“Fixie” It Felix

I am now officially a hipster.  I bought a single gear bike this past weekend, and I gotta say….  I LOVE it!!

I’ve already put 50 miles on it, and shall be riding it to work on Monday.

And he’s so fucking sexy!

“Holy schmoly,” you say.  “What IS that dead sexy, two-wheeled motherfucker?”

It’s a 2010 Raleigh Rush Hour Flat Bar. Battleship grey with hipstery baby blue and white wheels– hellz yeah!

At Minnehaha Falls on Saturday. 

A young guy was getting rid of it because he’s moving to San Francisco (not a place you want a single gear bike). He has 4 other bikes and basically never rode it (seriously like new).  It was taking up room in his garage so… boom. Mine. 

For a song, too!

And technically it isn’t a “fixie” as you can coast on it in its current configuration. It has a flip-flop hub design so I “can” go full fixie with it. 

But I rather like coasting downhill rather than having my legs pumping all crazy to the speed of the back wheel, so I won’t be making that change any time soon. 

I love the flat handlebar setup. And I love the leather “Brooks” saddle and the matching grips. 

“But Why on earth would you get a bike with only ONE Gear,” you ask?

Well, for a long time I’ve kind of been entertaining it because my bike rides around the city are fairly flat. The hills that I do encounter are smaller and short lived. So I don’t need that many gears. 

And as I’ve been riding my mountain bike around, I would find myself lamenting the weight. The rolling resistance of the tires. The constant adjustments of the derailleur and still having some gears not fully engaged (or skipping).

On longer rides, I really only ever use one or two gears — except when starting from a dead stop. So I figured “I bet it wouldn’t be that different to just stay in one gear for what type of rising I do.”

So on Saturday I got a bike with one gear. 

And promptly took it on a 30 mile break in ride. 

Didn’t miss the other gears one bit. 

We went out for a second ride today– my ass wasn’t sore. My legs were good. My neck didn’t hurt.