Why go fixed or single speed? Apart from, you know, everyone else is doing it? The big reason is often maintenance. Maintenance is the reasons the couriers of fixie mythology first rode off the track and onto the street of Gothem City (or wherever it was) and started risking their lives for the sake of delivering a few documents they neither owned nor cared about.<\/p>\n
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If you weren’t a courier the fixie was a way of showing your hardcore credentials by flaunting the fact that a) you racked up so many city miles in fair weather and foul that a normal drivetrain wouldn’t cope, and b) you were doing it all without brakes. Of course, some people still didn’t get it, so you got yourself some knuckle tattoos:<\/p>\n