Fixed wheel, fixed grear - fixie?

Bike-Rich
Bike-Rich Posts: 275
edited February 2012 in Workshop
Hi all,

I'm pretty new to road biking but since looking around there is a lot of talk on fixed wheel, fixed gear and fixies?

I've viewed some youtube vids and i'm now even more confused.
What exactly is the difference and why are all these methods becoming so popular, what is the advantages?

Many thanks,

Comments

  • John.T
    John.T Posts: 3,698
    Fixed wheel is a single speed that will not free wheel so you pedal all the time.
    Fixed gear is a single speed that will free wheel.
    Fixie is some strange sort of fairy from over the pond. Real cyclists in the UK do not use the term. icon_cool.gif
    My Fleet.
  • andrew_s
    andrew_s Posts: 2,511
    Fixed wheel, fixed gear and fixies are all the same thing - a bike with a single rear sprocket that is rigidly connected to the hub (bolted to it in some cases). If the rear wheel is going round, so are the pedals.

    The original attraction was that fixed give a light bike that has very few parts that need maintaining. They used to be popular in the 1960s and earlier as winter bikes, with low level use continuing. They were also adopted by cycle couriers for the same low maintenance and reliability reasons. More recently, other urban riders started imitating the couriers, and riding fixed became trendy.

    If you ride with geared riders of a similar ability, you'll find that you are faster up the hills (provided you can get up), slower down the hills (speed limited by how fast you can pedal), and take a different line on corners (If you lean the bike too much, you'll ground a pedal).

    With low cadences uphill, and very high ones downhill, I found that I became much less bothered about being in exactly the right gear. As a result, I've started on the process of downgrading my geared bikes to 8-speed for the cheaper and longer lasting drivetrain components.

    [edit]
    One gear with freewheel is normally called "singlespeed". Has some following in the MTB world for similar reasons of minimalism.
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    Fixie = 'hipster' cool version of retro-inspired fixed-gear bike with no brakes, ridden on the road by folks keen to demonstrate Darwinian principles of natural selection. Soon to be an extinct species as their gene pool shrinks considerably.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • Bike-Rich
    Bike-Rich Posts: 275
    Many thanks for all replies, think I am beginning to understand now. :)

Categories