I've been riding fixed gear for over a decade and a half now.
My kid is almost 3 and my new daycare / work is like 1.5 miles away.
I really love my fixed gear beater commuter, it's truly my favorite thing to commute and joyride on. I live in a small apartment and don't want to commit to a larger bicycle like a electric or shudder a road bike.
I'm a strong cyclist, now commuting at least 15 miles a week minimum, not including extra excursions on my fixed gear which is now my only means of transportation. I could take the bus to daycare every morning but I really don't want to.
Of the people I've talked to about putting my daughter on my fixed gear I've gotten mostly negative responses like "why risk it" "something could go wrong" or "i would never trust a fixed for city riding"
I just know that I'm not gonna flip flop my hub every weekend. I'm a low maintenance guy. I'm already committed to either putting a second back brake on my beater or buying a new Fuji feather ($800 now, thanks tariffs!).
I'm already committed to giving an extra 5 or 10 minutes on my commute. I'm not gonna be doing any track stands with my kid.
Is this a bad idea? Wouldn't it have more traction? Am I crazy?
by Devolution2020
7 Comments
Standing and pedaling seems like it would suck
Aha I did this on hills too, pista type bike same kid seat. It was so goddamn sketchy I don’t recommend it. I ended up getting a beater road bike to use instead which I don’t particularly enjoy but at least I wasn’t clenching at every turn. Reasons it sucked: too high center of gravity, geometry had us way too pushed together, your good fixed bike fit is probably horrible for carrying 20-40lbs a foot behind your ass, tires probably skinny enough to track every wide groove in the road that you can’t just hop or zip around anymore.
All that said, the fixed gear part isn’t the issue it’s all the other stuff that often goes with it.
Done this for some time. I wouldn’t dare to stand up and pedal due to risk of falling. Kids like to move around and it’s hard to keep balance.
Plan for always sitting in the saddle and you’ll be fine.
Maybe also consider easier gear ratio .
I mean, I feel like you’re getting two separate reactions here. One is likely just a knee-jerk reaction against using a bike to transport a child daily, and the other is more specifically about it being a fixed gear.
I’ve got a toddler seat on my fixie, though it’s only been used for fun cruises around town, never a commute. It’s been great. It’s a bike. Bikes are used this way. The people nervous about the commute part might be onto something. I live on Long Island, where bicyclists are one slight tick up on the respect meter from the 9/11 hijackers. I trust myself to get my kids to school, but I don’t trust anyone else around me. If it’s just me, fine, but once my kids are involved, I’m not fucking around. I’m walking distance to my kids’ school and daycare, so it’s never been an issue, but only you know what your neighborhood is like. It’s not about the bike in this case. It’s about everything else.
Its just a bike in the end, how you ride (and maintain) it is what would make it dangerous.
Assuming you’re not riding brakeless doing barspins its not any more or less risky than a bike with a free wheel with a child on it.
I (and probably others in a sub like this) would make an argument you have dramatically more slow speed control with a fixed gear. I would also pedantically argue back to someone that an e-bike *could* (depending on the bike) be inherently more dangerous even without considering user error and maintenance).
Fixed gears can get a bad name because people run lights, cut through pedestrians, and are typically used by younger folk with reckless abandon. But I truly do believe that half the people who ride daily would be better/safer riders if they rode fixed for at least a year, learn slow speed control, learn balance, learn body position/weight balance and transfer.
Trailer.
I’d get some bigger tires so you don’t rattle their brain