tiger1964 

Been searching Craigslist in nearby cities a bit, still looking for a "nice bike" for my wife (by "nice" meaning, say, 60's-80's European, $500-$1000 budget). 49cm-51cm, BTW. A huge % (maybe half?) are fixed-gear, primarily conversions. What happened, a bunch of people took perfectly good road bikes, made FG's out of them, decided they didn't like the concept, and are selling them and because they threw the old parts out, are stuck?

sillygolem

I wouldn't think you'd encounter that at your budget: There was a craze to rebuilt 70s gas pipe frames with cheap parts and sell them at a high markup, but now you can get a new fixie for around $300 which has killed the market. There are still some people pushing nicer frame conversions, but the hot thing now is mixties.

With $500+ to spend, there's no reason why you couldn't pick up a fixie conversion with the frame you like, swap the rear wheel or just the rear hub (a decent conversion will have nice rims), and add whatever components you want on it...as long as they haven't cut off all the cable braze-ons.

3speed

Unfortunately I don't think it's finished. I think it'll hang on for a while, maybe forever in a sense(not that there haven't always been some fixed gear bikes out there.). However, I do think that the initial cool-ness has let up some. I think most of the reason there seem to be so many of them for sale right now is that the initial wave of college kids on fixed gears is graduating and also there are just so many of them now that naturally there are starting to be more for sale. I know I still saw a Ton of them last time I took a trip downtown in the afternoon, though. The fixed gear and tattered retro clothes thing is still raging pretty good in this college town. I don't really mind it much as long as they don't permanently alter rare bikes or toss the parts in the dumpster.

buldogge

FWIW, I just sold my Columbus Thron Tubed Titan to an acquaintance, and I am converting it to fixed/single for him as part of the deal...He is a youngster @ 20yo.

Strangely, I also just ordered a set of cheapo fixed wheels to use on my '88 Greg Lemond, since I was fixie free after selling my dumpster Bianchi fixie to a friend, as well.

miamijim

Pretty much.....The only market to have fallen quicker was in 1929.

wrk101

+1. Fixie market is toast around here. First, it was a fad, secondly, the BD and similar new bikes have undercut the market.

Bomb Komodo

Still huge here. Of course I live in a city and not the mountains.

Not a fad for city riders.

Chris_in_Miami

I remember when you said that about mountain bikes

nlerner

It's not over for these folks:

https://vimeo.com/24636336

Neal

khatfull

Would a front brake kill them in the mountains? They'd waste a lot fewer tires. I'm surprised those types of folks are ok with the tire wat

John E

Nothing raises strong opinions faster than fixed gear. Some folks swear by it, whereas I swore at it when I very briefly had one in 1973. I received a Swedish skip-tooth block chain Avanti track bike as a wedding present and gave it to a friend who converted it to a 4-speed derailleur setup, by machining a SunTour derailleur claw to mount backward in the track frame dropout.

khatfull

Ok, would a front brake kill them in the mountains? What a waste of tires. I'm surprised those folks are ok with adding that many tires to the waste stream

ciocc_cat

Thanks for posting the link. Very nice vid and LOVE the soundtrack!

Edit: I don't ride a fixie, but I respect (and admire) the bike-handling skills of those who do.

ciocc_cat

Tires needn't be waste - they can be recycled.

khatfull

Sure, the material can be recycled, but the energy used to manufacture the tire is wasted along with the energy required to recycle it. There's also an environmental impact to the recycling, even if it isn't as much as simply wasting the tire.

Velognome 

I'm more impressed by the spinning on long grades than I am with the skidding. My daily rider is a fixed gear ( with brakes) which I foolishly took up and over a small mountian once. I didn't have as much fun as these guys seemed to be having.....of course age might have something to do with it. Great video and as had been said earlier, great bike handling skills.

wrk101

First, every market is different, so what is dead here, might be/probably is thriving elsewhere.

It just took me nine painful months to sell a really nice rigid frame MTB for a whopping $130. Let's see, I had a new cassette, a new chain, new tires and tubes, cables, grips, pedals, and new shifters on it... Needless to say, no profit on that one. The C/L pics were pretty funny, with leaves on the ground, and all the trees in full fall colors.

Meanwhile the racing bikes I recently finished sold in one to three days at good prices (sold five last week).

Vintage MTBs are pretty much dead around here. A great value for buyers. Someone around here looking for good, solid, and cheap bike would do well with a MTB. Passed on a $10 GS one last week.

I've got a couple left in the queue, when they are gone, that's it for me and MTBs (except for keepers, I like them). I really wish they got some respect around here. Anyone shopping for a MTB wants a modern one, with the latest and greatest.

ciocc_cat

That depends on what you consider to be "wasting". How much energy are we "wasting" right now by posting on this forum?

Not trying to be confrontational - just making a point here. I was taught to clean your own house before you tell others to clean theirs.

Doohickie

Could they be any cooler? They don't think so.

Chris_in_Miami

I missed the mark with my wisecrack, I was taking a poke at your "they're a fad" comment, I was suggesting that people said the same thing about mountain bikes.

I don't disagree at all that "old" ones are unappreciated and hard to move, I'm getting ready to go down that painful road with one that I've decided to unload...

bigbossman 

Between all of them, they don't look like they could scrape up enough dough to replace just one of the tires they burned up making the stupid video.

Blowing through a good tire on one descent is a waste of a good tire, and a waste of money. That same tire would run ~2,000 miles without issue on a "normal" bike.

DiabloScott

That was beautiful! Barcelona is awesome.

Jeez you old geezers should loosen up your belt a notch; these guys were having fun, they're good bike handlers, and there're a lot more serious environmental problems than a few extra bike tires in the landfill.

bigbossman 

It's 10pm on a Friday night, and I'm still at work. So....... no.

curbtender

Don't you old geezers remember lighting up the tires on your stingrays infront of the house on the sidewalk and then getting an earfull from Dad, Mrs Moe and the rest of the neighbors? And wasn't it a sorry day when Dad smiled and told you first you need to go buy a tire and tube....

Robofunc

It's not the drivetrain that wastes tires, it's riding style. I could just as easily go skidding around, grabbing my back brakes to waste tires.

I ride geared and fixed bikes, all with brakes. The only time I'm skidding is in an emergency. Those kids just like wasting trust fund money.