domtyler said:
Sorry Pete, you're talking bollox mate and have clearly never ridden a fixed wheel bike.
Well, the second part of that remark is certainly true, unless you count my unicycle (which I haven't ridden for a dozen years anyway)...
As for the first part...
I need to go back to my student days (OK playing the "oldie" card again!) when I was just getting into serious cycling, one of the technicians at the Uni (a man in his late 50s) rode into work every day on a fixie. No mean feat in Bradford, but he was no mean cyclist! I tackled him about it, we had a long chat. Seemed he'd done a lot of track work in his youth and just kept up the habit. He was still doing TT's as a veteran (and getting spectacular times!) but he was forced to do TTs on gears as the club rules didn't allow him to ride fixed. But he still trained on a fixie, said he was so used to it. So I asked him, would I learn anything from going fixed myself? He said, unless I really want to do it, and from an fixie enthusiast's perspective, don't bother, I'll just be cursing and weeping half the time. I took his advice to heart. I asked the same question of the members of the Uni cycling club (none of whom rode fixed, although some had tried it in the past). Got the same answer.
I've stayed with gears ever since, all my life in fact, and it's what I feel comfortable with and able to get on with the business of cycling in a manner, and at a pace, I feel happy with. Which is what matters to me.
If what I have said above is all "bollox" I'd be glad to hear your justification of that description.
Go into any mainstream cycle retailer. Go into a branch of
Evans, for instance. How many fixies do you see being offered for sale? No doubt you can buy a fixie from Evans if you try hard enough, but they're not going to promote them for the sort of clientele they're after. Recently on a visit to a more specialist (and upmarket)
cycle store, I did see a few fixies built up in the shop, true, with more knowledgeable blokes behind the counter to explain them to dithering customers. But heavily outnumbered by the more conventional geared road bikes. Which most of their customers were after.
How many fixies pass me on the road in Sussex? Or in France, for that matter? Precious few. Except in London at CMs, or on one or two ACF rides that I've joined in.
Sorry, to my mind, nothing wrong with it for those who enjoy it, but fixed wheel riding is always going to be a minority interest even amongst serious cyclists. And in your heart of hearts you know this.