Fixie's are everywhere! Racers ride them in the off season for winter training. Non-racers ride them to commute or as a winter bike. Youths ride them because they are the current craze, they are cool, and because their friends ride them. It's almost a Cult following. What is a fixie and what is the attraction?
A fixie or track bike has a single gear that is directly linked to the pedal motion. In other words, there is no coasting. Pedal forwards and the bike goes forwards. Pedal backwards and the bike goes backwards(if you are skilled enough). The key is to choose the appropriate gear combination that suites your riding level and terrain. Choose too easy of a gear and you will have too high a cadence. Choose to hard of a gear and starting and slight hills will be difficult. Experiment and find a happy medium for your type of riding.
The attraction is multi-faceted. For starters, a fixie is really the most simple and basic form of a bicycle. No gears, no shifters, no derailleurs, shear simplicity and cleanliness. Because the function is basic and simple more attention is usually paid to the form. Style and looks are the emphasis. Most fixies are highly personalized.
A fixie is also a great training bike, working on base miles (no coasting) and one's cadence. It requires a lot more focus to ride mainly because you have to resist the temptation to stop pedaling, particularly when you are going faster downhill. Stops need to be anticipated. That brings us to brakes. The purists have none and rely on their pedaling motion to slow them down and stop. This adds to the simplicity and danger. The non-purists and novices have at least one brake, usually the front. Some have both brakes (recommended when riding in traffic).
Everyone that likes to ride bicycles should experience a fixie at least once. It is like no other bike that you have ever ridden. I requires more attentive riding but rewards you with a better workout in a shorter period of time. The analogy would be rollers versus a wind trainer.
It's great to see the youth riding fixies because their next bike will most likely be a geared road bike. The other application is to convert the fixie to an internal hub bike when the craze fades.
