Fixed In Their Ways

The New York Times examines the world of fixed-gear cyclists––riders whose bikes don't have multiple gears or often, not even brakes. There are no fenders of course, not on a bike that requires a skid to stop. And there's definitely no coasting, which fixed gears don't allow and seems antithetical to a subculture rooted in bike messengering. The attached audio slide show has some statements that are refreshingly honest by Gina Marie Scardino, a "fixie" who admits to some ambiguity over wanting to champion the fixed-gear style, yets still is protective of its subcultural exclusivity.

Riders of fixed-gear bikes are as diverse as bike riders in general. Messengers are big fixie aficionados, but more and more fixed-gear bikes are being ridden by nonmessengers, most conspicuously the kind of younger people to whom the term “hipster” applies and who emanate from certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn. You see these riders weaving in and out of traffic without stopping, balancing on the pedals at a stoplight and in the process infuriating pedestrians and drivers alike.

In Williamsburg and points south of Grand Street, these bikes are legion. But they are fast gaining popularity, not just in those bastions of trend followers, and not just among 22-year-olds. Fixed-gear bikes are being ridden all over New York, by messengers, racers, lawyers, accountants and college professors — a diverse and not necessarily youthful cross section of the city’s population. They’re being ridden by people who work in sandwich shops and don’t know or care about gear ratios and bike history, and by people who have been racing these bikes for years in places like the Kissena Velodrome in Flushing, Queens, with its banked, elliptical track. They’re ridden by militant vegans who are virtual encyclopedias of arcane bicycle history, by thrill-seeking members of renegade bike gangs like Black Label, by shopgirls, street racers, Critical Mass riders, your aunt.

So while Scardino admits to a certain level of fixed-gear parachoialism, it's not a class of riders ready for quick pigeonholing. Author Jocko Weyland really does a nice job of profiling a population that stands out via its adherence to an ethos of stripped-down simplicity. They're like two-wheeled Amish, picking bikes over buggies. We wrote about a film festival dedicated to bicyclists last year, including a documentary on fixed-gear bikes.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Dave Hogarty in News on April 29, 2007 2:00 PM

Comments [rss]

kit

man, sorry for the typos!

kit

hmmm

speaking from auckland nz might not qualify me on on nyc but akld is more full on than san fran for hills and its virtually impossible to navigate the whole city safely without a front brake at least. theres a whole buch of fixies here and they/we kind of avoid the suicide hills as much as possible. but that it like a bit of a waste of time avoiding the challege of hills if you cant stop. kind of like saying im all about ultimate riding but i cant take the terrain. hats of to the mash crew etc but the average perso wants to ride like a dervish and not wipe out to the extent they need sticthes in their face. im as reckless as they come after riding round london for a decade but but im 3q and i dont really want to get killed by some jockey in a car over cluttering up my handlebars. maybe im the fist to say it here but it seems like once youve ridden without a brake you feel like a charlatan going back, its like the first time you get a skinhead. its stripped down, its fucks of yr mum and kind of scary! that said people get knocked off their bikes/and or killed with or without brakes and if a car decides to change lanes without indicating youre fucked. i cruised past a dude who got knocked over (i was brakeless, he wasnt) the other day and all ill say is when im riding without brakes i take double the care i did when i had brakes. anyway i love the bitching for both sides, keep it up

x

gttim

Please tell my why a cog or hub would cost $200.00 alone?

Quality! The difference in the quality and smoothness in the bearings of a hub us huge going from cheap to expensive. There are weight differences. There are differences in materials. A domestic economy car is never going to be as nice as a German sports car.

Yeah, you can ride an $80 bike for 4 years. But it is much nicer to ride a $1000 bike for 4 years, and if you ride a lot, the more expensive bike has a better chance of lasting that long.

dee bee

sorry folks, didn't mean to post it multiple times - the comment system isn't working properly.

Shaddap

We heard you the first 3 times!

dee bee

why are people hating hipsters so much? oh yeah, it's because there is nothing really unique or expressive about them because they all just mimic each other. it's just another version of conformity - just another way of being 'mainstream' - just a group of people who are afraid of being themselves and therefore blend in with another group. but thank god they're into bikes and not suvs or any kind of car! you gotta love that!

dee bee

on the topic of hipsters, there is nothing really unique or expressive about them because they all just mimic each other. it's just another version of conformity - just another way of being 'mainstream' - just a group of people who are afraid of being themselves and therefore blend in with another group. but thank god they're into bikes and not suvs or any kind of car!

dee bee

on the topic of hipsters, there is nothing really unique or expressive about them because they all just mimic each other. it's just another version of conformity - just another way of being 'mainstream' - just a group of people who are afraid of being themselves and therefore blend in with another group. but thank god they're into bikes and not suvs or any kind of car!

dee bee

on the topic of hipsters, there is nothing really unique or expressive about them because they all just mimic each other. it's just another version of conformity - just another way of being 'mainstream' - just a group of people who are afraid of being themselves and therefore blend in with another group. but thank god they're into bikes and not suvs or any kind of car!

Shilo

kiki: regarding comment #8.

fyi, gyp is a racial slur. watch yourself.

Rocknrope

I can't wait to see how many newbie fixies do endovers in this coming weekend's 5-Boro.

g

actually, brightliner, it's better to brake the rear wheel than the front, which is why on bikes with brakes the rear brake is controlled by a lever on the right handlebar (since most people are righties and would instinctively squeeze that one when time is of the essence.) if you have to stop short, it's better to use the rear wheel's brake so you don't flip your bike over.

kat four

I'm a fan of New England Cyclocross myself.

wow, shimano makes internal gear hubs now? awesome.

Brightliner

It's a common misconception that a fixed gear is required to do a trackstand. No so. A trackstand is really balancing the forward force on the pedals against a backward force provided by turning the front wheel to point "uphill" on either the track banking or the crowning of the road. Obviously, it's easier on the track because the banking is steeper and provides more backward force. But it can be done on any kind of bike if you know the technique.

DaveH

We're generally agnostic on this overall topic, but we do enjoy witnessing a great traffic-light trackstand. We wish we could do it ourselves, so appreciate watching people that have mastered it.

Brightliner

It's been known for many decades that fixed-gear bikes don't stop as well as a bike with good brakes. A skidding tire is one that doesn't have as much friction on the road as a rolling tire. Besides, the best you can do is skid the rear tire, and most braking force comes from the front tire since that's where the weight transfers when you start braking. All else being equal, it's far better to brake the front wheel than the rear. Fixed-gear bikes don't belong on city streets. They were designed for track racing, where sudden stops aren't necessary. Besides, it's all baloney about track bikes being more maneuverable and easier to maintain. Maneuverability is almost exclusively a function of frame geometry, not gearing. And just how much maintenance do a couple of brakes need? Or the nearly maintenance-free internal gears of systems like Shimano's Nexus?

And, yes, gearhead, going downhill means either fanning the pedals to keep up or fighting the rotation of the pedals. Despite what fixies claim, the latter is not easy. What would we need with another Nelson Vails anyway? Track racing is slowly dying. We need more road and mountain bike racers, which is where Olympic cycling is going. Not to mention Vails, Gorski and the other track medal winners at the 84 Olympics will always be remembered as winning at least in part because the Soviet riders were boycotting those games. We'll never know if they were really as good as the medals indicate, although I'm pretty sure Connie Carpenter and Rebecca Twigg could have held their own against the Soviet road racers.

b

biking is NOT the best way to get around this city (NYC) - it's probably the most dangerous city in America to ride in

jammer

fixed gear purists tend to be really boring people.

pone

i started riding a fix because i tried it and thought it was cool. that was a bunch of years ago. i have a bike with a brake on it, and one with no place to mount a brake. i love riding both. i'm safe. i have a helmet. i live in the bronx, not williamsburg. i ride 20+ miles a day to and from work and everywhere else. i think people should be safe.

also, re: bikes - three characteristics for bikes and parts: cheap, light, and strong. you can only pick two of them. no sense snarking on people for spending money on bikes. everybody spends money on stuff - cars, clothes, apartments in a cool neighborhood, bar tabs, bikes, vacations, whatever. i don't really think it's anybody's place to be overly critical of what other people's choices about stuff like this are.

biking is a great way to get around the city.

oh, and nick - the glances you get from people riding fixes are, in all likelihood, just people looking at your bike, wondering what it is. there's probably a lot less sneering at gears than you imagine. i know that feeling - i've gotten it too - but i've never actually heard anybody who rides a track or a fix disparage the notion of riding with gears (the notion that gears are absolutely necessary, on the other hand...).

biking is the best way to get around this city. it's fast, it's fun, it's healthy - for the rider and for everybody else. if we had a lot more riders, and a lot more bike-centric infrastructure - this city would be even better.

oh, and richard sacher - yes, skidding does wear the tire a bit, but i can still get a thousand miles out of a tire (a decent one, like a conti gatorskin) before it gets objectionably worn.

anyway, it's just bikes, people, and fun. there's really no reason for vitriol on this issue.

oh, but right, this is gothamist's comments section. what would a news source be without people posting unnecessarily hateful things...

r

The appeal of no breaks? It's a weight issue, an aesthetics issue, and a riding style issue. It feels great to be able to stop your bike with just your legs pressing back on the cranks. If you can't stop your bike, put some breaks on it. Or get smooshed by a truck, I guess.