What made you start riding fixed?

because its the opposite of broken,

The concentration it takes to ride fixed on the roads lets you blank out all the rest of the bollocks..

escapism...

Do you ride an ordinary, as in your avatar?

My grandfather used to ride fixed, and recommended it to me. I didn't have a bike - mine had been stolen, so I managed to build a fixie from bits in the college bike shed, plus a bit of help from Walton Street Cycles in Oxford. I absolutely loved it - feeling of control, power, and being in tune with the bike.

My bike was pretty crap - the brakes were rubbish, the gear too spinny, and the frame a bit twisted, and a fell off going fast down a hill in the cotswolds, and I've not had a fixie since - just circumstances. My next bike was a custom-built Dolan audax bike, but I had to sell that 3 yrs ago, and I've not had a bike since.

Anyway - definitely getting another very soon, and getting excited at the prospect.

because in leu of owning a car, they give me something to get really obsessive and geeky over.

insightful.

when i moved to Pennsylvania in '99, my friend loaned me his SS for a while. eventually a month or so i went to purchase a bike down the block from me. cheap and used. i bought one and didn't realize it was a Pista.(i knew nothing about bikes then.) turns out it was fixed so i rode it anyway, embarrassed to just say i didn't know what a fixed gear was. i lived right by the trexlertown velodrome so there were many a track bike.

Sheldons' articles

Sheldons' articles

+1

I first heard about fixed wheels through a roadie friend sending me a link to his page on them in 2000 and another link from someone wanking on about a real connection to the road that sounded like hippy hyperbole.

The sheldon article made me want to ride one though.

Peer pressure.

Yep, Sheldon Brown - that and being fed up with derailleurs that never seemed to work properly. Oh and living in London, no hills :)

I can name you a few hills if you'd like?

fast friday.
and i rode one of a mates and fell in love with the control.

yeah ok, but no 'proper hills' :)

Adrenalin:-got on a huge bike that my old man had built, when he was trying to recreate his youth of time trialling (he had just bought a car too after cycling his whole life up to that point), this bike was shite, but it had one gear you kept pedalling and it went f.a.s.t. I was 14 years old when the problem started.

Since then there have been periods when I have managed to stay away from fixed,quieten the cravings,find solace in the simple joys of life. but, I find I always go back. Recently things have been made better by meeting other new addicts here, and I guess we can all share this simple message:-

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the gear ratio.

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the gear ratio.

Can we get this on a t-shirt? =P

I saw a guy riding one and had an orgasm, took it from there really, the daily commute is a fairly jizzy affair

Just seen this thread, for me it was being taken for school sports to a track in Maida Vale over 30 years ago where I learnt to ride fixed wheel, joined Paddington Cycling Club and did track and road racing for a few years. Shame really that they tore the track down at Paddington Rec as it was the only one in central London.

I got in to ze fix-ed gear riding when I was doing triathlons, I was getting a new road as I'd smashed up my old one a good'en. I asked this avid roadie at work about these fixed/ss jobies. He said they are really dangerous and unnessisary.

So I brought one!!!!!

Can't stand cycling my roadie now, just too much hassle.

Lived in Fitzrovia for years, and so saw approximately a million couriers doing it. Also, once I started taking cycling a bit more seriously the joy of scraping accumulated road crap off the 15 or so gears I never used around town started to wear off. The final straw was getting a job which required me to park up outdoors in Soho, necessitating the purchase of a cheap bike.

Got sick of wearing out 9spd gears on a flat commute in shit weather, as well as spending several hours cleaning up a road bike every week.

simplicity

Stupidity...

Senility...

Serendipity...

Lucidity...

Hot-diggity...