i don't get why you had to go kiss-and-tell, tbr. we had a nice little man-date going on, then you have to go dragging our business all over this forum. dag.

Riding fixed forces you into a new style of riding. To ride fixed on a road with cars and survive requires you to develop an awareness of your surroundings that you just don't have on a geared bike because you don't have to have it. You have to be two steps ahead of the rest of the traffic and know your escape routes if some brain dead car zombie tries to eat your lunch (or brains.) Aside from the capability to be a lighter, faster, more fun, more elegant and prettier bike, fixed geared bikes require very little attention to the bike itself. The synch between your legs and the back wheel integrate your legs as part of the machine. There is no reaction loss due to fiddling with shifters or breaks. You and your bike become closer and are more free to focus on the road and traffic rather than your bike. Anyone can spend $2,000 on a bike, geared or not, and be riding a fast machine. But it's way more cost efficient, environmentally friendly, and cool to buy or scavange a used 70's roadbike frame with some heavy second-rate components on it, strip it naked and throw on a fixed gear hub. It is now transformed into a (usually MUCH) lighter faster and prettier bike. I bought a nice 70's Peugeot custom hand brazened frame with a full campy setup for $200. Although the components were light, and made the bike more valuable, I simply was not satisfied with going back to a geared bike after riding fixed for 2 years. I stripped all the components and converted it and it's the best feeling and fastest ride I've ever put between my legs. I've never wanted to go back to a geared bike and probably never will.

This is a pretty interesting debate... very heated, very impassioned, and with some requisite heckling. Now that the spring thaw is arriving (not today, clearly), this debate has started itself up inside my head. I'm trying to decide if I should convert my bike to fixed or not, and it's actually kind of a two-part question. The first is gears vs ss vs fixed and the second is toe-clips vs clipless vs flat pedals. I have Bianchi Brava (vintage unknown) which I like, but would I like riding it more if it were fixed? Had different pedals? I'm not sure. What do you think? (anyone got extra parts to sell?)

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