The Fixie Index. Is YOUR town hip?
I can't imagine riding a bike like that. Literally cannot imagine doing it, or wanting to. I mean, just read this. Or this, a fixie in action (though, if he didn't see her, not sure why the lack of brakes is a problem...)
Not for me. Proving (as if proof were required) that I am NOT a hipster. This is not exactly a "stop the presses" announcement, I realize.
5 comments:
As fixie rider, it isn't hard. I have been doing for over 10 years, and in the Boston winters (I ride year round missed 6 days last year), the extra control you have over the back tire actual helps. Sort of like a manual car in the snow.
Lubbock doesn't appear in their list though I can attest that fixies appear at the local coffee shop. Frankly, flat Lubbock seems a safer fixie ground than hilly San Fran or Boulder.
Safer, though not necessarily smarter. I like to be able to downshift into the headwinds.
It's the lack of front brake that worries me. How hard would it be to have a 8 ounce brake and pull lever?
I could deal with the "no freewheel", as long as it was pretty flat, and Boston is pretty flat.
But no front brake? Yikes.
I did briefly ride a fixie on the road, but one with a front brake (and a rear caliper too, being a belt-and-suspenders man). Getting used to never coasting is relatively easy: in practice when you'd coast on an ordinary bike, you just relax and let the bike turn your legs. It's not tiring.
However, it was just an amusing novelty on the road. I forget why I took the bike apart.
However, I now have a track bike that I use exclusively at the track, and they're enormous fun in their natural environment.
You're hip Mike -- you're setting trends. The world will catch up, once they see it as euvoluntary.
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