onionbagblog
Jase'll Fix It
Flippin 'eck - so where did all the fixies around town suddenly come from then? A morning ride from Clap'ham to the West End, and I was the odd one out. Proudly pedalling along on my Moulton, I calculated that every other bike was a fixed wheel. Gears are for girlies, etc, but even the girlies about town have got in on the fakenger culture.
There's nothing so smug as a reformed ex-fixie, but it seems that the fixed wheel culture has peaked in London. It's now gone mainstream, with most major bicycle chains stocking their own brand of purpose built bikes.
Each to their own, but doesn't this somehow miss the point of the DIY ethos of riding fixed wheel? Purists would argue that track bikes are best kept for le velo. The geometry of a track frame doesn't translate well to the open road, even with the addition of a front break.
The fun of riding fixed wheel is all about customing the bike yourself. Take a 70's road frame, fit a fixed hub and throw out your back brake. But now it's all branded bikes that are technically not for the track, and culturally out of place in this whole fixed wheel pirates of the road fantasy. You may as well ride a powacycle, such is the worst of both worlds characteristics that these mass produced synthetic track machines show.
Yeah, yeah. I'm *sooo* over fixies. Actually I'm not. Despite selling the Fuji last month, I still have a couple of fixies in the fleet. The Bastard remains my bike of choice for the track (um, it’s a track bike,) whereas Sir Walter gets me around town whenever the weather conditions tell me not to risk riding out on the Moulton.
But since falling back into the classic bicycling habit of brakes and gears, I admit to having scorned somewhat at the legion of fixie boys (and girls) cycling off to the City each morning. Fakengers, every one of them.
Selling the Fuji was a great financial and freedom-enabling move. The bloke who bought it wanted hand delivery up in Kilburn. Bugger. I battled around Regent's Park with the stiff frame, having not taken the Fuji out for a spin for sometime. It was a struggle, and a rather uncomfortable one at that. I actually enjoyed the bus journey back into town.
Not quite as much as I enjoyed my first morning out on the Moulton, an experience that I anticipate more with each ride. I'm not sure if London is quite ready for a mass Moulton phase, and given the lack of frames currently on the market, I doubt if the bike shops are either.
But here lies the point: the bike snob within is proud to be riding a machine that wasn't mass-produced and isn't easy to come across. You can still buy decent fixed wheel bikes, although probably not from a major high street store. The City boys I see each morning are struggling along on a frame that may as well be a £79 Halfords boneshaker. It's all style over substance, and even then, they're pushing it, sometimes quite literally.
My Moulton was lovingly made, lovingly passed down generations, and now lovingly lusted over in a way which even I think is not quite healthy for a middle-aged man.
I'm happy to be back to my freewheelin' freedom days of traditional bicycling. It's not about the look; it's all about the enjoyment. Which is just as well, seeing as though more than one acquaintance has asked of my Moulton:
'Why are you riding a girly bike?'
It's got gears, my friend. Gears are good.
For the next six months, anyway.
reply via twitter
| Wednesday 29 April, 2009 |
Flippin 'eck - so where did all the fixies around town suddenly come from then? A morning ride from Clap'ham to the West End, and I was the odd one out. Proudly pedalling along on my Moulton, I calculated that every other bike was a fixed wheel. Gears are for girlies, etc, but even the girlies about town have got in on the fakenger culture.
There's nothing so smug as a reformed ex-fixie, but it seems that the fixed wheel culture has peaked in London. It's now gone mainstream, with most major bicycle chains stocking their own brand of purpose built bikes.
Each to their own, but doesn't this somehow miss the point of the DIY ethos of riding fixed wheel? Purists would argue that track bikes are best kept for le velo. The geometry of a track frame doesn't translate well to the open road, even with the addition of a front break.
The fun of riding fixed wheel is all about customing the bike yourself. Take a 70's road frame, fit a fixed hub and throw out your back brake. But now it's all branded bikes that are technically not for the track, and culturally out of place in this whole fixed wheel pirates of the road fantasy. You may as well ride a powacycle, such is the worst of both worlds characteristics that these mass produced synthetic track machines show.
Yeah, yeah. I'm *sooo* over fixies. Actually I'm not. Despite selling the Fuji last month, I still have a couple of fixies in the fleet. The Bastard remains my bike of choice for the track (um, it’s a track bike,) whereas Sir Walter gets me around town whenever the weather conditions tell me not to risk riding out on the Moulton.
But since falling back into the classic bicycling habit of brakes and gears, I admit to having scorned somewhat at the legion of fixie boys (and girls) cycling off to the City each morning. Fakengers, every one of them.
Selling the Fuji was a great financial and freedom-enabling move. The bloke who bought it wanted hand delivery up in Kilburn. Bugger. I battled around Regent's Park with the stiff frame, having not taken the Fuji out for a spin for sometime. It was a struggle, and a rather uncomfortable one at that. I actually enjoyed the bus journey back into town.
Not quite as much as I enjoyed my first morning out on the Moulton, an experience that I anticipate more with each ride. I'm not sure if London is quite ready for a mass Moulton phase, and given the lack of frames currently on the market, I doubt if the bike shops are either.
But here lies the point: the bike snob within is proud to be riding a machine that wasn't mass-produced and isn't easy to come across. You can still buy decent fixed wheel bikes, although probably not from a major high street store. The City boys I see each morning are struggling along on a frame that may as well be a £79 Halfords boneshaker. It's all style over substance, and even then, they're pushing it, sometimes quite literally.
My Moulton was lovingly made, lovingly passed down generations, and now lovingly lusted over in a way which even I think is not quite healthy for a middle-aged man.
I'm happy to be back to my freewheelin' freedom days of traditional bicycling. It's not about the look; it's all about the enjoyment. Which is just as well, seeing as though more than one acquaintance has asked of my Moulton:
'Why are you riding a girly bike?'
It's got gears, my friend. Gears are good.
For the next six months, anyway.
reply via twitter
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