“Fixies: Fad or Forever”

Emily Squadra is an English major at Boston University.  She contacted me about an article for her Rhetoric class in which she wanted to analyze the fixed-gear culture.  Hot off the presses: “Fixies: Fad or Forever”

If you drive a car in any urban area, you have to be constantly on the look out for the crazy biker, the one that zooms in and out of traffic seemingly invincibly. More often than not, these bikers are riding fixed-gear bicycles, or “fixies” for short, a type of bicycle that has blown up primarily in the college scene. Even though this craze is not very apparent to the untrained eye, once you are able to recognize a fixie, you begin to notice them everywhere. Essentially, a fixed gear bike is a bike that has been stripped down to the bare necessities. The primary riders of fixies have been classified as “hipsters,” a subculture that is described by urbandictionary.com as people who are primarily in their 20’s or 30’s and “reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often seen wearing vintage and thrift store inspired fashions, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses.” The question that this new craze begs to have answered is will this just be another college fad? College students are notorious for picking up trends just as fast as they drop them, and fixies may be no different.
To get a small taste of fixie culture, I went to Superb Bicycle on 842 Beacon Street and entered a small bike shop. Out of place chandeliers hung from the low ceiling and brightly colored wheels hung on the walls in front of purple and aquamarine Victorian wallpaper. As I entered the store, Jason Hollingsworth, the brand manager and buyer, greeted me. He had a slender built and was dressed in tight grey jeans, a plaid shirt and oversized glasses with thick plastic frames. It was obvious that Jason knew his way around the fixie culture and my job was to access that information without seeming like a complete outsider. He explained to me that fixes have been steadily on the rise for the past five years or so and he predicted that they will not die out in the near future.  Unlike other die-hard fixie fans, Jason doesn’t mind more and more people riding fixed-gears, which makes sense since his livelihood is determined by their sale. This brief introduction to fixie culture only scratched the surface and there was much more to be understood.
The fixed-gear bicycle is the epitome of simplicity. It only includes what is “absolutely necessary,” and everything else is stripped off. There is only one gear being used and the pedal is attached to this gear, which is what makes it a “fixed-gear.” This connection forces the rider to pedal constantly; if the bike is moving, the rider’s legs must be moving as well. For some inexperienced riders this can be alarming and has been compared to “an obnoxious drill-sergeant on your hells, [that] after some getting used to…becomes more like having a good-natures coach that you know is ultimately on your side.”

Another thing that some fixie riders discard on their bikes are the brakes, making for an inevitably more dangerous experience. The only way to stop with a brakeless fixie is by pedaling backward, using leg muscles that get stronger over time. When other more experienced riders see these new riders without breaks, it not only makes them nervous but also makes them angry because these beginner riders can give their sport a bad reputation. Stevil Kinevil (his pseudonym), an older fixie rider, calls out some of these less skilled riders by saying “It looks less cool, however, when one of these lemmings comes screaming down the Haight Street hill unable to keep up with the speed of the pedals and wrecks in the middle of Divisadero.” Kinevil speaks for a large crowd of more experienced bikers that seem to look down on the riders that are new to the sport.  Although brakeless bikes may be for “the pure and brave,” there is far more risk not only for the rider, but also for other pedestrians and bikers.
Despite the many altercations that fixed-gears have undergone, many claim they are the perfect urban vehicles. The constant pedaling and lack of brakes force the rider to become stronger and more attentive. Since fixie riders must pedal backwards to break, they gradually build up stronger leg muscles enabling them to be faster and more efficient. Coasting is not possible on a fixed-gear so going down a hill can turn into a workout because the rider must be able to control the speed of the bike by backpedaling while going downhill. Because of this, the rider has to anticipate every move far in advance since timing is essential. Some people compare this constant concentration to “a game of chess, anticipating the movement of the traffic as a chess player would anticipate the moves of his opponent, reacting accordingly.” These changes are also the reason why some people switch over to riding fixies instead of mountain bikes or single-speed bikes. Once accustomed to the differences, fixed-gear bikes simply make for a stronger, more aware and overall better rider.
Many of the people who ride fixies try to explain a certain bond or “Zen-like peace and flow,” that they experience as they cruise through the traffic of a downtown city. The bike essentially becomes “an extension of [the riders] body,” something that most other bikes do not offer. The fact that so many little things can be felt such as a slight incline or even the smallest change of speed, give the intimate connection between bike and rider that some describe as “mystical.” This is obviously another thing that lures people to fixie riding, but although there may be an intimate connection between the bike and the rider, this connection is not shared among riders. While Harley Davidson riders and people who drive Jeeps are known to wave to each other, fixie riders do not share this habit.

The development of this culture began with messengers biking around cities like New York, San Francisco, and Boston. As these messengers “glide[d] effortlessly in and out of traffic,” they showed a “defiance and freedom among lines of cars chained to the grind of the daily commute.” The liberty that a fixie provides is so hard to find in urban environments and is desired by many people, primarily the younger crowd. Although only messengers originally rode fixed-gear bikes, they have gone from “fringe to fashion statement,” at the disappointment of many die-hard fixie riders.
The groups of people that many people associate with fixies are commonly described as “hipsters.” Since they tend to be against anything that has become mainstream, such as Starbucks, Wal-Mart or Lil’ Wayne, the increasing popularity of fixies is not a good thing. It is not surprising that this subculture objects to more and more fixies getting into the hands of the mainstream.  As with anything that arouses passion, there will always be the intense supporters and then the people that merely want to follow the trend. “[It’s] a pretty pretentious sport, especially among the guys that have been riding for years and years,” says Gibson Hall, an avid fixie rider who has been riding since 2008. However, Hall brings my attention to republicbike.com, a website that sells fixed-gear bicycles marketed to people who use them as a fashion statement and puts them on display as if they are an haute-couture accessory.
A bike for sale at republicbikes.com
The bikes are flaunted much like a model might present herself to an admiring crowd. The backgrounds vary from romantic beach scenes to industrial urban settings. Compare this to the straightforward advertisement of a fixie on a website marketed for people with a true obsession with fixies. The bikes are presented with a simple picture of the bike on a white background and do not look like someone’s high school photo project. It is understandable that the passionate fixie riders can be irritated due to the fact that their sport is being changed from something that used to be raw and underground to something that resembles a fashion statement and is being swallowed by the mainstream.
The ultimate example of the fixed-gear bike going mainstream is Wal-Mart’s introduction of the “Cachet,” a $150 single-speed bike that went up for sale in March 2010.  For years and years, Wal-Mart has been a symbol of mass-produced, mainstream products, so the “Cachet” represents the true selling out point for fixies. In an article titled “Hipsters Grieve: The $150 Wal-Mart Fixie” the flaws of the new bike are pointed out, mainly the fact that Wal-Mart tries to advertise it as a fixed-gear bike when it is actually a single speed. The difference is that on a single speed, you can coast and on a fixie you cannot.  Pretending that a single speed is a fixie is one of the primary taboos of fixie culture so Wal-Mart offends the fixie fans in more ways than one. Riders that oppose Wal-Marts new addition leave behind sarcastic reviews for the “Cachet” on walmart.com such as this one left by an anonymous customer:
“I’ve never hit so many pedestrians and cars in my life! I removed the front and rear brakes so I could be as cool as the older kids and it made a phenomenal difference. I could no longer control or stop the bike but the girls were like woah, who’s that guy they’re prying off the grill of that bus, he’s like totally hot. oh my god.“
It is unclear whether this is an experienced rider or just someone opposed to fixie riding in general but nonetheless, it is obvious that they do not appreciate seeing this bike for sale at Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart has picked up on the growing trend of fixed-gear bicycles then riding a fixie is no longer something that is unique to a small group of people. Wired Magazine declares “One thing is for sure: the days of fixed-gear as a hipster accessory are over. Thank God,” but only time will tell if this statement is true or not.
The rise of the fixie did not just happen by chance. The fixie is becoming popular at a time when decades like the seventies and the eighties are being revered and retro is coming back into style. The appeal of vintage fashion is the main premise for popular stores like Urban Outfitters, which essentially sum up the fashion of today. The simplified time before the Internet and cell phones is being romanticized and the barebones nature of fixed gear bikes fit perfectly into this idea. Fixies are simple yet visually attractive bicycles much like the thrift store fashion that has become the new vogue.
The question still begs to be asked: is this just a fad? So far, the fixie fascination has been slowly on the rise for the past few years, which may increase its chance of survival. A recent study between University of Pennsylvania and Stanford found that “the fall of an item’s popularity mirrors its rise to popularity, so that items that become popular faster also die out faster.” This may mean that fixies have a while before they start declining in popularity since they have slowly been on the rise for the past five years. So far, the popularity of fixed gear bicycles parallels the national craze of skateboards in the sixties. The slow take off of skateboarding was soon trailed by an entire industry that is still thriving to this day and still has a strong following. This is also very similar to how skiing and snowboarding came to be a part of our mainstream society and they both still have a strong culture that surrounds them.
However, skateboarding was not originally predicted to have a long shelf life. In his book Fads Follies and Delusions of the American People, Paul Sann dives into every fad of the twentieth century before 1967. He comments on the fate of skateboarding by saying “That hunk of wood with the wheels under it had seen its one and only 100-million-dollar year.” However, the skateboard industry raked in 500-million-dollars in 1998 and continues to be one of the largest sports industries in America. Doubts concerning the future of fixies could be proved wrong if they continue to follow the path of previous sports.
The immortality of skateboarding, skiing and snowboarding comes with a price and fixed gear bicycles are not immune to the downsides of becoming a permanent trend. There will always be the people that jump on the bandwagon and people simply trying to make money off of the sport. However, that also means that there will be people who live and breath fixies, the true and passionate followers. They might come off as pretentious or conceited, but that is simply how they protect what matters most to them: the purity of their sport. It kills them to see a sixteen-year-old inexperienced rider flaunting their newest purchase from Wal-Mart around town, but those riders are inevitable. The people who use fixed gear bikes as a fashion statement simply make the passionate riders all the more passionate. Opposites exist simply because they oppose each other, so fashionable riders just make the devoted ones more apparent. The fixie phenomenon will be carried out not by retailers like Wal-Mart but by the passionate community that faithfully surrounds fixie riding.

Works Cited
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