Fixed Gear Bikes

I have spent a lifetime riding on two wheels. Bicycles, motorcycles, heck I even tried my hand at a unicycle once. Ok,ok I know that a unicycle only has one wheel, but you get the drift. I have never once in all of my years thought about riding something that didn’t’ have brakes or a way to stop it with out a lot of effort on my part. Call me lazy or call me smart but when its; time for me to stop out on my two wheeled vehicle, I want to stop with as little effort as possible and I want to stop in short order. With a set of brakes you can do this with ease… Oh by the way I was never any good at the unicycle, it didn’t have brakes…

There are definitely plenty of haters, just look at the stupid comments fixed gear videos get on youtube.

As for brakes, I’ve ridden a fixed gear with a brake for a while but tried to use the fixed gear-unique braking methods as much as possible. At some point, even when a car cut me off or other emergencies, I didn’t grab for the brake lever anymore but instead went for the skid. Then when I got a frame without holes for brakes, I just left the stuff off and ride like this happily ever after.

Becoming good enough to stop a bike like this whenever necessary requires some practice, but after a while one can stop a fixed gear about as quick as a bike with regular brakes.

Another advantage is that one becomes very alert on a fixed gear, especially in the beginning period where braking is still a challenge. As your skill grows, the alertness tends to stay and I am sure it made me a much more thoughtful and safe rider.

Your opening sentence, “nobody wants their favorite obsession to go mainstream,” makes the haters’ point for them.

I ride a BMX bike and also have a fixed gear. I do not think people hate on fixies because of what they but the people who ride them. Totally hipsters are the majority of them, when riding one i get told i am a hipster when i totally am not. but because most hipsters ride fixed gears it is associated with that. Honestly, there is only two problems i have with other fixed gear riders.

1. people who try and do tricks on fixies and take it seriously are really dumb, get a bmx bike and hit the streets. i see people outside practicing the dumbest tricks on fixies that could probably take me a couple tries, if not the first, to learn and perfect.

2. fixed gear riders, for the most part, have horrible handling skills. when i ride by one, either on my bmx or fixie, they are in the way and it is irritating. their handling skills suck and they are just riding the bike to be trendy and ‘green’ it is stupid. they just suck at riding bikes
Zeke is totally right, who cares if it goes mainstream, bmx is basically mainstream and so is skateboarding. its not a big deal. if you guys are worried about going mainstream then you are dumb, move to portland

People don’t “hate” fixies (a little bit self-important, isn’t it?). They just find the whole fixed-gear trend pretentious, silly and(when brakeless) potentially dangerous. It’s pretty much at the point of parody, nowadays, as can be seen on “Portlandia”. If you want to be involved in a trendy pseudo-subculture that’s already past it’s sell date, so be it.
The only problem I have is with these idiots riding without even a single brake. There’s no good reason to not have at least one brake; it’s not stopping the rider from stopping in the brakeless manner. No, they just don’t like the way a brake looks on their precious bike. Typically, they’ll invent some blatantly bogus reasons for riding brakeless, like that it adds weight or it takes away from “the connection”. Of course, everyone knows they’re doing it for vanity….
Oh, yeah, the other thing about brakeless riders that makes them laughable is that they’ve pretty much forfeited any chance of collecting damages should they get into an accident(a likely possibility). But hey, it looks so much better and is .8 lbs lighter!!!