Fixies (in Japan: piste bicycles, pronounced pisuto) are coming under a bit of scrutiny.
The racing type bicycles that have no gears were originally designed for the track. In French, "piste" means track.
Most of the bikes are sold with brakes in Japan, but for the fashion conscious the clean lines of a brakeless bike are hard to resist.
Thus, many young people have bought a piste and removed the brakes, which - big surprise - has lead to accidents.
In 2011 alone, according to Japanese police, there have been roughly 600 violations involving piste bikes.
That is half of the total of all bikes.
If caught, violators face fines of up to 50,000 yen.
© CycleKyoto.com
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