I rode fixed on the road as winter training in the 70s and 80s but never took to it like the rest of you, not sure why, but I think the freewheel is one wonderful invention! Combine it with multiple gears, and you're getting into my happy place. The mechanic in me loves the simplicity, reliability and clean look of a track drivetrain, but the rider in me likes to coast! (I also raced track a bit, and there the fixed wheel is truly at home and a beautiful thing.)
I can't for the life of me figger how fixed helps you track stand and leap away from traffic lights - I do both better on a multi-geared freewheeler. (OK, track stands on a freewheel do require a little bit of slope, but the crown in the road is plenty and I almost never lack for that little bit) And the touted advantage of never being stopped in the wrong gear - I would put it as ALWAYS being in the wrong gear for starting up, unless you spin out at about 15 mph...
I bike commute downtown, and take off from lights with messengers now and then - when they don't run the light - and I find they usually start off at a rather leisurely pace. Normal for someone who has to do it all day, and certainly nothing wrong with that. But I can't remember once where a fixie rider took off faster from the light than I did. And I'm not racing them (honest!), I just like accelerating a bit sharply from a light.
Now riding backwards, I'll grant that is very cool and only done on a fixie.
I have a S-A ASC that I haven't gotten around to putting on a bike yet, but back in the day I converted a couple of S-A four speeds to fixed three speeds, so I have encountered the joy of multi-fixed riding. A bit closer to my happy place, but it still smacks of "training" to me. (The dreaded T word)
Mark Bulgier Seattle WA USA
Nigel Land wrote:
> An oft quoted reason
> for riding fixed if you are a courier and assuming you can do
> track stands, is that you can leap away from traffic lights
> and do amazingly cool things like riding backwards (I am
> working on that). Plus, you never get into that annoying
> situation where you are stopped and in the wrong gear.