Legality of fixie bikes in Munich

I just heard from a friend that Fixie bike* drivers in Berlin are in trouble. Because the police confiscate their gear with the reason that fixies do not fullfill the prerequisites for cycling on streets.

Does anybody here drives such a bike and has faced something similar?

* fixie = urban slang for a Fixed gear bike, like bikes that has been built before WWII without gear shifting and without a freewheel. Or like bikes that are used to make track races, with only 1 gear and without breaks. It´s "in" for a couple of years now to have such bikes in retro look and mix them with things that basically do not belong to a track bike, but just look funky. See picture

That thread has more info.

This has been talked before, they are illegal, you need brakes and lights.

Hipsters are weird, they endanger their own lives just to look cool.

Yeah, if you need 14 different relectors to be legal, brakes have got to be on the list somewhere.

isn't there a shop on Schwantalerstrasse (western end) which sells fixies?

What I find so bizarro here is that you need all the bells, whistles, lights, reflectors, the whole 9 on your bike, but yet the most obvious and beneficial safety item, a helmet, is optional.

why would you want to wear a helmet? mitts are far more important

We are talking about bikes right? Not throwing snowballs...no wait, that's mittens. What are mitts?

An old guy recently asked me why I wear a helmet when I don't have to. I simply said: "I have something up here to protect, and you?"

used for baseball, right? Bit tricky to steer a bike wearing a baseball mitt.

You'd think so, but I'm no Berliner fixie hipster who wears tight black jeans, chucks and a leather jacket with 80's flouro sunglasses, so what would I know?

Can't see the problem with a mitt, you don't need to break or shift gear do you?

I guess so, and then you have the added advantage of being able to catch any baseballs that happen to be thrown about the city centre. You can never be too certain, so best be prepared.

mitts are fingerless cycling gloves, come in handy when falling off bikes (which I have done a number of times) as they help cushion your fall (providing you put your hands out)

as far as breaking things when falling off, only thing I've done is break my big toe, which was bloody painfull and still isn't right after 3,5 years

Loking forward to the ride home today. Thanks, guys.

From Starrer Gang (Wikipedia)


Basically, the only time it's not legal to ride a fixed gear bike on the streets in Germany is when it doesn't have two brakes that work independently of each other (the fixed gear is not considered a brake). This is also not a local law, so the same applies in Munich as well as Berlin.