Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Calling All-city Fixie Guides

i'm helping my friends at vice with a booklet they're doing about fixed gear bikes. as a supplement, they are putting together some city bike maps a la superfuture.com--in their words "the idea is that you could print it, take it to Philly, and get to know the city a bit."--which will be published on pumaville.com.

this seems to be a very open-ended project - meaning you can pretty much highlight any spot worth noting for your average vice reader. here are some possibilities:
- fixed-friendly LBS's
- good areas to ride
- bad areas, places to avoid riding
- spots to grab a cold one after a long day :P

would anyone want to lend your guidance and insider info for this project? it'd be a labor of love, since there is no budget (i know i know, pls don't shoot the messenger)...
i'm looking for experts to help map out the following cities:

chicago (have already tapped absntr!)
nyc (ceya? ch0mb0?)
philly
portland
sf
seattle

i also suggested dc, mpls & boston, but dunno yet if they're gonna get covered.

EMAIL ME : turd@ephemeroi.com

I'd be down with helping on MPLS if you did end up including it...

I'd be willing to help a bit with SF.
Question though, as far as bars and hangouts, do you want the trendy fixie hangout spots, or any place that might be good?

no Honolulu huh? Im so glad im moving

I'll help with New Orleans.

i can chip in where needed.

With all due respect, why should people help out Vice (and especially Puma) for free?? You guys can flame me if you want, but they're a for-profit company. I'm sure they can use some of those LCD Soundsystem profits to "spread the love". I'd feel much better about something like this if it was an independent project or something sponsored by an organization like Transportation alternatives rather than a hip urban brand. (sorry turd, s'just the way I feel)

With all due respect, why should people help out Vice (and especially Puma) for free?? You guys can flame me if you want, but they're a for-profit company. I'm sure they can use some of those LCD Soundsystem profits to "spread the love". I'd feel much better about something like this if it was an independent project or something sponsored by an organization like Transportation alternatives rather than a hip urban brand. (sorry turd, s'just the way I feel)

i fully respect & understand that.. and in fact, i'm kinda annoyed but i'm doing it as a personal favor. it's ok to not want to contribute.

nevermind Gavins (the editor) "im canadian but i love george bush and im all for the neocon agenda" rant during the elections... i never picked up a vice again after that one... vice and their stupid fixie guide can bite me! ha! that felt good

why does this have to be fixie specific? seems pretty lame.

man, i hate vice... what a lump of ****

nevermind Gavins (the editor) "im canadian but i love george bush and im all for the neocon agenda" rant during the elections... i never picked up a vice again after that one... vice and their stupid fixie guide can bite me! ha! that felt good


Hey SR have u read vice's guide to LA? They pretty much just made fun of the place and talked mad sh*t about LA. Some of it was funny but still pretty harsh. To sum up their 'guide' in one sentence, LA sucks a$$ and people in LA sucks @ss. Definately did not make my friend who had just moved to LA feel any better about her decision. I was laughing hard when she asked if the "guide" was right when they compared Silver Lake to Williamsburg.

Oh lord, not Vice. Please.

ha.. no i didnt see it.. but its hilarious that theyd diss l.a. right after their store in (*cough, cough) silverlake shut down.... its easy to hate a place that doesnt fall for your b.s. or really care...im over peope who make fun of los angeles... its way too easy.. i admit theres some really stupid stuff here... but i feel like it makes the good stuff better for someweird reason

speaking of which, do you know if it's worth seeing that King Tut exhibit? I'm going to be in LA for a week, starting next thursday. have you seen it or heard good things?

PS - turd, didn't mean to turn this into a hating-on-Vice thread. i'm just so sick of profit mongers getting people to be their henchmen for free. this is especially true in the entertainment industry, where you get really smart, capable people with all sorts of degrees doing trained-monkey work for peanuts, OR doing hard, somewhat mentally taxing work for free. Not that I'm bitter or anything...

or maybe they did the old bandwagon-hopping-switcharoo and premptively, and unwittily at best, started dissing la because that sounds cooler than actually helping people with honest and informative answers... the vice mentality is weak all around, no doubt about it. its cutting edge to be nasty and all-knowing, it's cutting edge to be insincere and bratty, it's cutting edge to diss on the places you go and the people you know.

valencia street sucks. tenderloin sucks. san francisco pretention sucks. white belts paired with mesh hats suck. silver lake is trendy. the brite spot is an overrated dripping bore. (oh, but the food is good.....) we all bond through negativity, it's sad.

yum.. brite spot... no i dont know about the tut exhibit.. but i totally want to go to the sergio leone exhibit at the western museum.. which is totally worth goinng to no matter what exhibit they have..id like to see some tut though..

and turd i apologize too..didnt mean to turn this into slander.. im all for a good bike guide

im with drac... im trying my best to leave my 20s behind and not be a negative know it all creep ... but its easier said then done

an oppourtunity to highlight a neighborhood business or even increase bike traffic in any area can only be a good thing.

Wow, I'm obviously not even cool enough to be uncool, the only magazine I read is Harpers. Never heard of Vice before today, I was just gonna mark up a map with my favorite spots in the hope that it would turn people on to some good places.

Should have guessed though(not trying to shoot the messenger here, sorry Turd), the map I got to mark up for SF covers (I will tell you the corners of the map, starting with upper left) GG bridge/Fort Point, Aquatic Park, 13th/Van Ness, and Stow Lake. Very frustrating. There are a few good neighborhoods there, but come on, the Marina? Pacific Heights? No North Beach, FiDi, SoMa, or Mission?

Hey Turd, when you get the maps back from people post them up on here as well. That way we can all benefit from this :)

honest open sincerity, free of the bitter taste of self-masturbatory know-it-all-ishness, coupled with a nice warm smile. it's totally hard to do.

what's funny is eventually you realize that you are sitting in the place that you dislike, with people that are careless and impossible to shake from their negativity, talking poorly on everything and everyone and saying "god i hate this, god i hate that" while doing the things you rag on. it takes a lot to break away from that stuff. sure, a snide comment now and then is in order, it's fun to insult people and things and a witty one is totally priceless; but still: the more salt you shake on the haters the more salt you get in your mouth when you talk the trash, and no one likes choking on their words!

if its the same tut exhibit that passed through san francisco, i say go!

financial: those neat above ground walkways that connect like spiderwebs all above embarcadero through those weird condominium communities and stuff. if you find the right gate, and are a capable fence hopper, a nice wam pool awaits. that should be in there!

I think it's a bit hard to really narrow or pigeon hole places that are cool to go to. Especially in big cities like NY or SF. People like different things and sure we all like fixies but that doesn't mean we'll like the same places. I think the idea is nice, but very hard to execute. it'd be a big map with a lot of red all over it.

I think it's a bit hard to really narrow or pigeon hole places that are cool to go to. Especially in big cities like NY or SF. People like different things and sure we all like fixies but that doesn't mean we'll like the same places. I think the idea is nice, but very hard to execute. it'd be a big map with a lot of red all over it.

If we talk about it the way we see it, we are describing what our ride is like. I know i have certain rides that i appreciate on a practical level. Such as good pavement vs bad, heavy traffic, traffic signals or perhaps a confusing intersection or a even surprise out-of-nowhere 15% grade.

We could classify the rides based on the amount of zig zaggin you will do or if it is light free for 10miles on a specific route. Scenic route vs fastest route, etc... These are things that local cyclists have a better understanding of because of their experience riding around and familiarizing themselves with what works. I would appreciate a good guide to a city that would provide a good cycling experience for someone from out of town.

No Problem, I will help and get feed back from of the guys. You send some to me turd.

S/F<
CEYA!

1 1/2 weeks then NO MORE Forums! :eek:
sad but true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

back to other things...

good routes yes, I was talking about bars. Its still a good idea, I'm always interested in exploring bars and neighborhood, even if I don't like them, at least I'll know in the future.

There's no way Vice has any intention of making a useful guide -- that's not what they do. Any honest information is wasted.


an oppourtunity to highlight a neighborhood business or even increase bike traffic in any area can only be a good thing.

Agreed -- but Vice is really interested in highlighting their highest paying ad accounts. Everything else is just filler.

don't worry guys abt venting, i braced myself for it before i decided to reach out.. and i don't think any less of y'all -- you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have..

and i think you can have fixie-specific content in a bike map. the roadie and fixie subcultures are quite distinct and so are the physical areas where they frequent (what was it again -- the goats and the.. ?)

& ceya - many thanks! you've been such a valuable (re)source, it'd be wonderful to have your participation.

I can help with bike events in NYC. Some not track related, but hey we all are riding something. Let me know.

One thing I'd like to see is an online map that had good bike routes/lanes/paths marked, and then color coded and clickable with avg speed. There are a few roads out here that I know the exact speed to hit every single green light for miles - you go too fast or too slow and you miss the lights. There are paths that look good on the map but are all torn up and old and not worth riding on.

Being able to real-time update a city for light timing, construction, trail condition, etc, would be really cool. Being able to search for, say a sushi bar 20 miles from your location that would involve a ride and then sushi would be cool. Plotting your training route and having a list of coffee shops a few miles from your turn around point would be cool...

Sorry I'm babbling. I should have never looked into the google maps api and realized what could be done with it. Now if I could just figure out HOW to do it...

an oppourtunity to highlight a neighborhood business or even increase bike traffic in any area can only be a good thing.

Believe me, you don't want these people infesting your favorite bars and LBSes, or in any other manner suddenly pretending to be interested in fixed-gear bicycles--or any kind of bicycles--just because Vice told them them that it's the new hip thing. Don't say you weren't warned.

Having very little prior knowledge about them I hadnt realized that Vice mag was such a downer. I thought if one of us posted it here it couldnt be that bad, i just figured it would be a good way print something that most of us here could not afford to do. I think the idea is still a great one, if not vice maybe some other mag or small scale production.

**** Vice. I wouldn't even help that publication if they were paying.

Damn, well everyone who marks up a map, post it here as well, that way we can see what people like in other cities. Do it for us at least. Ostro, if you send me the map you mark up I'll combine it with mine and anyone else who does SF, and post it here for people who may be visiting SF.

How about someone around here who is good with the google map stuff make something with a user base of "city editors" for various places? I'm not that good with api stuff, but I would help in any way that I can.

I think it's a bit hard to really narrow or pigeon hole places that are cool to go to. Especially in big cities like NY or SF. People like different things and sure we all like fixies but that doesn't mean we'll like the same places. I think the idea is nice, but very hard to execute. it'd be a big map with a lot of red all over it.


yeah ya gotta be pretty specific about what you go about reporting on.
For a publication like Vice Magazine I'd contribute a list of "places to get f*cked up in NYC".
That's the kinda stuff you see in Vice.

It would be much more accurate than that lousy "Stoned in NY" crap that TimeOut printed, I'll tell u what! :mad:

we should have a map of places with the longest/cheapest happy hour. I vote for Ryan's pub on 1st? $2 jager shots!!!

Hot *****! $2 shots in NYC? What's the cross streets?

roar... sorry.. couldn't resist....if you agree with the sentiment.. then by all means help 'em out..

http://www.amconmag.com/08_11_03/feature.html

me? i think its evil.

wow...that's a funny article... He's funny...

I think moving from Montreal to NYC must've made them even "hipper" cuz he knows whats hip...
what a loser...

reading that article made me depressed, I'm gonna go take my $2 jager shots and sign up as a republican because I'm a hipster and VICE is the source of all thats hip and cool in the world.

**** Vice

http://www.amconmag.com/08_11_03/feature.html



Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. "Hipublicans." You picked a lousy time to try to make Republicanism hip, Vice boy.

I think I'll polish up my white leather belt and roll on down to my local Army Recruiting center to volunteer to go to Iraq. You think they'll let me keep my fauxhawk?

That article made me throw up in my mouth...

Hey SR have u read vice's guide to LA? They pretty much just made fun of the place and talked mad sh*t about LA. Some of it was funny but still pretty harsh. To sum up their 'guide' in one sentence, LA sucks a$$ and people in LA sucks @ss. Definately did not make my friend who had just moved to LA feel any better about her decision. I was laughing hard when she asked if the "guide" was right when they compared Silver Lake to Williamsburg.

vice is totally right... los angeles is the worst... especially last week... i mean just look at this photo... hell on earth..

http://www.slabco.com/malibu1.jpg

Yeah, seeing that photo, I'm so glad I moved to NYC. Why would I want to live in 70 year round weather, I love the heat and humidity here in NYC. I'm glad I got out when I did, that beach looks like hell, and the waves are sh*t, I can get much better surfing in NYC. I don't know how I managed to stay in Santa Monica for so long without shooting myself. Vice... They tha man!!!

SR, I recommend you go pick up a copy of that guide, it's pretty funny.

One thing I'd like to see is an online map that had good bike routes/lanes/paths marked, and then color coded and clickable with avg speed. There are a few roads out here that I know the exact speed to hit every single green light for miles - you go too fast or too slow and you miss the lights. There are paths that look good on the map but are all torn up and old and not worth riding on.

Being able to real-time update a city for light timing, construction, trail condition, etc, would be really cool. Being able to search for, say a sushi bar 20 miles from your location that would involve a ride and then sushi would be cool. Plotting your training route and having a list of coffee shops a few miles from your turn around point would be cool...

Sorry I'm babbling. I should have never looked into the google maps api and realized what could be done with it. Now if I could just figure out HOW to do it...

As for the google maps feature, I don't know what the code is behind it. Put a streets map into ArcView (a GIS application) with the data you mention is more than possible, its pretty easy. I just don't know how to export it from ArcView to an online application. ideas on that could get the ball rolling (of course it would really be a free project and would require a lot of data collection)...

on a semi-similar note, philly has a map ( i picked it up in my office building) that ooutlines the roads here that have bike lines as well as a number of streets color coded for being favorable to cyclists. I keep it on my wall.

SR, I recommend you go pick up a copy of that guide, it's pretty funny.

ill try annd find it... since they shut their store down, i haven't even seen an issue of vice.. its like they gave up on this place..but thats the lame part about that magazine..as much as you wannt to hate it.. every once in a while it really makes me laugh...the article "10 bands everyone loves but really suck" comes to mind..

Awesome.

Allow me to summarize: "I believe 88% of our readers are mentally ********. You can quote me on that."

I got it at the giant robot store on sawtelle, there's a GR store in silverlake.

ah.. yes there is.. right across fromm the ex-vice.. my friend works there.. ill check it.. adn to further derail this thread..i got that "disposable" book from the gr store.. about skateboard deck art.. it rules.. good pictures..and is really entertaining to read..two thumbs up!

yeah, GR has some great books. I've been meaning to try GR eats everytime I'm back in LA, but have not made it yet.