When I am explaining to Dutch
people what a fixie is, I only
have to say that a fixie is a kind of doortrapper
and they understand immediately what I mean. The Dutch verb doortrappen
translates into English
as to keep on pedalling and
so a doortrapper
is just something
which
keeps on pedalling.
There was
also a time in Dutch history when many more bicycles than
today had a fixed wheel. Before the construction of the
tunnels, viaducts and high bridges which now create occasional
gradients for cyclists here, most of The Netherlands was totally flat
and there really was no need at all for mechanical brakes on everyday
bicycles.
Still today, children learn to cycle on little tricycles and
bicycles with a
fixed wheel and only a rudimentary (and often inadeqate)
mechanical brake. Such bicycles are known as doortrappers because they keep on
pedalling and everybody knows
about them.
If you allow your legs to relax when you are riding a fixie you can
feel the doortrappen, you
will experience
directly the momentum of the bike as it turns the rear wheel
over the ground, and thus the chain round the crank so that your legs
keep on pedalling. By
freewheeling like this on a fixie you learn which muscles to
use when the crank
is turning. And by applying a backward torque in reaction to the
momentum, you learn how to use your legs to vary the
speed of your
travel and if necessary to bring yourself to a halt.
If you relax your legs on a bike with a mechanical freewheel you will
not be able to feel the doortrappen.
You
cannot push back on the crank
to feel the momentum of the bike, and
you cannot travel at a speed determined by what you are doing with your
legs. Your efforts
to push back on the crank produce a very uneasy
feeling in your legs. There is a kind of panic as you realise you are moving under the influence
of gravity tempered only by
the gradient of the ground and the frictional forces of the bearings on
your bike. Without a mechanical brake, you
cannot control your speed at all. You are in fact out of control.
The
momentum of the bike is not transferred by the drivechain
to the muscles of your
legs, but is wasted in noise and heat inside the freewheel mechanism. In order to be able
to slow down you
have to lean your
weight on
handlebars with your fingers poised over brake
levers while all the big muscles in your legs remain idle, and to steer
you have use
your shoulders and arms rather than the responses of your whole body to
the momentum of the trajectory.
For many years I
watched
colleagues on their fixies and learned to
respect their skills and techniques. But I always had my doubts. I
always worried about being able to stop in an emergency, and about the
unpredictable consequences of pedals scraping over the ground or
against the kerb
during sharp corners. During the last few years though, I developed a
growing sense that I would be riding a fixie before I retired. And in
Warsaw at ECMC2004
I was accosted by a man from New
York with whom I had been racing who ironically tried to tear off the
gear cables of
my roadbike while telling me that I did not need them. At that
moment I was in a mood to defend myself and my trusty road bike so I
roared ironically and cycled off, but I recognised that I had been paid
something of
a compliment. Whatever else, he knew or could see something of which I
was yet unaware, that the time had come to take to a fixie.
So at the end of the year I thought about what sort of frame would be
necessary for messenger work, discussed the matter with Fred Snel
and sent off a
drawing to the framebuilder. I have been riding the first street
fixie during
my work with De
Fietskoerier Utrecht since March 2005 and I am satisfied that it
does the job well. I am also coming to understand why riding a bicycle
with a fixed wheel is considered to be the purest, most efficient and
most enjoyable way of cycling. I would thoroughly recommend to all
those still hovering on the brink of decision, to go for it. Once you
have unlearned all the stuff you had to learn in order to handle gears
brakes and a mechanical freewheel, you begin to experience something
really beautiful.
For safety I have a front brake fitted which
I use from time to time, but not as often as I thought would be
necessary. For the most part, I am learning new skills and techniques
and thoroughly enjoying the doortrappen.
It is cleaner between
my ears now, there is a lot less cycle maintenance to worry about, and
I feel much safer being able to determine the speed of my travel
without relying on brakes. The flows through which I have to
find safe passage are clearer now. The margins of error are tighter.
The lines of sight are longer. The instant decisions cleaner and
sharper. And when from time to time I venture
again
onto a bike with a mechanical freewheel I find that I more persistently
keep on
pedalling. Doortrappen.
