Maybe this is just an LA thing, but fixed gear bikes seem to be everywhere now. Mostly hipsters riding them. Is this the case in other places as
well?

Yeah, all over the place. It's 1954 again.

Toronto checking in and can report the same trend.

Not just with the fixed gears, but LA is undergoing a big upsurge in bike culture. There are groups like Critical Mass and Midnight Ridazz that have varying degrees of political activity and radicalization that are about big masses of bicyclists on the streets, there's a push to change one small but well-traveled east-west street in the center of the city into a "bike boulevard" and cyclists are treating it as such, and some insane riders have even gotten together and have staged rides on stretches of freeways during rush hour. This got them on NPR.

Indeed. One of the internet hipsters at work bought a genuine Canadian Tire 'Mustang' at a garage sale a few months back for $100. Then he took it to a top notch bike shop and had it put back in order for another $200. All this for a bike that would have retailed for $59 when I was about 6.

I posted this link before on the old site - those fixed gears are soooo elegant. Drool over those bikes - who described it as bicycle porn? *
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/

I've had a fixie made up - took a bit of getting used to, use the brakes quite a lot, the max speed can be a frustrating (max speed is as fast you can pedal) but it looks great. It's also very light. Those chains/ gears sets weigh about 3kg so a light bike gets very light without them.

(* edit Inca did)

loose cannon wrote:
I've had a fixie made up - took a bit of getting used to, use the brakes quite a lot[/quote]

I thought there were no brakes on a fixed gear?

You just 'backpedal', don't you?

It's a matter of choice - I left the brakes on. It's a lot easier.

A pure fixed gear involves a lot more leg work or else don't go too fast as you have to work against your momentum to slow down.

I'm a long way from the masters who lock their wheels to brake on some of the youtube clips.

And my wardrobe isn't quite as cool either.

Inca, fixed gear bikes aren't an LA thing, they've been a part of NYC bike culture for over a decade now, like the biker bags. Fixed gears make sense in Manhattan, where the combination of very short city blocks, slow traffic and flat landscape make it an ideal setup for bike messengers.

San Francisco has had a pretty entrenched bike culture as well. That's where Critical Mass started, and where mountain bikes were invented, as there are tons of great trails over the rolling hills through the green belt of parks that make up half of the inner Bay Area. It was kind of funny to see that some bikers there adopted the trendy fixed gear settup, given that San Fran and most other parts of the Bay Area are extremely hilly...

A good friend and former roommate of mine dropped out a while back from a lucrative tech career to start a great bike shop where he built terrific bikes like the one below. He had a knack for classic details, from leather saddles to his collection of vintage wool jerseys. The house in the top picture from the link was two blocks from where we lived in Berkeley, a pretty scenic area with lots of greenery and interesting older arts and crafts homes near campus.

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/matsuda.htm

I'd just like to point out that a pumpkin 'jack-o-lantern' is no substitute for a proper headlight.

All the couriers in London, and a few others too, are on fixed gears.

It seems like a deeply, deeply stupid thing in a big city where you need to stop and start repeatedly and therefore actually could use gears sensibly.

It also means they refuse to take their feet out of the pedals and wobble back and forwards all over the road when they are at lights, getting in everyone's way and being a general nuisance.

Stupid things. Keep fixed gear bikes for the track.

The hip happening thing in AMsterdam are these chainless, direct-drive bikes.

The main reason that they use fixed gears is for ease of maintenance.

Clive's good joke is somewhat spoilt by the annoying fact that even when they're not exactly gigantic, you have to scroll to see photos.

The original idea behind the resurgence of fixies was for couriers to have something simple and unremarkable, since their expensive bikes were getting nicked all the time, I think. Then the pose factor came in.