Don't ride bikes without brakes folks, it does funny things to your brain. Exception apply on a velodrome.

  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    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

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      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.

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        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

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      You know how on a usual bicycle if you turn the pedals backwards, nothing happens?

      uhhh if I pedal backwards on my bike, it literally brakes. It doesn't go slower, it stops immediately

      is it a fixie?

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        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.

        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