Some combination of the first four sentences in my post you quoted I suppose.
But there are other, less tangential reasons in regards to ride characteristics that are also a factor. Some of the riders you’re describing are probably riding track bikes. Track bikes have a very narrow wheelbase and other frame geometry features designed for quick acceleration and a tight turning radius (at the expense of some other things).
This is considered by many to be a pretty epic sprint match. It kind of sows some of the things I was talking about previously and in some of my posts upthread. If you’ve never seen pursuit racing before you’re probably going to wonder what the fuck is going on, but believe it or not, the idea is to go as slow as possible during the beginning.
Young idiot on brakeless fixed hit a pedestrian resulting in her death.
Brakeless fixed is illegal on UK roads [legal bicycles require a braking mechanism on both wheels], and the prosecution appear to be structuring their case around this fact - that his inability to stop in good time was the critical factor. New territory for case law in the UK, so be interesting to see how it turns out.
On Hilton Head Island everyone rents “touring” bikes, which are one fixed gear. The island is extremely flat, so there’s no need to change gears. And you can sit upright on them, vs. hunched over like many of the racing bikes.
Those bikes are single speed with coaster brakes, not fixed gear. Fixed implies that the cranks turn when the wheels turn, which isn’t common for rental bikes.
If you live in a flat place with few stop signs/lights, and not much wind, then riding conditions are very consistent and I suppose a single-speed bike would be tolerable. However, most of my riding has been in environments with all three, plus some hills. The human body is an engine with a peculiarly narrow range of RPM over which you can develop good power (~70-110 RPM); my experience has been that the ability to change gear ratios is a major asset that allows rapid acceleration away from dead stops, as well as fine tuning the driveline to keep pedal RPM within that sweet range while allowing a slower forward speed to deal with hills and wind (or a higher speed on downhill/tailwind segments).
OTOH, I often see people on multi-gear bicycles who don’t seem to give a damn about shifting gears; they cruise with a pedal RPM of 30 RPM, and generally start from a dead stop in that same gear, accelerating like molasses. To each his own, I suppose.
Well, we have a lot of wind… but otherwise, yeah, and I mainly ride on bike paths that are separated from traffic.
The other thing is that I ride strictly for enjoyment and moderate exercise. I’m not looking for a top speed, or doing it to bulk up, or as a competitive thing. I’m just out to enjoy the outside and move around a bit. A single-speed does that just as well as a multi-gear for my purposes, and has the advantage of costing less initially and being relatively low maintenance.
OTOH, I often see people on multi-gear bicycles who don’t seem to give a damn about shifting gears; they cruise with a pedal RPM of 30 RPM, and generally start from a dead stop in that same gear, accelerating like molasses. To each his own, I suppose.
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A lot of people with multi-gear bikes don’t know squat about why those different gears are there and you are correct, they ride them like a single-speed bike. In which case, the only reason they have gears is because everyone else does. They might as well have a bike like mine.
City traffic (pedestrians blundering into the street, motorists who “don’t see” a bicycle taller than their car) is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
I had a fixie for a few years and I can explain some of the appeal, without some of the snark upthread, from the pov of a guy who loves bicycles.
Though hipsters ride them for some reason, as mentioned above a lot of serious cyclists/racers ride them, generally in the off-season. A good friend of mine has almost had one as long as I’ve known him, since the late '70s.
They’re good for developing a good pedaling style (“pedaling in circles” rather than “pedaling in squares (in which cyclists pedal as though they’re on a stair-master)”. If you simply love the sensation of riding a bicycle, they are a wonderful addition. When I had mine, I had four other bikes, each of which was a different type (one road-racer, one classic touring bike, one city-bike, and an old mountain-bike retro-fitted for winter cycling). Each one was different and wonderful in its own right.
The cool thing about riding a fixie is that they’re very light, since they have minimal componentry (though I installed a front brake). If you have the right cog and chain-ring sizes for your capability a fixie can be like a rocket on modest climbs. I’m not an engineer but the flywheel effect seems right to me, and enhances the rocket effect.
There is also, if you’re into this sort of thing, a “purity” to the experience, with the bare minimum of material between you and the road while being on a bicycle. Combined with very skinny, high-pressure tires, and you’ve got a magical experience.
You would have to be a relatively experienced rider to even be able to ride a fixie. I still remember the first time I got on one, I went half a block and was slightly terrified. In my defense, it had a high gear ratio - I think it might have had a 50t chainring.
