fixie yet, you might want to make it cheap. It’s a different type of ride; some of you plain and simply may not like it very much. It looks fun, it is fun, but it’s not for everyone. So the best fixie to start on might be something like a Bianchi Pista, a cheap complete steal frame bike, or if you are experienced with bike building or have a good friend that is, you might want to go an even cheaper way. By building it from scrap parts. If you find it hard to find parts, you can buy some of the parts, and find some of the parts. Don’t expect to find all your parts right away or all for free. It might take a while it is most definitely a test of patience.

The next thing you may want to look for when getting into fixed gear riding is a break; for a bit of safety as you are learning to ride, and a flip-flop hub. Which is in case you don’t like the fixie ride, you can always switch to a free wheel ride, which is more like a traditional bike. So if you’re thinking about it, consider my suggestions, and I think you might end up being a very happy rider.

I got this user submitted question regarding some rims. Not totally fixed gear related but if anyone knows the answer please leave a comment below.

Hi,

I am a cyclist who is in the process of building up a single speed bike. While sourcing up some parts to complete my project, I came across a pair of rims known as Araya B16 Red. This is a brand new but old stock rims from one of the shop in my hometown. While searching in the net to find out more on this particular model, I found out that this rims are specially used in the velodrome for Keirin riders and very popular in Japan. While looking at the rims I also notice that that there is no braking surface on the rims. I intend to ride regularly on road and placing brakes on the bike is importance. Hence this is a concern for me. Cud you guys shed some light over the matter. The rims is light though. Have you known anybody who ride the rims on road with brake?

Txs n rgds,

Mehmoud
Malaysia

Got this note from Andy over at Fyxomatosis.

Subject: Don’t grind your teeth

Message: We make chainrings so tough, we back them up with a 12month
riding warranty.

check them out.

http://www.fyxomatosis.com/viewpage.php?page_id=20

ride safe
andy

Ok here is the deal. I promised that I would let all voices be heard on this blog. Some people are leaving nasty comments, and I don’t think its right to edit people out.

Likewise I got the following submitted to my email. It was pretty entertaining so I will post it. I guess this guy is making a good point about people who get into riding fixed gear for the wrong reasons. Anyway, here is the submission from David K.

so i saw this hipster fixed gear jackass almost get hit by a
city bus in chicago the other day. He had a pretty blue Chrome bag to
match his nice baby blue rims and tight pants and a shirt that was too
small and no helmet and he almost got squashed because he did not know
how to ride a bike without breaks, but still really wanted to be seen
on one because it completed his indy-costume. All I could really
think was that this would have been a really sad case of social
darwinism and that “Survival of the fittest”, or lack thereof,
applies to Wicker Park hipsters who care more about getting behind
the handlebars of dangerous bicycles than preserving themselves as a
hipster species.