Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Fixed Gear Bikes

Most bikes have uh…two shifters. Essentially what it does is it just shifts the chain to cover all the different permutations of the gears.

Typically on an older bike, like a 10 speed, there’s two chainlings up front so there’s a big one and a smaller one. And on the back, there’s um, five, what you call cogs or a sprocket. So, how it works is, the bigger the chainling up front and the smaller the cog in the back, the harder the gear is.

The fixed gear, it’s a very simple machine. It doesn’t have any gears, except one, and that gear is the gear that you’re always in. It’s like when you were a kid and you had the little big wheel…in essence that was a fixed gear because when you turned the pedals the big wheel would go, and when you stopped it wouldn’t go.

This is, I guess this is my newest bike. This is basically a track frame. And uh…it has a much steeper and tighter geometry so it’s very twitchy. It’s much more responsive. Which is why a lot of messengers who ride precarious situations in the city, amongst cars, amongst traffic, choose the fixed gear styled bike.

Most people like to describe it as being sort of stealthy. It’s incredibly quiet, because the chain is lined up perfectly.

Normal bicycles coast. You know, you pedal, you relax your feet, the bikes goes. You pedal some more, it keeps going when you start slowing down. Fixed gears don’t coast. So your legs are always going, there’s no stopping, there’s no relaxing them. They’re just always in motion. It’s a hurdle to overcome mentally, but I think once you get it, it really becomes effortless. Because now you just have this idea that, “oh my legs are always in motion, they’re always spinning.” You don’t have to think about gears. You don’t have to think about switching. You just go and you stop. It just works.

When you take a hill, you start to notice that you’re slowing down, and you have to…you do have to work harder. Basically you become the gear, you become the machine. And you really do, feel one with the bike, because you’re now directly connected to it. You feel it through your legs, you feel it through the bike. It’s right there. I mean, it’s a beautiful thing too.

You do have to love it. And most people I know who…really take the time to sort of figure out what it is, do fall in love with it. For you know, a flat land like Chicago it’s just about perfect. It’s not for everyone that’s all I gotta say.

Our piece was produced by Jonathan Menjivar (men-HEE-var).