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Chris Gerhard's Weblog
Thursday June 25, 2009
Why a fixie Why a fixie1?
A few people have asked me this so here are the reasons for a fixie:
They are alleged to improve you pedaling.
They are supposed to make your legs stronger.
People say you are more in touch with the bike on a fixie
People say they are fun to ride. Quite why is hard to understand why would this be significantly different from just picking a gear and sticking to it. For a single speed bike with a free wheel I would agree except a single speed there is no way to give in up hills without getting off.
My additional reasons were:
I had noticed I generally ride in 3 gears during the winter so wondered if I could make it on a single speed.
Bike to work made it very affordable.
I wanted one.
Now having one I agree they are fun more fun than I ever expected and even though I don't think I have mastered it yet I do understand about it being in touch with the bike. Going up hill there is nowhere to hide I don't know if it is making me stronger but it feels like it.
It certainly has improved my ability to "spin".
1Obvioulsy the answer that you can never have too many bikes I assume will not wash. Indeed I have that problem at home since the house rule is that I can only have three bikes. The brompton, luckily, does not count leaving some others. However since under UK law a bike that has no pedals is not a bike I only have three sets of pedals so I'm o.k.
( Jun 25 2009, 10:02:38 PM BST ) Permalink Trackback
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There was an informative article on Fixies in the InGear section of the Sunday Times, maybe 3 weeks ago; while this ( technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2361584.ece ) isn't it, to my recollection, you may have better luck finding it.
Posted by Dave Walker on June 26, 2009 at 07:25 AM BST #