<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Sep 8, 2009, at 6:29 PM, Peter Korsten wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font><br>The difference would be, though, that with those fixed-gear bikes, you <br>brake by paddling in the opposite direction.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>right on a current fixed gear bike if you were stationary and pedaled backwards you would go backwards :) if you were in motion you can't stop pedaling, you use your legs to slow your speed.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><br><blockquote type="cite">Fixed track bikes just work wonderfully in city environments and are <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">so much fun to ride. On hilly roads and mountains sure stick with a <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">geared.<br></blockquote><br>Well, I've cycled through Amsterdam, and that's quite an interesting <br>city to cycle through, especially if you accelerate to around 30 km/h <br>(say, 20 mph) and try to avoid tourists, cars, trams, taxis and other <br>dangers. Lots of bridges, too, and those aren't flat either.<br><br>I can't even begin to imagine driving there without anything other than <br>a bicycle with wide tyres, hand brakes and enough gears to always have <br>the optimal rhythm of moving my legs around, regardless of my current <br>speed. (There might be a slow car before me that I can't overtake.)<br><br>But your comparison with car gears doesn't make any sense, at least to <br>me it doesn't. For me, it would be exactly the other way around: fixed <br>is automatic, and gears is, well, manual.<br><br>I wouldn't even know how to drive a car with automatic gears, maybe that <br>has something to do with it. Here in Europe, automatic gears are <br>considered something for old ladies and Americans, although there are <br>some clever automatic gearboxes sneaking in lately. (Volkswagen, for <br>example, has an engine that is more economical with that clever <br>automatic gearbox that with manual transmission.)<br><br>When I'm driving my car, I'm constantly shifting gears, also because <br>Malta is like one very large village, and there are no major roads to <br>speak of, let alone that they would be straight. The longest stretch of <br>straight tarmac is the airport runway. (On which you can land a B52, to <br>be fair.)<br><br>Therefore, I'm used to shifting gears. Just like my car wouldn't like it <br>if I drove everything in 3rd gear, so wouldn't I like to have a single <br>gear.</div></blockquote><br></div><div>think of it this way, why do you want to drive a manual transmission? So you can have more control, you want to slow down so you switch to a lower gear. With a geared bike the only way to slow down is to use the brake, same as with an automatic car. With a fixed bike you start pedaling slower and it slows the bike. If you have an appropriate single gear ratio for your ability there is no issue with starting off and reaching a nice top speed. It gives your body a direct connection to the bike and your body essentially becomes the real driving force of the bike. It's a bit of a mental challenge as well, you have to pre-judge the up coming road and modify your cadence to change your speed.</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe my car analogy is not a good one. Sheldon can explain it better than I can:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html">http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>