Can you explain the Fixie craze?

[Black Crown Tattoo]

As long as there is people on two wheels...cool...as long as there into other sh*t than old cruisers..even better! If all the fixie kids rolled cool cruisers...there would be less for us to buy! Were like hot rodders and rat roders and there like import tuner kids! But as long as people are riding and not finding all the cool cruisers..then fixie on kids!!!

 

[roadmaster]

Yeah, I had the fixed gear bug a couple of months ago, but I am cool off super skinny tires and racing handlebars. So... this is what I came up with..

My 79' Huffy Good Vibrations single speed cruiser, turned Menacing Vibrations via a 18 tooth cog out back and a masive 52 tooth Monark chainring up front. Deliberatly kept it as pure to the "fixie" spirit (and not the "hipster" spirit) and kept it "no brakes" :shock: .

I nickname it the Widow Maker and it climbs out of the saddle like nobody's business. Not bad first attempt and I personally think that that a fixed track cog is as efficient as you can get and can't wait to find a good set of vintage pedel clips for it. Fixies, yeah they are cool, but I am waiting for Fastbacks to come back.

 

[ratdaddy]

I've got a mixte frame hanging in the garage waiting to build it for one of my nieces when they are ready.

jeff

 

[The Gnarwhale]

Riiinng..Riiing... "Hi pot, this is kettle"

I think its quite simple, in mainstream culture bicycles are lame. If you want to be cool, your bicycle cannot be just another lame bike - it has to be different in some fundamental way - like not having brakes, or being able to coast. :mrgreen: Or maybe by having a polo seat and a five foot tall sissy bar. Same old story.

I think you hit it on the head. The idea that anyone on this forum would attack fixies or their riders because of the bikes' lack of rideability is hilarious. Sure, fixed-gear riders put form above function... just like every rat bike builder on here. Actually, fixed gear bikes look more rideable than a good percentage of the bikes on here.

As I'm sure you all know, fixed gear bikes have have been used for decades by bike courriers. Bike messenger culture was a fringe mix of punk, graffiti, DIY, and dropout cultures and was pretty obscure until about ten years ago. Where it's pretty clear that the American Choppers TV show pushed kustom moto culture from fringe to mainstream and that translated into 10 year olds on 20" chopper bicycles, I dont quite get what pushed messenger culture (and their fixed gear bikes) into the realm of mass-awareness. It seems to me the bike aspect kind of got vacuumed into popularity when as the bike messenger "look" got co-opted by hipster culture.

The fact that WalMart now sells fixies is funny/sad in the exact same way that it was funy/sad to see lowrider chopper bicycles on the floor five years ago.

 

[wheelbender6]

I don't have a problem with Walmart selling cheap fixies. Somebody can try a cheap fixie to see if they like it and later build themselves a nice fixie with a quality frame and parts if it goes well.

 

[deorman]

Re: Can you explain the Fixie craze? Nope.

 

[big kountry]

I have a fixed gear bike an I love riding it really makes you a stronger rider in my opinion mine came along about 4 years ago from a garage sale picked it up for 50 bucks the guy told me it was a 600 dollar bike but he couldn't ride it anymore it was the first one I'd ever seen took me awhile to learn to ride it but after you figure that part out it's actually a fun ride