This one doesn't. Fixed Gear just means there's no freewheel, i.e. the rear wheel is directly connected to the pedals via the chain. You pedal backwards, you go slower (or skid, or go backwards).
You can absolutely have a fixed gear bicycle with brakes.
But there is quite some popularity around running a fixed gear bicycles with no brakes because, as mentioned above, it kind of has a coaster brake type deal built into it. The dutch do fine with nothing else, but then the general riding style there is a lot more relaxed, slower and also they have actual bike infrastructure.
It got kind of popularized by bike messengers in NYC as far as I can tell who, legend has it, adopted it from caribbean immigrants forced into shit jobs who just took the bicycle they knew for it - one from a velodrome (large circley bike track for racing fast). I dunno how true this is.
There is some merits to a fixed gear. It's the least complicated bicycle you can think of, basically, and seeing how bike messengers are exploited and forced to use their personal bikes for the job, less shit to break has some advantages. It's also undeniably more dangerous, no matter what advocates for it say. And then it spawned it's own culture and people do it because it's the cool thing to do.
if you want my advice; there's 3 categories of bike locks: sham, okay, safe but too much weight
First one is the one you can break open by hand, second one is the one you can't break open by hand and the one you want, third one is sort of safe but also weighs 4kg and feels awful
Until the world changes, my suggestion is to make your bike look shit to the average person but have it be mechanically sound and use an okay lock.
Fixie just refers to it having the chain connected directly from the cranks to the backwheel, nothing else. By doing this, you basically have some sort of backpedal brakes. Pedal backwards (or slower), go slower, basically.
You know how on a usual bicycle if you turn the pedals backwards, nothing happens? On a fixie, that'd also turn the wheel.
You can have brakes on a fixie, many people do. Allthough the term has become sort of synonymous with having none, truth be told. But on the base level the question is whether you can just roll along (freewheel) or have to pedal at all times because your rear wheel is connected directly to your cranks
But on the base level the question is whether you can just roll along (freewheel) or have to pedal at all times because your rear wheel is connected directly to your cranks
well the fixie means pedaling at all times, right?
my bike lets me "roll along" freely without pedaling. But it also brakes if I pedal backwards.
well the fixie means pedaling at all times, right?
Correct!
my bike lets me “roll along” freely without pedaling. But it also brakes if I pedal backwards.
Yeah that's just a coaster brake. Fixies basically never have these, but you get kind of a similar effect on one where you can bleed speed by pedaling backwards or skidding or something
There's also coaster brakes, which are also applied by pedaling backwards. These are let's say an "add on" to a bicycle which through a combination of levers and gears engages a braking pad to a surface if you pedal backwards.
If you go down a hill and keep your pedals still, do you keep rolling? I'm assuming yes and that'd mean you have a freewheel but also a coaster brake, it's not an usual combination.
If you were on a fixie, going downhill your pedals would rotate like mad because there's no freewheel. You get direct feedback from the rear wheel turning to the cranks and vice versa, because there is no mechanism in there to just let it spin.
It doesn’t go slower, it stops immediately
this would also point to a coaster brake unless you have some really mad watt bazookas sticking on your torso
This one doesn't. Fixed Gear just means there's no freewheel, i.e. the rear wheel is directly connected to the pedals via the chain. You pedal backwards, you go slower (or skid, or go backwards).
You can absolutely have a fixed gear bicycle with brakes.
But there is quite some popularity around running a fixed gear bicycles with no brakes because, as mentioned above, it kind of has a coaster brake type deal built into it. The dutch do fine with nothing else, but then the general riding style there is a lot more relaxed, slower and also they have actual bike infrastructure.
It got kind of popularized by bike messengers in NYC as far as I can tell who, legend has it, adopted it from caribbean immigrants forced into shit jobs who just took the bicycle they knew for it - one from a velodrome (large circley bike track for racing fast). I dunno how true this is.
There is some merits to a fixed gear. It's the least complicated bicycle you can think of, basically, and seeing how bike messengers are exploited and forced to use their personal bikes for the job, less shit to break has some advantages. It's also undeniably more dangerous, no matter what advocates for it say. And then it spawned it's own culture and people do it because it's the cool thing to do.
deleted by creator
if you want my advice; there's 3 categories of bike locks: sham, okay, safe but too much weight
First one is the one you can break open by hand, second one is the one you can't break open by hand and the one you want, third one is sort of safe but also weighs 4kg and feels awful
Until the world changes, my suggestion is to make your bike look shit to the average person but have it be mechanically sound and use an okay lock.
deleted by creator
literally, unironically, this is what the capitalists took from you :deeper-sadness:
so a fixie doesn't have the backpedal brakes. but it can still have the handle brakes. is that right?
Fixie just refers to it having the chain connected directly from the cranks to the backwheel, nothing else. By doing this, you basically have some sort of backpedal brakes. Pedal backwards (or slower), go slower, basically.
You know how on a usual bicycle if you turn the pedals backwards, nothing happens? On a fixie, that'd also turn the wheel.
You can have brakes on a fixie, many people do. Allthough the term has become sort of synonymous with having none, truth be told. But on the base level the question is whether you can just roll along (freewheel) or have to pedal at all times because your rear wheel is connected directly to your cranks
well the fixie means pedaling at all times, right?
my bike lets me "roll along" freely without pedaling. But it also brakes if I pedal backwards.
Correct!
Yeah that's just a coaster brake. Fixies basically never have these, but you get kind of a similar effect on one where you can bleed speed by pedaling backwards or skidding or something
uhhh if I pedal backwards on my bike, it literally brakes. It doesn't go slower, it stops immediately
is it a fixie?
Ah okay.
There's also coaster brakes, which are also applied by pedaling backwards. These are let's say an "add on" to a bicycle which through a combination of levers and gears engages a braking pad to a surface if you pedal backwards.
If you go down a hill and keep your pedals still, do you keep rolling? I'm assuming yes and that'd mean you have a freewheel but also a coaster brake, it's not an usual combination.
If you were on a fixie, going downhill your pedals would rotate like mad because there's no freewheel. You get direct feedback from the rear wheel turning to the cranks and vice versa, because there is no mechanism in there to just let it spin.
this would also point to a coaster brake unless you have some really mad watt bazookas sticking on your torso