This post has been corrected. See note at the bottom for details. For the last five years, this column has avoided covering one of the hottest youth-culture urban crazes in the bike world: the fixie — ...

Fixed-gear bicycles are still popular nowadays because they are simple, low maintenance, make for great winter bikes and urban commuters as well, as long as you don’t have to cope with steep hills.

Like in a Richard Scarry book, downtown Portland on a weekday afternoon bustles with many forms of transportation. Buses pass pedestrians who just got off the MAX, and taxis roll through stop signs ...

The fixie is a single-speed bike with no brakes and what is called a single 'fixed gear'. In other words, the pedals spin with every rotation of the wheel, there is no free-wheeling. Riders brake by ...