It just seems so fitting with Slackware philosophy -- simplicity, reliability, complete control etc...

If there are any fellow Slackware fixie owners/interest around here, tomorrow I might snap some photos of mine. Took me two-three years total to finish the bad boy.

I do have one... it's been D-locked to the car park railing of my old residential block for about six years. I went back the other day and it's still there.

Owning a bike is London is a huge pain in the arse. Unless you have somewhere inside your block, or ideally inside your flat, to store it, it's hardly worth the bother. I had so many parts to my bike stolen when I used it regularly - the front light, the back like, the seat over, the saddle clamp - yes, some thieves actually removed the saddle, took the clamp from the frame and put the saddle back. Bizarre.

The last straw was one Winter when I was too lazy to lock both wheels to the railing outside my old flat so I locked just one, thinking that nothing would happen. I came back a few hours later and one of the wheels had been taken. From that point on I thought, forget it, and just left the bike D-locked to the railing. It's been there ever since.

I take my hat off to anyone who can hold onto their bike and its components. I wish I still had one to ride, but it's just too much hassle. Still, post your pics, OP.

No. My city is hilly and I need the gears.

Hi,

I no longer have fixed gear bikes. The last two were taking up space in my winter home garage here in Florida. I put them out at the end of the driveway and someone picked them up in less than a hour. I kept my 12 speed off road for future use. It's racked in the garage. I have two at home in Illinois, one is a 12 and the other 16. The 16 is a cross country and is ridden very little any more. It needs new rubber and they are expensive and I cannot see investing more. I should sell it but many memories from the rides that were made on her.

Both off rode bikes are horses and love to ride on occasion. I no longer can make century rides or long endurance rides. Just flat land rides for general exercise.

I do remember when I was younger and used my fixed gears to deliver my paper routes. One I had with monkey springs and loved to deliver on them except when the bag would get caught in the spring. I learned to put a cut piece of tire over the spring head. But that was a smooth ride and was I ever in great shape from all the mourning and evening deliveries. Kids I know today won't even consider delivery of papers or and other manual labor (speaking about my grand kids).

As kids that was one of the many ways for us to make money.

Have fun & enjoy!

Does a unicycle count? It is fixed wheel and doesn't get a lot simpler. I regularly commute via unicycle. I wrote a short blog post about it on my employers blog for "Cycle to Work Day":

https://vivaldi.com/blog/cycle-to-work-day/

And since that blog post, I fixed the broken bearings on the 36"er. In fact I commuted on it to work today.

Please discuss stuff like this in the "General" forum. It has nothing to do with Slackware. The subject of the General forum is "This forum is for non-technical general discussion which can include both Linux and non-Linux topics. Have fun!"

It seems the OP posted this non-technical subject into Slackware forum in order to get feedbacks from Slackware users only (+ he did a comparison with the Slackware philosophy). So I don't know what to think about it: is it not appropriate here because it's not Slackware-technical directly related or is it appropriate because it helps to bring the Slackware users closer?

Basically this. The OP was interested specifically in the mindset of Slackware users that carries over into other aspects of their personal lifestyles, in this case using a fixed gear bicycle. Another example might be using a dumbphone instead of a smartphone or using a film camera instead of a digital. The implication is that the use of Slackware is not an isolated example in people's lives: it appeals to its users because its methodology exemplifies an intimate ethic.

You don't have to pollute the technical Slackware forum with posts about bicycles to bring Slackware users closer. We have IRC channels for that. Or the LQ General Forum.

Indeed, though I personally don't like IRC much and I find that the standard of conversation on the other LQ boards to be rather lower than on the Slackware board. This place definitely has the highest level of conversation. I totally take your point Eric, nevertheless, it is nice to find something personal out about our other forum members, e.g. I found it very interesting and highly novel that ruario uses a unicycle regularly. We could always have one thread here for all the 'personal' stuff, but I can see how that could be frowned upon.

FWIW, I also completely stopped using a smartphone two years ago and went back to a dumb phone.

OK, here are some quick and dirty pics I've done today.

And a few more.

Frame is FBM Sword, raw cromoly, just with clear-coat over, so you can see the welds nicely.

Front fork was also raw & clear like the frame, but I plasti dip'ed it in matte black, to get a bit more contrast on the bike.

I ride it brakeless since the first day, not to 'be cool', but I think I'm actually *safer* this way (both to me and others), because I am forced not to rely on them, so I need to be extra careful and 100% concentrated at all times and never even get close to dangerous situations. So far, seems to be working.

Parts are a nice mix of USA/Japan/UK: Sugino, Izumi, MKS, White Industries, Thomson, Brooks, MASH, Cane Creek, H+ Son, #AARN, Profile Racing, DT Swiss...