Fixed gear fixation, or Why I want a fixed gear bike

It all started with a parking pass. UCSD offers 10 free days of parking every quarter if you register your bicycle with them. Regular parking passes cost several brazillian dollars. And Alice takes the car most days so I don't really need a regular parking pass. But there is a UCSD parking lot next to our local beach which would be nice to be able to park in on the weekends. Ten days a quarter of free parking works out to one day a week or free parking at the beach. And all I have to do is register any old bike on campus.

So that's how it started. I was soon browsing craig's list for a free bike. Then I thought a usable bike might come in handy for when Alice has to take off early. Or when I need to tow Alice into town on her rollerblades for tae kwon do lessons. So I considered paying a few dollars for a reliable cycle.

And I immediately knew what I wanted. I had seen them sporadically for the past few years. They look like no other bike in this day of full-suspension, gadget laden, mega-componented 200 lb monsters. A full 98.2% of those tanks have never even ridden through a puddle, let alone been in a situation necessitating a full suspension. Don't get me wrong, there are sweet mountain bikes out there that look like a Mad Max vehicle. I guess I just don't like that every Grandma in the neighborhood has a $69 Wal-mart full suspension special that weighs more than a '65 Caddy and looks like trash. The ride I wanted was stripped clean. Down to the bare backbone of the cycle. Just the soul of it.

One single, solitary cog on the back. One on the crank. Single speed. No dérailleur, no shifter cables, some are even devoid of brake cables and levers. These bikes originally began as track bikes. Since a track doesn't have variable terrain, no need for changing gears. And since light makes might, everything else was stripped off the bike, including brakes. Most of the street fixed gears at least have a front brake for emergencies, but the hard-core fixers simply rely on their legs and back pedaling for braking. This is not the same as the coaster brakes on your old bmx or beach cruiser. The pedals and the drive wheel are inseparably connected. If the back wheel is moving, so are your legs. This makes for a better work out, too.

Mostly, I am enamored with the ultra-clean lines of the fixed gear cycles. Unfortunately, they are hard to come by for less than $200. That is still pretty inexpensive considering a mediocre road bike starts at $700. But for a cheap ______ like me who won't even spend $25 on a rash guard so his nipples don't bleed when he goes surfing, it is a bit steep.

I think I will have to settle for that purple huffy with the basket I saw for free on craig's list today. Then again, that beaut was probably snatched up moments after it was listed. I guess I'll just have to dream.