Dictionary

Fixie

Fixed gear bicycle, or “track bike” … …

Fixies

People who ride fixies

Shifties

Shifties refer to bike are people who ride bikes with gears, or shifters. This especially applies to “friction shifting” where the gear does not click into place but you have to find the right place for the derailleur through the friction of the shifter on the cable.

Shifties are often on 10-speed bicycles made in Japan or Europe from the 1970s and 1980s, as one will find the friction shifters on the downtube, as opposed to the handle bars. This makes them harder to use, but less likely to cause mechanical trouble.

This term evolved as the antitheses to Fixie.