Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Fixies and the Christian Science Monitor

In today's issue, an article is entitled:
For hard-core biking, try one gear, no brakes (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0923/p11s03-algn.html)

(http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0923/p11s03-algn.html)

A selected quote: "This trend won't last."

i spotted that earlier but didn't get a chance to read it
thanks for the reminder

dont bother... Im bored as sin and still feel liek I wasted my time reading that.

Interesting to get some sales figures, atleast. I always vote for more pictures.

for some reason internet news sites are always so frugal with photos, it seems so silly to me. the internet is such a great media for picture filled news articles

One of the people featured in the article, Jack Curry, is our own ImOnCrank from this forum....

In today's issue, an article is entitled:
For hard-core biking, try one gear, no brakes (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0923/p11s03-algn.html)

(http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0923/p11s03-algn.html)

A selected quote: "This trend won't last."
I like the bit immediately preceeding the one you've quoted even more:
...The experienced road rider bought a fixie in the spring. Now he's selling it. "I only rode it 24 miles," he laments...

damned you boston calling me out like that. He misquoted the **** outta me and I can't email him since i'm in london and my email is all screwy. First of all my name is jack drury, second of all i own one track bike, not three (although you know, that'd be nice), and third of all the only italian parts besides the frame are the bb and headset (again if you wanna hook me up that'd be nice). But ken meant well and the article was definitely meant for people unfamiliar with fixies. He's a nice guy as well, for what that's worth. All love to ken but, you know, phone interviews don't tend to work so well.

you gotta admit it's interesting when the vice president of a corporation (Sky Yaeger - Bianchi USA) admits that his (edit: by "his" i mean "her") products are "a lawsuit just waiting to happen".

i think he's a she

It is a she

The "trend" probably won't last with the unwashed masses, but the true believers will always ride fixies, whether they're trendy or not.

the true believers will always ride fixies, whether they're trendy or not.

I know I will :D

Hell NO! once they bring back Razor scooters, this trend is played and I'm OUT!

or

_Yawn_ everyone writes for the Christian Science Monitor these days...

where is Jesus in all this?

where is Jesus in all this?

Funny, I was just about to ask the one question my grandfather taught me to ask about any newsworthy development: Is it good for the Jews?

Yaeger in the Sky.

i've seen that article before. this time it's just written by somebody else, published in a different paper. hits all the main points though--urban, hardcore, tattoo, crazier than you, how exotic, et cetera. the craze is interesting, but is there really that much to say about fixed gear bikes?

hey! that's RedMenace in the top photo.

As a clarification, Sky Yaeger's comment about "these things are a lawsuit waiting to happen," doesn't in way inidcation that she's talking about her own products. She could be talking about Bianchi bikes, but she could also be talking about fixed gear bikes in general.

As a clarification, Sky Yaeger's comment about "these things are a lawsuit waiting to happen," doesn't in way inidcation that she's talking about her own products. She could be talking about Bianchi bikes, but she could also be talking about fixed gear bikes in general.
She could be talking about brakeless 'track bikes' sold by many companies, including the bike which she personally helped design...

the pistas ship sans brakes, no? that lawsuit waiting to happen is probably one of the dumber comments I've ever seen in print. When the lawsuit does drop the plaintiffs now have evidence that Bianchi was aware of the legal risks of selling 'track' bikes for street use without brakes...

also that 10,000 number is surprisingly low, guess the explosion is really just an urban core thing. Even if conversions and imported/dug up used track bikes are factored that's not a huge market at all. Maybe 20-30,000 additional fixies in the US last year? Wonder how many of those get bought and barely ridden too? Judging from CL and some people I know probably a lot...

Bianchi covers their own ass (so does IRO, if I remember correctly) by stating that you should always use a front brake if riding their fixed gear bicycle in the street.

yeah, that helps them, but I don't think it ensures them of any legal victory, not to mention potential bad PR if a suit gets launched... And no matter how you cut it an executive in charge of a product describing it as a lawsuit waiting to happen is not smart.

I wonder if they ever had any internal discussion weighing the benefits of shipping with and without the brakes? At their level what does adding a front brake cost, $5? $10? If they decided not use a brake cause it pushed them out of their target price point and it can be shown they were aware that most people would be using these on the street, that'd be a pretty nasty lawsuit. All hypothetical, but man, if I was a Bianchi exec I'd definitely want those things shipping with a little something more on the front..

How is the pista "sold for the street." Its called a Track bike, right? Seems like theyre less liable for pistas than they would be on road bikes. To take another tack, do unicycles have to undergo the same scrutiny?

that's the whole point, once you have an exec in an article about people riding breakless in the street talking about how "its a lawsuit waiting to happen", you have the beginnings of a court case. If Bianchi is aware that the main use of the Pista is street riding then the whole "track bike" defense becomes questionable. I'm not saying they would lose a case, only a judge can say that, and there would have to be a case first. But they definitely are opening themselves up to a potential lawsuit. Hopefully nothing like that ever happens, but its still a dumb statement to make to the press.

do pistas ship with an owner's manual? my shwinng did, and it explicitly stated to review the local/state laws for safe and legal riding and the bike shop asked if i was aware of the laws and safe riding; as far as that goes, some (many?) require a brake to operate the bike as a vehicle on the street. so bianchi/surly/iro/whoever can shift the responsibility back to the store/owner for not installing a brake as required by law for street use. would you rather the DOTs/DMVs start requiring safety inspections and registrations every year to make sure your bicycle is safe for you? (keep in mind that the registration stickers will probably be too small to see from afar and cops will be stopping you all the time to make sure its current, oh and it will probably be some ugly color that will detract from your beautiful paint job) i sure as hell dont want to have to go through any more beauracratic nonsense just because someone buys a trackbike and doesnt learn how to ride it properly. if trackbike builders dont already have notices/disclaimers about riding brakeless they will after a lawsuit.

I think a better idea would be to ship it with an "emergency stick" that you can jam in the spokes if you have to stop.

<cite>You should always use a front brake if you plan on riding this bike on the street.</cite>

http://irocycle.com/id78.html

did anybody else see this in that issue of the csm?

http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0923/p01s04-woeu.html

very cool stuff.

what would major taylor do?

<cite>You should always use a front brake if you plan on riding this bike on the street.</cite>

http://irocycle.com/id78.html

what does iro's disclaimer have to do with bianchi?

back to the article:

practically weightless, difficult to stop, extremely speedy rolling bullets - sounds pretty cool

(think of a unicycle with two wheels) - not so much