geerz

The last few posts have covered the middle ground between fixed gear and single speed bikes and all-out 3 by 9 shifting monstrosities. That is the space in which I tend to exist. I wish I lived somewhere flat enough to rinde fixed or singlespeed, like maybe Manhattan where the steepest hill around is the Williamsburg bridge. But I live in a town built on Mesas at the foot of a mountain range. Hills everywhere. Nothing but hills.

So I am after some sort of compromise that let's me escape the complexity and aesthetic disrespect of derailleurs, but still be able to go up and down hills.

I was recently in Seattle and was talking to the winner of a messenger style alleycat race - I asked him if he rode fixed and he said something that made too much sense to ignore, "freewheels are just faster".

Word.