Ok so I was riding my single gear into work today across the Williamsburg Bridge when this kid on a fixed gear rolls past me and says "Nice brakes" in a really sarcastic tone.
depending on the speed at which you're getting passed, you can explain that a fixie is just a sissified version of a unicycle -no offense intended towards sissies
I mean, I'm a big dude - 6'3" and about 200lbs on a retro Peugeot 58cm frame. This kid - and I say kid in reference to his punk ass behavior - was on a Bianchi Pista fixed gear with a "custom" Refuel bag.
I tell you what, I love the fixie culture. It's great. My roommate is a big into bicycling - many many times more than I, and I have learned a lot. I have considered building a fixie just to see what all the rave is about - still haven't finished my singlespeed... But there is a sense of exclusivity or eliteness from the messenger crowd that is a bit of a turn off.
I say do what you want. Check out Sheldon Brown. He does what he wants, and he does a lot. Check out the 63-speed.
yeah there is a definate elitist attitude to go along with the culture, but in savanna hits not too bad. there are tons of us around that ride em. I just ride it to ride it. not a statement or anything. I wanted one so I built one, I dont judge people either way, but many do.
Lol John
My friend passed a similar comment some time back.....He has a hayabusa GSX 1300 R...once two guys on 150 cc bikes tried to race him...when they were halfway thru the stretch he had already taken two rounds of the stretch and was back to the start point ..
when those two came back there..he sniggered to them " May I borrow your accelerator to use for a few days.. while i get my brakes serviced " !.
that had me in splits !
I ride a single with only a rear brake, which, if you're going fast enough, is just a bit better than no brakes. Maybe I should just run no brakes like 20-inch street riders. That'd be one up ... and I'd be a martyr soon.
Sometimes when I am sitting in my car, at a red light, and a "fixie" is up front, waiting for the green, with both feet clipped doing that "I'm a fixie watch me balance" thing. What's up with that?
I'm like, dude, put one foot on the ground and wait for the light...fixie....with your spandex on and your messenger bag...this isn't the tour de france.
yeah, i used to ride a bike with no brakes, but then i was going downhill on a concrete street under construction that had an abrupt (2"?) change in elevation where a slab had heaved. since i couldn't stop i just went for it. i flew over the front of my bike and landed chest-first on the concrete and slid forward a few feet. oh, and i wasn't wearing a shirt.
broom finish vs. bare skin? broom finish. i had tracks from the concrete all the way from my waist to (i kid you not) my chin (which slid some, too). my mom spent two hours with a bottle of witch hazel and an entire bag of cotton balls. i couldn't wear a shirt for three days. had to stay home from school.
when someone becomes so esoterically snobby i can only find it funny. me? i scoff at you people who draft with any kind of mouse with less than a 1600+ dpi resolution.
I had a similar experience where I was hauling down a hill on my brand new Hutch Windstyler. I jumped a little kicker and slipped a pedal on landing. I'm not sure what the mechanics of my fall were, except that I went over the bars and ended up with a broken wrist. As I walked around swearing and holding my wrist, my friends who were laughing at me, offered to take my bike off my hands, since I wouldn't be needing it for while. Age 13.
Age 20: Hauling down a country club golf course hill on my new Trek940, and I take steep, blind drop-off at the bottom of which is a ditch. I head over the bars onto the green of the 18th hole (actually, I don't know which hole it was, but for the sake of narrative it was the 18th). I pretzel my front wheel and bend both my top and down tubes just behind the headset tube, knocking myself out (concussion) and tweaking my shoulder in the process. The good part of this story is that I woke up to the shouts of a golfer who -- unconcerned about my condition -- was bitching me out for messing up the green.
Well, more than that it is a bike with a single gear and no freewheel. In otherwords there is a direct connection between the rear wheel and the pedals. No coasting allowed. The pedals always remain in motion. Fixie riders learn to stop by creating opposing forces on the pedals. It can become quite effective.
If you have one speed and a freewheel (i.e. coasting allowed), you have a singlespeed. Or BMX.
The notion of a fixie is predicated entirely on the need for reliabilty. No brakes (taht Break), no gears, associated levers, cables, etc - to fail. Messengers use fixies because they put bikes through the most abuse than anything, and a broken bike is a lost paycheck. Apparently it has evolved into more of a subculture than an exercise in reductivism.
The idea that the momentum of a bicycle counteracts the actual braking, especially when in an urban environment, if a life saftey issue, and especially stupid for the pretentious yuppies masquerading as a messenger-type.....brakes are good. Gears are good. Stick to minimalist architecture, not bikes - if you don't ride a bike for a living.
We used to make fixies in the 70's (with a banana seat and sissy bars) by simply removeing part G07 from the rear hub as shown below....when strapped to the rear frame - as it is intended - you have a properly functioning coaster brake:
A singlespeed with only a front brake is cool. I built one a while back.
A fixie without brakes at all makes you a hard-man.
It's also a good way to slide yourself neatly under the front wheels of that bus.
manamana: not much cheaper, because most people convert a geared bike for singlespeed or fixie use; unless it is a track bike, in which case the frame will cost more than most bikes anyway.
manamana. They should be. But for those seeking top frames and parts, they can be a collector's money pit. I would say the messenger crowd bikes are cheap, but of the best parts money can buy. Outdated, yet good frames.
Damn, I don't check for a couple days and a good thread starts up, I feel like I've slacked off or something...
Yeah, there is a kind of mindset that goes along with riding a fixie, and I'll admit that that I've said negative things about brakes from time to time but never seriously. I constantly encourage people to give up coasting though, but its only worked once. However, I've never let myself ride completely hammered (but I think a couple times I came close).
Pixel, drunk biking you say? When I was in Pittsburgh in 1998 my roommate and I decided on the first warm evening of Spring we would take a little bike ride. We decided to do a little bar hopping taking care not to drink beyond the ability to bicycle safely. At the last bar (The Luna in Oakland) a friend of mine showed up and he owed me a few shots. Around ten of them, if I recall. A few weeks beforehand I bought him a few shots to celebrate God knows what. Maybe the fact that he was there and I was there. Anyway, needless to say I broke my original rule of not drinking too much. My roommate did too.
When it came time to ride back home (from North to South Oakland) at first we had a few troubles - but no spills. One guy doubted my abilities as I crossed the street a little too close to his Jag. Well, this is what my roommate said. After we passed Forbes Ave. into the safety of our South Oakland neighborhood we lost eachother. On my own, I ended up hitting a stop sign after which I promptly decided to camp out on the curb. A cab stopped and asked if I needed a ride - free of charge, I think. And at that very moment, as if from out of no where two of my friends showed up walking down the street. One carried me and one rode my bike - those poor girls.
The next day, I had a black eye. And, as some form of punishment, I had to go to a family dinner with grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, the whole deal. Although most of my family accepted that I had a bike accident and nothing more, my joker uncle decided, almost acting unwarrantedly, that he would announce the story of his college buddy riding his bike drunk. Busted.
"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur?"
the night of fourth of july two years ago i had a little too much to drink and decided to live home. This was when i lived in providence and went to risd, which has some of the steepest hills i have ever seen.
foolishly i had taken the route which ends in a huge grade to dead end.
as i was balling down the hill i tried to slow down and my foot sliped out off the clip. i was too drunk to put my foot on the tired and for some reason didnt just jump off.
this ended with a hit the curb- flip over bars - to rub face against sidewalk
i broke my two front teeth, had two black eyes, and roadrash down the right side of my face.
i picked up my bike, went some, looked in the mirror, then passed out and got blood all over my sheets
luckily i have never crashed and burned while operating my bicycle under the influence, and i have been way under the influence. of course i didn't have any hills of death to overcome, just a couple of miles of cars.
in a town not to far away from me they have an annual "bike crawl". similar to your average pub crawl, just on bikes. they cover at least 15 miles and 6 pubs before they dump you off at the end of the night at some nightclub. the ride home after the bars close to the other side of town from the bars the tricky part, but seeing 30 bikes lined up outside random bars is hilarious
Fixies
Ok so I was riding my single gear into work today across the Williamsburg Bridge when this kid on a fixed gear rolls past me and says "Nice brakes" in a really sarcastic tone.
WTF?
Does anyone else share this brake angst?
You witnessed fixie snobbery.
"nice training wheel" should get you to touche
depending on the speed at which you're getting passed, you can explain that a fixie is just a sissified version of a unicycle -no offense intended towards sissies
I mean, I'm a big dude - 6'3" and about 200lbs on a retro Peugeot 58cm frame. This kid - and I say kid in reference to his punk ass behavior - was on a Bianchi Pista fixed gear with a "custom" Refuel bag.
Snobbery. heh.
that's messed up.
bikes are bikes no matter what kind you ride.
he'll get hit by a truck pretty soon anyway.
I tell you what, I love the fixie culture. It's great. My roommate is a big into bicycling - many many times more than I, and I have learned a lot. I have considered building a fixie just to see what all the rave is about - still haven't finished my singlespeed... But there is a sense of exclusivity or eliteness from the messenger crowd that is a bit of a turn off.
I say do what you want. Check out Sheldon Brown. He does what he wants, and he does a lot. Check out the 63-speed.
yeah there is a definate elitist attitude to go along with the culture, but in savanna hits not too bad. there are tons of us around that ride em. I just ride it to ride it. not a statement or anything. I wanted one so I built one, I dont judge people either way, but many do.
Brakes on the road, no brakes on the track.
Lol John
My friend passed a similar comment some time back.....He has a hayabusa GSX 1300 R...once two guys on 150 cc bikes tried to race him...when they were halfway thru the stretch he had already taken two rounds of the stretch and was back to the start point ..
when those two came back there..he sniggered to them " May I borrow your accelerator to use for a few days.. while i get my brakes serviced " !.
that had me in splits !
Ha - Yeah my roomate builds custom bikes from old Peugeot frames. He's got 2 fixed and 2 single speeds right now.
I was gonna put a flip flop set on Corb, but I dont trust myself on a Fixie after a night of drinking.
try riding a brakeless fixie in San Fran with all the hills (where many fixielitists actually do...), kinda crazy if you ask me,
uh, somebody explain these terms to me...
motoring terms mate, motoring terms
bothands....
It's like saying "try to surf mavericks on a board with no fins"
I ride a single with only a rear brake, which, if you're going fast enough, is just a bit better than no brakes. Maybe I should just run no brakes like 20-inch street riders. That'd be one up ... and I'd be a martyr soon.
i wonder how many archinects ride fixies?
aren't breaks are just for extra safety? i took mine off after about a week and did not need it since.
Sometimes when I am sitting in my car, at a red light, and a "fixie" is up front, waiting for the green, with both feet clipped doing that "I'm a fixie watch me balance" thing. What's up with that?
I'm like, dude, put one foot on the ground and wait for the light...fixie....with your spandex on and your messenger bag...this isn't the tour de france.
yeah, i used to ride a bike with no brakes, but then i was going downhill on a concrete street under construction that had an abrupt (2"?) change in elevation where a slab had heaved. since i couldn't stop i just went for it. i flew over the front of my bike and landed chest-first on the concrete and slid forward a few feet. oh, and i wasn't wearing a shirt.
broom finish vs. bare skin? broom finish. i had tracks from the concrete all the way from my waist to (i kid you not) my chin (which slid some, too). my mom spent two hours with a bottle of witch hazel and an entire bag of cotton balls. i couldn't wear a shirt for three days. had to stay home from school.
by the way, i was 15.
when someone becomes so esoterically snobby i can only find it funny. me? i scoff at you people who draft with any kind of mouse with less than a 1600+ dpi resolution.
The important question: Did you cry?
I had a similar experience where I was hauling down a hill on my brand new Hutch Windstyler. I jumped a little kicker and slipped a pedal on landing. I'm not sure what the mechanics of my fall were, except that I went over the bars and ended up with a broken wrist. As I walked around swearing and holding my wrist, my friends who were laughing at me, offered to take my bike off my hands, since I wouldn't be needing it for while. Age 13.
Age 20: Hauling down a country club golf course hill on my new Trek940, and I take steep, blind drop-off at the bottom of which is a ditch. I head over the bars onto the green of the 18th hole (actually, I don't know which hole it was, but for the sake of narrative it was the 18th). I pretzel my front wheel and bend both my top and down tubes just behind the headset tube, knocking myself out (concussion) and tweaking my shoulder in the process. The good part of this story is that I woke up to the shouts of a golfer who -- unconcerned about my condition -- was bitching me out for messing up the green.
ok sorry to do this, but I am curious...
What the hell is a fixie??!?!
Why wouldnt somebody have brakes on their bike, that doesnt sound cool, it sounds stupid as hell.
Please someone explain.
a bike with no changable gears.
www.fixedgeargallery.com
and they all have breaks, some choose to put on a normal street brake, some choose to use their legs and apply backpressure.
Well, more than that it is a bike with a single gear and no freewheel. In otherwords there is a direct connection between the rear wheel and the pedals. No coasting allowed. The pedals always remain in motion. Fixie riders learn to stop by creating opposing forces on the pedals. It can become quite effective.
If you have one speed and a freewheel (i.e. coasting allowed), you have a singlespeed. Or BMX.
The notion of a fixie is predicated entirely on the need for reliabilty. No brakes (taht Break), no gears, associated levers, cables, etc - to fail. Messengers use fixies because they put bikes through the most abuse than anything, and a broken bike is a lost paycheck. Apparently it has evolved into more of a subculture than an exercise in reductivism.
The idea that the momentum of a bicycle counteracts the actual braking, especially when in an urban environment, if a life saftey issue, and especially stupid for the pretentious yuppies masquerading as a messenger-type.....brakes are good. Gears are good. Stick to minimalist architecture, not bikes - if you don't ride a bike for a living.
We used to make fixies in the 70's (with a banana seat and sissy bars) by simply removeing part G07 from the rear hub as shown below....when strapped to the rear frame - as it is intended - you have a properly functioning coaster brake:
John Prolly, did you mean a "custom Re-Load" bag? Or were you being snarky (which I totally understand)?
But I confess I just gave my man a Reload Messenger Gear Tshirt for the holiday this year - which one? Why this V one of course!
so are fixies/ singlespeeds cheaper because they have less parts?
A singlespeed with only a front brake is cool. I built one a while back.
A fixie without brakes at all makes you a hard-man.
It's also a good way to slide yourself neatly under the front wheels of that bus.
manamana: not much cheaper, because most people convert a geared bike for singlespeed or fixie use; unless it is a track bike, in which case the frame will cost more than most bikes anyway.
manamana. They should be. But for those seeking top frames and parts, they can be a collector's money pit. I would say the messenger crowd bikes are cheap, but of the best parts money can buy. Outdated, yet good frames.
Ooops. Sorry, agfa8x. Didn't see your last paragraph.
To add, many frames have horizontal dropouts allowing for a simple, cheap conversion. Vertical drop outs just won't do.
Damn, I don't check for a couple days and a good thread starts up, I feel like I've slacked off or something...
Yeah, there is a kind of mindset that goes along with riding a fixie, and I'll admit that that I've said negative things about brakes from time to time but never seriously. I constantly encourage people to give up coasting though, but its only worked once. However, I've never let myself ride completely hammered (but I think a couple times I came close).
Pixel, drunk biking you say? When I was in Pittsburgh in 1998 my roommate and I decided on the first warm evening of Spring we would take a little bike ride. We decided to do a little bar hopping taking care not to drink beyond the ability to bicycle safely. At the last bar (The Luna in Oakland) a friend of mine showed up and he owed me a few shots. Around ten of them, if I recall. A few weeks beforehand I bought him a few shots to celebrate God knows what. Maybe the fact that he was there and I was there. Anyway, needless to say I broke my original rule of not drinking too much. My roommate did too.
When it came time to ride back home (from North to South Oakland) at first we had a few troubles - but no spills. One guy doubted my abilities as I crossed the street a little too close to his Jag. Well, this is what my roommate said. After we passed Forbes Ave. into the safety of our South Oakland neighborhood we lost eachother. On my own, I ended up hitting a stop sign after which I promptly decided to camp out on the curb. A cab stopped and asked if I needed a ride - free of charge, I think. And at that very moment, as if from out of no where two of my friends showed up walking down the street. One carried me and one rode my bike - those poor girls.
The next day, I had a black eye. And, as some form of punishment, I had to go to a family dinner with grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, the whole deal. Although most of my family accepted that I had a bike accident and nothing more, my joker uncle decided, almost acting unwarrantedly, that he would announce the story of his college buddy riding his bike drunk. Busted.
"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur?"
Henri Desgrange, 1902
i didn't cry, but my girlfriend did when she saw it
i always thought bike messengers were kinda...off. now i know. sure were ripped, though.
of course i haven't seen a bike messenger since i left chicago so hmm.
4 more posts, ochona...
the night of fourth of july two years ago i had a little too much to drink and decided to live home. This was when i lived in providence and went to risd, which has some of the steepest hills i have ever seen.
foolishly i had taken the route which ends in a huge grade to dead end.
as i was balling down the hill i tried to slow down and my foot sliped out off the clip. i was too drunk to put my foot on the tired and for some reason didnt just jump off.
this ended with a hit the curb- flip over bars - to rub face against sidewalk
i broke my two front teeth, had two black eyes, and roadrash down the right side of my face.
i picked up my bike, went some, looked in the mirror, then passed out and got blood all over my sheets
all the girls were crying.
"all the girls were crying."
Classic!
Cog on my knob....
Yes, it was a custom Re-Load bag -
It had some deezign on the back.
I prefer my Chrome bag - xpt my friends like to "unbuckle" me all the time.
luckily i have never crashed and burned while operating my bicycle under the influence, and i have been way under the influence. of course i didn't have any hills of death to overcome, just a couple of miles of cars.
in a town not to far away from me they have an annual "bike crawl". similar to your average pub crawl, just on bikes. they cover at least 15 miles and 6 pubs before they dump you off at the end of the night at some nightclub. the ride home after the bars close to the other side of town from the bars the tricky part, but seeing 30 bikes lined up outside random bars is hilarious
I like my chrome bag too. just not while lugging it full of shit across europe... oh the stories.
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