Portland Isn't Having Fixies

A Portland judge decided that fixed gear bicycles are unfit for the mean streets of PDX earlier this week. Seattlest is theoretically in favor of fixies because they seem to represent the antithesis of Tour de France-ness and general Seattle bike path assholery, but we've never been on one and are completely unqualified to comment on whether the chain is or isn't a brake. Check out this exchange from an Oregon court room, though:

Ginsberg (to Officer Barnum):
“When you approached the rider did she stop?”

Officer Barnum:

“Yes.”

Ginsberg:

“How’d she stop the bike?”

Officer Barnum:

“I don’t know.”

Ginsberg:

“The gear itself stopped the bike.”

Officer Barnum:

“But the gear is not a brake.”

Ginsberg:

“What is a brake?”

Officer Barnum:

“A lever, a caliper or a coaster brake hub.”

Ginsberg:

“Can you show the court where in the vehicle code a brake is defined as such?”

Officer Barnum:

“No.”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Dan in News on August 3, 2006 2:42 PM

Comments [rss]

eldan

I'm not sure how a chain would come off a fixie. I ride geared bikes, and the only times the chain comes off it's very clearly the fault of the gear-shifting mechanism, so a fixie ought to be safe from that particular hazard.

I don't really understand why fixies are so popular in Seattle when it's so very hilly here, but I'm not convinced there's a real safety issue.

Dan

Dude, what's your problem against bicyclists in Seattle? Is there some newsworthy substance to this misplaced slight, or do you just love to hate?

I just love to hate, I guess. Actually, I love the idea of an entire city biking itself all over the place, but I get annoyed when a dude on a ten thousand dollar bike whips past me on the BG in a full uni. Which happens a lot. I hate to hate, actually, and yet, I do.

ben

Patrick: if your chain slips off on a single speed with a coaster brake, you're left without a brake as well.

If you're any good at all, you can actually stop more quickly on a fixed gear. A coaster brake is pretty much on or off. With a fixed gear, you can slow the wheel to just before the point at which the tire slips... kind of like anti-lock brakes on a car.

How do you get off talking about fixed gears having never ridden one?

As for flexibility, they used to ride the tour on fixed gears. And I quote:

"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear! "

-Henri Desgrange, L'Équipe, 1902

Fix the gear, free the mind.

JPF

Dude, what's your problem against bicyclists in Seattle? Is there some newsworthy substance to this misplaced slight, or do you just love to hate?

Patrick Niemeyer

It's worth explaining the difference between fixed gear and single speed. Single speed is like the dirt bikes a lot of people rode as kids: one gear, you can coast, you pedal backwards to apply the break and stop. Fixed gear is really different: you cannot coast, the chain is fixed to the rear wheel, while the bike is moving the pedals are moving. This is also potentially super-dangerous. If your chain slips off the rings, you have no brake. More generally, you really just have no brake. There is no mechanical advantage helping you slow down, you have to use your leg strength to gradually slow the bike down. This tends to have the impact that riders will ride in much more control and much more slowly, but it also seriously compromises a bike's flexibility (I'd never tell a fixed rider that it eliminates it - I've never ridden one either and I bet they're loads of fun, but you would probably not take one up or down Denny hill).

Saying you need to have a brake on a fixed gear bike seems to me a far less conservative safety measure than a helmet law. If the rider really resents having to have the brake, at least there's no way to enforce its use.