Fixed-Gear Dreams

I didn't do a single productive thing today. I drove down to the National Western Stock Show Complex for the Veloswap this morning. Veloswap is a huge bicycle swap/sale/convention shindig where you can buy pretty much any bicycle-related thing you want for pretty cheap. Over the past three years or so I have been slowly getting more and more into biking and for the past couple months (actually probably more like the past year and half, but more so since getting back to The States) I have been wanting to get a road bike and get into road biking. While I would love to get a nice, top-of-the-line carbon fiber bike like the Specialized Roubaix, this bike is both way out of my budget and probably way more bike than I need anyway.

But now I have my heart set on a much more practical and in some ways better goal, a single-speed, or probably a "fixie" bike. As the name implies, a single-speed is just any bike with only one gear, including most kids bikes, BMX bikes, cruiser bikes, etc. A Fixie, a.k.a. fixed-gear, a.k.a track bike, is also a single-speed but the gear is directly fixed to the wheel so you can't coast; when the wheel is turning, so are the pedals, much like an exercise bike. While you can theoretically turn just about any type of bike into a single-speed or a fixie, it is most commonly done on older road bike frames. The main reason for doing it on older frames is because newer frames, since the 1990s or so, usually have a vertical rear drop-out design which is not as conducive to having only one gear (because without the derailer used in geared bikes, it is harder to adjust the chain tension). Fixed-gear bikes are often associated with bike couriers who like fixies for their easy of maintenance and operation. With far fewer moving parts compared to similar geared bikes, they are much easier to maintain, are faster, and more responsive. I think they just plain look better too. By getting rid of all those extra gears, shift levers, cables, and derailers (the thing that shifts the chain between gears), these types of bikes have a much cleaner and sharper style which really appeals to me. They also have a unique style because they tend to use vintage frames. And because most fixies are rebuilt using older frames, they are much more unique and individual than any new stock bike I could buy.

Of course, there are some potential cons to buying a fixie road bike. When I first told some of my friends that I was thinking of getting a fixed-gear, several of them told me I was crazy and that I would probably die on one. Because you can't coast, you always have to pedal. Most cyclists are unaware of just how much they coast and will likely automatically want to coast the first few times they ride one. When they accidentally stop peddling, it is like suddenly applying the rear brake and can sometimes cause a painful crash. This is also a problem when going downhill because you have to keep pedaling as the pedals go faster and faster as your speed increases. It can be tiring and difficult. Then there's also the disadvantage of not being able to shift into a lower gear when going uphill. For all these reasons several friends have said I am crazy and have tried to discourage me from going this route, but the more they call me crazy and the more I see these types of bikes around Boulder, the more I want one.

Anyway, so I drove down to Veloswap half thinking I might buy one of these there. After paying the $8 to get in, I took a few laps around the complex. There were hundreds of different booths selling new bikes, used bikes, mountain bikes, downhill bikes, road bikes, cruiser bikes, biking clothes, bike parts, and anything else bike-related you can imagine. Interestingly, however, there were very few single-speed or fixed-gear bikes. So I took another lap looking for bikes with frames that could be easily converted to single-speed (meaning they have horizontal or semi-horizontal rear drop-outs) and didn't see many of these either. But it didn't matter much because it didn't take me very long to realize that even here, supposedly the cheapest place to buy bike stuff all year, I still couldn't afford anything. I found one frame that caught my eye, just the FRAME, a beautiful 1950's hand made chromed Italian one, selling for about $400. For a second I started thinking about the few hundred dollars that I have left after selling the Jag and paying back my loan, but then I remembered that I will need that to pay my bills this month. So I took one more dream lap, looking at all the things I would buy if money weren't an issue, and then I left.

So then after a short drive through Denver trying unsuccessfully to find the new Denver store of the Smiling Moose Deli, I went home and spent most of the rest of the day looking at bikes and bike-related things online. It seems that along with these unique bikes comes a unique subsection of biking culture. Many geared-bike riders seem to think that single/fixed-gear riders are at least partially crazy, and single/fixed-gear riders seem to be kind of proud of that and think that they are in some way better or cooler than geared-bike riders. I also found lots of information about how to build single/fixed-gear bikes and stuff. Here are some of the better sites I found today:

• http://www.fixedgeargallery.com - Lost of pictures of different fixed-gear bikes.
  
• http://www.grinderbikes.com - Located in Denver, does fixies.
  
• http://www-icycling.net/movie/erl4men.mpg - A cool video of four guys doing some amazing things on some fixies.
  
• http://www.onegear.com/pm - A blog of someone who rides fixed-gears.
  
• http://www.salvagetti.com - A shop in Denver that seems to specialize in lots of vintage single/fixed-speed bikes, I should go there.
  
• http://www.thefge.com - Kind of a funny site for the girls, a bunch of pics of guys on their single-speed/fixed-gear bikes in just their underwear or some just comando style.
  

I also found lots of different forums and sites for fans of fixed-gear bikes to get together and feel cool. It seems like there are a lot of people in the Denver area into it too. I am also watching about 20 different eBay auctions for different bikes and bike frames now. I think it would be more fun to buy all the parts individually and build my own bike rather than go to a shop and buy one that's already been built. So that's what I did today. Tomorrow I'm going up to Dad's house again to see the Jag off. The shipper was supposed to get it on Thursday but got delayed and couldn't come until tomorrow. Hope everyone's having a fantastic weekend.