Amor de Cosmos wrote:

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

Fixed gears in 1954?

au contraire mon petit brave

There's a fixed wheel Bianchi on ebay at the moment.

Ok, I've looked at all the photos on this thread, and I am none the wiser - what are fixed gear bicycles?

linus wrote:

QUOTE:
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...

Well, there seems to be a whole lot of macho bullshit among the fixed gear crowd and the really radicalized bicyclists, in LA at least. It's a shame, because a whole lot of these people that are talking about new ways of looking at transportation seem to be trying to exclude a lot of people with their insularity and cliquishness.

But they want to exclude people. They don't want everyone cycling in their city, getting from A to B easily and cheaply and without congestion or pollution. Because then how would these people be special, and different, and feel superior? I mean, you get part of the way with a fixed wheel bike and ludicrous lycra outfits to show off your macho twattish separateness. But you're never quite as special as when you were one of the only 3 cyclists on the LA highways.

TonTon - fixed wheel/fixed gear means that there is only one gear, and the rear cog is directly attached to the axel, with no ratchets or derailleurs or anything like that. Because it's solidly fixed, when you stop pedalling the rear wheel comes to a complete halt, which is why you don't need a rear brake. It's also why it's spectacularly dangerous to ride anywhere other than on a track. It's more efficient, cheaper, lighter, and easier to maintain than a real bicycle. It also means you can't accelerate and you struggle on hills, and hate stopping at traffic lights, which makes it pretty impractical in a city.

QUOTE:
fixed wheel/fixed gear means that there is only one gear

not necessarily. there are fixed gear bikes with a cog wheel fixed to each side. to change gears you have to take the rear wheel off and flip it over.

all the bike couriers seem to have fixed gear bikes.