My commute was 25 miles each way, 1400 feet (426m) of ascent each way, with no transit option. Last winter, a surprise blizzard rolled in during the week. My ride home took me 2.5 hours, rather than my usual 1:40, but I managed to stay upright the whole ride despite riding on slicks. Fixies and foul weather, better together!
I was a hater since I gave up my training wheels at four years old. “Bicycles can coast?!”
On my bike rides home from work, I would frequently stop in at the LBS a few blocks from my house and have a pint with them. Then in 2009, the bike shop got in the new model of the Kona Paddy Wagon, and I thought it was sexy AF; too bad it was a fixie. The shop manager offered to buy my next beer if I gave the fixie a try, but I was determined to continue being contemptuous. So just to placate them, I went for a spin.
I wasn’t even out of the parking lot, and I knew I was buying this bike. I paid for it on the spot, and one of them employees offered to drop it off for. I was hooked.
Fixies are indeed fun. The simplicity, to me, is the bicycle distilled to its purest form. If one’s rides involve a lot of foul weather commuting, a fixie seriously reduces maintenance cost and time. I also like my gears, 3x9 being my absolute favorite. If my road bike can’t have ridiculous gear range with a 17 gear-inch wall climber, it ain’t no bike of mine! But a fixie is something different.
The inertia carries the drivetrain over top dead center. So climbing huge hills becomes waaaay easier than one might imagine. It might take a bit of iteration to get your gearing dialed for your terrain and to optimize skip patches. But then you’re dialed.
I have used my fixie for brevets up to 400km, credit card tours, and even two ultralight bike tours. Most days, I have to carry too much work and errand stuff to fit on a road bike, so I’m usually on my cargo bike these days.
