Fixed Gear Bikes
A San Francisco Trend
In a city as infamously hilly as San Francisco, it may seem counter-intuitive that people are falling in love with fixed-gear bicycles. But then to view the fixie in terms of practicality may be to miss the point altogether. While the bike messengers and young people who’ve popularized the fixie praise the bicycle’s light weight and low maintenance, there’s no denying that their choice to go gearless has a lot to do with image. The Fixie has become a certain subculture’s official vehicle, an easily identifiable, self-imposed label proclaiming one’s membership in a community of like-minded, hip individuals drawn to the bicycle’s graceful simplicity and sleek functionality. Though status symbols are no new concept, the fixed-gear may be more than that, both embodying and shaping the philosophy of one branch of San Francisco culture.
