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| Adrenaline riders: Bike-bag maker Matt Maddox, has experienced close calls riding his 'fixie' bike around urban Atlanta. But
he likes the adventure of riding brakes-free. patrik jonsson |
Back-to-basics biking movement takes hold in cities
'Fixie' riders, seeking adventure, dart through streets with bravura and no brakes.
from the May 1, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
Zane Freebairn of Salt Lake City has become a fixie fanatic. He's given up his car. All he does now is ride his one-speed bike. "It's the most basic form of cycling you can ever do," he says. "You can wear your tennis shoes and your walking clothes. There's one gear, no brakes, no cables, not many moving parts, and nothing to break." He says the movement has gotten "huge" in Salt Lake City in just the past year.
Fixie riders are often sly and clubby, the very definition of cliquish. Most are young to middle-age white men. Many are as leery of authority as the punk rock tunes they pump through their iPods.
"It's been referred to as an old boys' club, primarily by women," says Jay Townley, a bike industry analyst in Lyndon Station, Wis.
The movement is being driven by growing numbers of young people who are moving into downtown areas and searching for outlets for adventure. In the no-brake bikes, they find it. Enthusiasts wear bumps and bruises like badges of honor, and organized events often feature awards for "best crash."
They may also be changing the politics of biking. On the one hand, fixie riders bring an energy and excitement to mainstream biking that could help open up roadways to more than just Saabs and SUVs. "What I love about fixed gears is the culture – it has brought so much pride to bicycling," says Sue Knaup, the executive director of One Street, a bicycle advocacy group in Prescott, Ariz. The movement "embodies the quintessential goal of bicycle advocacy: to create streets where the most vulnerable users can flow out into them and not be run down."
Chicago recently took steps to bolster the rights of cyclists – a move not spawned by no-brake enthusiasts, but one they'll benefit from. The city is increasing fines for motorists who cut off bikers. It's a sign Chicago is attempting to become "more like a European city, where the law protects the more vulnerable users, whether they're fixie riders or farmers on tractors," says Randy Neufeld of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, an advocacy group.
Yet critics, some of them bikers, believe fixie riders could turn public goodwill into animosity. More than cruisers or mountain bikers, fixie riders tend to challenge motorists on the roads.
Nor do they engender much sympathy for riding around with no brakes. Their public image wasn't helped when a rider in Chicago was killed in February during an unsanctioned race called an "alley cat." The rider's bike had brakes, but the race included many fixed-gear bikers. Riders canceled an alley cat race scheduled for New York the following month.
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