Uptodate
Fixie, the Most Pop Bicycle Today!
Written by Mike Scorviano
Friday, 18 March 2011
Fixed Gear bicycles, or better known as the Fixie bike, in principle, is a bike with 'dead gear' alias a tidal -ree wheel. This bike's frame basis uses that of the racing bike (road bike) and simple, without the gear shift and even the handle brakes.
Fixie bike is a bike that often used by the mail, newspaper or magazine carriers, usually known as couriers in some urban areas in the United States, such as New York.
For a time, they have had lead-time or delivery time problems when delivering their packages, because the condition of the city of New York is so densed. Therefore, they chose the bicycle as an alternative, and the results have been satisfactory with a reduced lead-time delivery and the packages have been much faster delivered.
Fixie bike, which uses the Fixed Gear, will make the pedal swing continues to rotate along with the rear wheels; so to do the braking, the rider must pedal in a way to reduce the rotation against the direction of the pedal style rotation, or commonly called the 'door-trap' system. This system is also similar to the theory of Indonesian rickshaw's gears.
It is quite dangerous for people who are not familiar with this bike yet, as when passing the downhill or turning roads, the pedals will continue to spin and the bike will continue to speed up. If so, the cyclist that has not been familiar yet might get clumsy, and possibly his feet could get caught between the pedals.
Currently, to anticipate the use of the door-trap gear, it can be also paired with the gear free wheel, so on the back there are two gear hubs on the right and left. One for the door-trap system, the other for the free wheel. Another method can also be added to the front brake only, because the front brake is more accurate and faster to slow down the bicycle speed, besides when we do the front brake, automatically the body weight will be pushed forward in accordance with the laws of nature inertia. So the pivot will tend towards the front, so it will be more effectively reduce the force to the front. **MS
