Airborne Combat Engineer

The "fixie" bike

Ryan Singel @ Secondary Screening extols the virtues of fixed-gear bikes (with no brakes other than force against the pedals) for urban riding.

Unlike the old style bikes of the 40s and ealier (now called "cruisers"), these bikes don't even allow coasting with the pedals out of gear.

I like the idea (hate futzing with gears) but am not in good enough shape to get up some slopes in metro Atlanta (eg. the back side of the road around Stone Mountain) without low gears.

And, I need good brakes, as I build up pretty high speeds with the assistance of gravity, then need to stop at intersections (which is why I love the disc brakes on my new urban bike).

BTW, the pros heading up Brasstown Bald (highest pt in Georgia - 4784 ft above MSL) this weekend were going all of 7 mph (slow jogging speed) on the steeper slopes, even with their lightweight bikes and wide range of gearing.

Me and my aero ( & bike rider geometry)

I wish.

It's time for all patriotic warriors, young and old, to get in shape, and if you want to save your knees, consider bike riding rather than jogging.

This 22-lb,  Ti-framed recumbent with two large-diameter tires can FLY!  A given rider can go faster on this bike than on most racing bikes, on level ground or downhill, due to the reduced wind resistance, but can't get in as strong a position to crank it going uphill (having to gear low and pedal very fast instead).

Read more about it at the Bachetta site. If almost $4K seems a bit much for a bike, there's now the 30lb Giro 26" (with tires more forgiving of bumps)  for less than half that.

But, for tooling around town, where one needs to ride high to see and be seen for safety, I'm thinking of something more visible and comfortable, like this non-too-kewl Giant Suede, which is about 1/12 the price (making it far less likely to be stolen, and easier to replace if it is.)

The Marin "Comfort" bikes are similar but with 3X the gears, and the price is still relatively low. If you move up to the "City" and "Urban" Marins, the price goes up. Similar Canondales are higher for equivalent quality.

My current bike has rider geometry similar to this:

Most bikes have had this basic design for well over a quarter century. (Heck, my 50s 3-speed "English" bike differed from this only in the handlebars.)  It's great for lowering the head and pouring on the coal in high gear on the open road, but, since the seat is higher than the handlebars and is narrow and hard, one's butt and back start hurting after not that many miles (even with "Frenchy" padded shorts), and one must bend one's neck back too much while holding the downswept handlebars to see the road/street/trail ahead. It's a relief to (nearly) straighten one's back while coasting or pedaling lightly on level stretches. It would be hard to design something much worse for city riding.

If you ride a bike, what do you ride, and why?

My engineering question: Why don't most bikes have automatic transmissions yet? Shifting gears seems so old fashioned.