"About two years ago I sold my Lexus GS 300 and replaced it with a sleek single-speed Pure Fix commuter bike"
This brought a vision of someone trying to descend from capitol hill here in seattle on a fixie (something I saw the last week) - a fixie, while still stupid is at least workable in LA (though I'd still never own one, I prefer gears), it still seems wholly impractical for seattle.
I see single-speed bikers as the luddites of cycling. I live in a relatively flat city, Dublin, but I am still constantly shifting gears. I think a lot of people don't understand how good gears really are. In a similar way, there are a lot of people cycling mountain bikes around the city, and I didn't appreciate how much better actual road bikes are while I still had my hybrid.
And for non-cyclists: 15 mph (25 kmph) is a fairly reasonable commuting speed.
neo-luddites perhaps, when I was an active cyclist a bit more than a decade ago the fixie was an unknown thing. There were single speed bikes then - the well known beach cruiser - it was a single speed, yes, but it also could idle along without peddling and had a rear drum brake - I can see a place for that kind of thing - no one has been able to explain to me how a direct drive fixed gear bicycle is better than even that option.
It's like a manual vs an automatic vehicle. You aren't forced to constantly pedal, so much as your legs must move at the same speed as the pedals. At low speeds you are much more connected to the bicycle. Taking a low speed, sharp turn is more akin to walking and feels much more natural.
Also, it enforces good form, like pedaling thru turns.
Small speed adjustments are natural and easy. Also, when accelerating, the pedals are moving regardless of input, so you can simply tap them down on the downstroke, hovering your foot above the pedal on the up stroke.
There is a reason a fixed gear is a popular configuration and it has little to do with being cool or hip.
I live in a bike-friendly city, and am an avid cyclist myself. I've learned that debates over the relative merits of different bike configurations are irreconcilable.
I don't get the single speed thing either. A gearing at which I can achieve 15-20mph on the flat with a comfortable cadence is such a trial to get up even moderate hills that if I couldn't change down I'd get off and walk.
Perhaps there's some macho fitness thing involved. Perhaps people find lots of gears intimidating or derailleurs unreliable, in which case there is the good old Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub gear.
This brought a vision of someone trying to descend from capitol hill here in seattle on a fixie (something I saw the last week) - a fixie, while still stupid is at least workable in LA (though I'd still never own one, I prefer gears), it still seems wholly impractical for seattle.