Everyone is talking about them: “Fixies”, “Fixed”, “Fixed-gear”, it’s all the same. Goodbye to neutral gear and to let yourself go on. It is time we ride the bikes instead of let them drive us. These bikes are light, simple and with a lot of history.
How are they
- What they have: everything you need to ride it: handlebar, frame, saddle, pedals, chain, pinion, plate and two wheels.
- What they don´t have: brake, because if you stop pedalling, you stop riding. Without change gears because they have only one. With no free pinion and therefore, no deadlock.
This means if the pedals are moved, the rear wheel moves, and therefore the bike will advance.
If you want to move more slowly or even stop, you have to slow pedaling until you finaly stop.
Where they come from
Although nowdays it is knonw as a bike for hipsters, completely trendy, fixied gear bikes were the first bikes to appear in the market, opening it up to millions of people who wanted to ride a bike. Free pinion was invented in 1890, and since then the technology and materials have made great progress, but the essence is the same.
Return to basics and maximum control over the bike’s movement are some of the reasons for the rebirth of this Culture called Fixie “fixed gear”, yet we can not ignore two important focal points to understand how fixied bikes reappeard in the age of mountain bikes.
- New York, 1980: Bronx’s mailman began to use the cheapest bike they could find. And they realized how well they worked.
- Japan, 1940: A new cycling modality appears, it is called Keirin, a definitive sprint after a few warm-up laps behind of a moped. In 2000 was done the first Olympic competition and it is confirmed millions of bets.
In addition to these data, which fixed gear people say is that it hooks. Once you get used to pedaling a fixed gear the performance and the control increase, so you can get greater speed, accuracy and fun.
Being a basic machine, maintenance is cheap and easy customization, making it easy for users to get special components and unique bikes.
There are also subcultures within the fixed gear world, they do tricks or play polo on their bikes, for these practices a lot of training and very sturdy bicycle is required.
Pepitas are bikes of initiation to the fixed gear world, urban bikes. They have an advantage because have the flip-flop system, which you can change from the fixed pinion to free pinion turning the rear wheel, so they have brakes. And although there are fixed gear with futuristic designs, we have opted for a return to the classics, they are fixed gear bikes with a vintage design, as probably rode your grandparents.