Photo of the Week            November 10, 2009                  previous    next    main

The Argyle Fixie.  This is a fad among college students.  They take a perfectly good 10-speed from the Golden Era (the 1960-1970-1980 decades) and remove all the best parts from it.  They take off the rear gears and the deraileur.  They remove the front deraileur and both gear shift levers.  Sometimes they even remove the brakes.  Yes, the brakes.

This is why they call it a Fixie.  One gear is fixed to the crank directly by the chain.  When the wheels move the pedals move.

Originally the Fixie was developed by Weight Weenies (people who abhor unnecessary weight in any form) who wanted to distill a bicycle to its purest essence.  They saw that ideal in a track bike, a bicycle meant to be ridden only in a velodrome.  That meant taking off all components from gears to brakes and brake levers.  Then it looked like a track-bike. This young hipster is obviously unclear on the concept.  Notice how the owner of this bicycle has left the front brake lever on, as well as the front brake caliper, yet they have disconnected the brake cable.  The weight of the lever and the caliper is still there, yet none of the functionality remains.

I spoke briefly with the owner of a purple Bianchi with yellow racing rims parked nearby.  We discussed the benefits of having working brakes on a bike.  He pointed out to me that he is running an odd setup:  His Bianchi has caliper brakes on a non-machined rim.  Basically, the rim he is using is aerodynamic plastic, and it is meant to be used with disk brakes attached to the wheel hub, not caliper brakes attached to the rim!  He said, "Well, it kinda works."

Wait, what?  I thought that having working brakes on a bike was a good idea.  So the Argyle Fixie has no brakes and the Purple Bianchi has cobbled-together sort-of-working brakes. The law in California says your bike must have brakes on it.  Apparently this rule is only enforced when Charles Darwin rolls over in his grave.  I have also noticed that the majority of fixie riders do not wear helmets, do not use bike lights and do not stop at stop signs.  Maybe I am getting old.  I'm just not hip any more to the new cool fads.

How to Prove Darwin Was Right, in Four Easy Steps: Ride without brakes Ride without a blinkey light on the back, or a headlight on the front Don't wear a helmet Run stop signs whenever you can If you follow these four easy steps, you can perform your own science experiment at home and prove that Charles Darwin was right!