I had my bike fixed.

I ride my bicycle pretty much everywhere I go within the city. It’s faster than driving and in many cases faster than public transit. Commuting by bicycle also gives me the benefits of exercise….although there are some days when I wonder if the fumes I breathe in during my commute negate any exercise benefits I’m getting.

Sometime last summer I noticed that I wasn’t using very many of the gears available to me. I ride an older twelve speed road bike with a flat handle bar, or at least I used to. When I realized that I only really used two or three of my gears I started thinking about simplifying my bike. The idea of commuting on a single speed bike intrigued me and then the idea of riding a fixed gear bike entered my mind. “What’s the difference?” you ask? A single speed bicycle still allows you to coast while a fixed gear bicycle does not. In other words, on a fixed gear bicycle,  while the  rear wheel is turning  so are the pedals  and in turn so are your legs.

I was a little wary of jumping right into the fixed gear so I thought I would take the intermediary step and go to a single speed. That seemed a little safer for winter commuting as well. Last fall I stripped the derailleurs  and shifters off my bike and bought a single speed freewheel. With a little reworking of the rear wheel I had a single speed road bike. It didn’t take long to get used to riding with only one gear and I remember being amazed at how smooth and efficient it felt. I no longer had to worry about shifting or complicated parts breaking. Yes, it was a little harder to ride up hills or even to get started, but that highlights another benefit of having only one gear. The only way to go faster or to get up a hill is to push harder, so your legs get stronger, faster.

This spring I completed the transformation of my bicycle to a fixed gear ride. I’m still getting used to it but it certainly has a different feel to it. My legs are not longer just the motor that propels the bicycle, but they also act as one of the brakes. Because I can no longer coast, I can also slow the bicycle down by applying backwards pressure to the pedals. There are some fixed gear riders who ride with no additional brakes, but I am not that brave or skilled, so I still have a front brake to help me stop. I have a couple of close calls when I tried to coast, but I’m slowly getting used to having my legs constantly turning.

Some of my friends asked why I would even consider riding a fixed gear bicycle in the city. There is a certain trendiness to it I suppose, but beyond that, the simplicity of it appealed to me. A bicycle in it’s purest form….well almost, I still have a brake.  I also enjoy working on bikes so the transformation was a good project for me. It has definitely been fun. I would encourage everyone to try a fixed gear bike at least once.