I have to view the "Fixie Fad" positively overall, as it may have done more than anything else in recent years to revive interest in lugged steel frames. Not that an old fart like me identifies with the image of bike messengers or wannabe messengers with every square inch of skin either tatooed or pierced, but if these have to be the fashion leaders to get others out of 2 ton SUV's and onto bicycles, what the hell.
Better a bike than an SUV and better a lugged steel bike than a carbon fibre wonder. Granted some of these guys ride without brakes and weave dangerously through traffic, but that is a separate issue, as is the pushing of gears too large for the situation. Note those issues can exit with geared bikes as well.
I have a few track bikes, though I've only ridden them when I lived in Houston with its velodrome. But I note that on many rides I don't really use that many different gears, so I think a properly chosen fixed gear or single speed freewheel with a front brake can be quite a practical setup, and it is a project I hope to get around to.
One of the CR members I know has been developing quite a little business out of his home rebuilding dumpster finds, barn bikes, and Goodwill purchases and selling them for low cost commuting and recreation. And he reports the vast majority of his customers want a single speed. So why the heck not? A 30 year old lugged steel frame refinished in powder coat and built up as single speed may not be a Rene Herse randonneur, but it's certainly a more positive thing than having everyone use a two ton vehicle to go to the corner C-store for a quart of milk.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Dr. Paul B. Williams <castell5@sympatico.ca>
\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR] Fixie Fad comment
\r?\n> To: "Mark Lawrence" <mark.lawrence@firstreadthis.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 8:15 AM
\r?\n> I have to agree with Mark on this
\r?\n> one. When I was casting around for gear options for my
\r?\n> Carpenter I played around with the idea of using a 3-spd.
\r?\n> hub-gear or going with suitable late-40s derailleurs, but
\r?\n> decided in the end to use a flip=flop period-correct set of
\r?\n> B&W hubs. The beauty of the Brit bikes of the 30s-50s
\r?\n> was that the options were many and single-speed freewheel
\r?\n> and fixed (which are now on the Carpenter) were certainly as
\r?\n> much common practice on club bikes, time trial bikes, path
\r?\n> racers etc. as they were part of the track scene. This I
\r?\n> discussed at great length with Doug Smith, Mick Butler,
\r?\n> Philip Easton, etc.. I love the simplicity of the
\r?\n> single-speed (I haven't yet flipped or is it flopped to the
\r?\n> fixed) - it does require a different kind of riding and I
\r?\n> don't really hill climb on it, but it is my favourite ride
\r?\n> these days.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The one thing which I find mildly irritating is having to
\r?\n> explain to people that I have not just joined a fad and that
\r?\n> the gearing is period correct for the bike. Now the guy up
\r?\n> the street, who is in his late-50s, rides a 1990s
\r?\n> lugged-steel Cramerotti track bike regularly on his rides in
\r?\n> the Gatineau Hills ( he also has a 1978 Gios Torino Super
\r?\n> Record). The chap across the street, in his 40s, has a
\r?\n> custom-built steel-frame built up with a fixed gear set up
\r?\n> which he uses for commuting to work. So, along with me -
\r?\n> closing in on 50, I guess the trendies could claim we are
\r?\n> like a little "fixie" enclave of "older farts"!!
\r?\n>
\r?\n> On another point raised, I quite like seeing the students
\r?\n> around the university with their old steel frames (mostly
\r?\n> gas-pipe and rarely butchered) converted for fixed gear
\r?\n> riding - there is a tremendous amount of variation and
\r?\n> experimentation going on - which is, after all, part of the
\r?\n> joy of working with bikes. Isn't it? To me, they are
\r?\n> learning how to build up their bikes, tinker with them,
\r?\n> adapt them, improve them, strip them down and so on. Haven't
\r?\n> we all done this at one point in our life? How many mutt or
\r?\n> franken-bikes have we each created in our time? More
\r?\n> importantly, as Mark points out, these folks are also riding
\r?\n> them, enjoying them and doing their part to reduce traffic,
\r?\n> pollution, etc.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Paul Williams,
\r?\n> Ottawa, ON, Canada
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Mark Lawrence wrote:
\r?\n> > Simon and List
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > As much as I enjoy this subject being debated, it
\r?\n> urges me to correct people who talk about 'Fixie' as if it
\r?\n> was a fad.
\r?\n> > Early cyclists were perceived, as reckless,
\r?\n> rebellious, anti-social - when they were riding penny
\r?\n> farthings. When people started getting disenchanted with
\r?\n> early derailleurs, there was a revival of fixed gear in the
\r?\n> 1930s. The 'retrogrouch' Jack Taylor
\r?\n> brothers rode fixed gear for their work bikes, as Ken Taylor
\r?\n> said 'it gives you more control in traffic'. And I
\r?\n> happen to know that the late Norman Taylor rode a 65" fixed
\r?\n> gear for most of his rides with the local hard-riders, out
\r?\n> and about in the North Yorkshire Moors.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > As the current generation of stopwatch racers want
\r?\n> carbon fibre there are more old road frames out there than
\r?\n> meet demand. And thankfully, these frames are now
\r?\n> getting used. It's not even like fixed gear shops
\r?\n> (Tour de Ville and Brick Lane Bikes to name perhaps the most
\r?\n> notorious ones) are creating a shortage of nice parts like
\r?\n> SLJ derailleurs.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > There's absolutely nothing wrong with fixed
\r?\n> gear. Indeed, there's nothing wrong with young,
\r?\n> cultish and appearance driven people appreciating bicyles in
\r?\n> that bubble which is 'cool'. The only thing that
\r?\n> detracts from their campaign is a lack of mudguards and
\r?\n> occasionally brakes.
\r?\n> > For a landscape akin to most of Englands, rolling
\r?\n> hills and no long climbs, fixed gear is fine.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > Mark Lawrence
\r?\n> > Oxford, United Kingdom
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > ________________________________________
\r?\n> > From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
\r?\n> [classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]
\r?\n> On Behalf Of simon duval smith [simonduvalsmith@hotmail.com]
\r?\n> > Sent: 13 October 2009 11:32
\r?\n> > To: classicrendezvous
\r?\n> > Subject: Re: [CR] Fixie Fad comment
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > I could not agree more; London streets are awash with
\r?\n> silly trendy track cyclist wannabees/fashion victims, rising
\r?\n> fixed wheel or single speed on butchered (often quite
\r?\n> vintage) road frames. As I do my 20 mile commute across town
\r?\n> on my 1980 Peugeot PKN10E (with 12 speeds), I often tell
\r?\n> them that I will object to paying for their knee operations
\r?\n> in the future as they pull the wrong gear and strain muscles
\r?\n> and joints. I have a fixed gear track bike - a 1950 Claud
\r?\n> Butler, it is used on the track, where it belongs. Cycles
\r?\n> should be pedalled at 90-110 turns of the chainwheel per
\r?\n> minute - any less is damaging to the body.
\r?\n> > There is a whole industry in London here chopping up
\r?\n> road frames and selling the fixed result to saddos who think
\r?\n> it is cool to ride a minimalist machine with orange wheels
\r?\n> and silly little cut down roadster 'bars.
\r?\n> > There, rant over...
\r?\n> > Simon Duval Smith
\r?\n> > London
\r?\n> > UK
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> >
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