Fixed gear bicycles

Anyone here in to this fad? I had been in the market for a road bike but I saw an ad on craigslist I couldn't turn down for a nice fixed gear.

Basically some guy wanted to get rid of a bike he won in a competition, it hadn't even touched the road yet. Retail is somewhere around $700 and he gave it to me for $500. It's a specialized Boston Langster.

Took a ride or two to really get comfortable on it but I love it. I used to mountain bike quite a bit but I'd never really had much experience on road bikes before. First thing that amazed me was how light it was, and once I got used to riding without being able to coast (fixed gear, get it?) I really started enjoying it. It's like a rocket.

So yeah, anyone else have a fixie?

my bike:

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...erBoston08.jpg

I don't have a bike.

I'm thinking about getting one though.

Oh by fixed gear I thought you meant it only had one gear.
Which it does I presume, but it really sucks you can't coast man...What about downhill and shit?

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Originally Posted by ShitFace

Oh by fixed gear I thought you meant it only had one gear.
Which it does I presume, but it really sucks you can't coast man...What about downhill and shit?

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You get to keep pedaling. There are some techniques like skidding you can use where you lean forward and hold your feet in place (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en8ESzTmSAM) and obviously you have breaks so you can slow down with those if you want but otherwise you just end up pedaling really, really fast.

A lot of them come with flip flop hubs which means on either side of the rear wheel it'll have a fixed cog (no coasting) and a freewheel cog that allows you to coast. My bike has both. When I first got it I used the freewheel for a minute and then switched it to fixed hear, it's a lot more fun.

You say you get to keep pedaling like its a good thing.
The only thing I like about bikes is coasting down hills haha.

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Originally Posted by ShitFace

You say you get to keep pedaling like its a good thing.
The only thing I like about bikes is coasting down hills haha.

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Haha I don't know I find it a lot more exciting than a typical bike now. Like I said it's a rocket, even uphill I can just cruise along.

With the whole skidding thing I was doing it wrong at first so I have 6 inch long bruises on my forearms from leaning too hard on the handlebars. Got some interesting reactions from people when they saw them.

Haha lovely.

Fixed gear bikes are amazingly geigh.

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Originally Posted by bluntman

Fixed gear bikes are amazingly geigh.

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yeah just kidding I hate them