The thing that always escapes me is that these fixed gear fanboys seem to ignore hub gear bicycles. That's what I grew up with in Europe. That's what comprises

The thing that always escapes me is that these fixed gear fanboys seem to ignore hub gear bicycles. That's what I grew up with in Europe. That's what comprises the majority of bicycles that people ride in cities (hilly or not) in Germany. They are literally service free and if you select the gear with the 1:1 ratio and never change gear, there is no difference to a fixed gear bicycle except that you can switch, whenever you want/need. After a year of being flabbergasted at his utter rejection of Derailleur gear cycles, and praising of fixed, I learned that an Italian friend of mine wasn't even aware of hub gears! Him, a self proclaimed bicycle aficionado! He had grown up close to the mountains and all bicycles sold there have Derailleur gears. Even those that people ride in the city on the plain. Similarly, my ex GF who was from South Australia, had never seen or heard about a Derailleur gear bicycles until she first set foot on European soil at the modest age of 30. Given that, the hipster hype around fixed comes as much less a surprise. However, knowingly ignoring hub gear bicycles in favor of fixed still borders on imbecility to me. Kindly pardon my bluntness.