Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Single Speed On A Whole New Level.....

Think you're a badass....?


http://vimeo.com/32425530

Is there supposed to be something after the rhetorical question?

Edit: video didn't show the first time I loaded this post.

I wish we had trails like that here.

I use to do this back in the day as a kid riding my old bike through the woods by my house.

I just have one question, where did they carry their beer?

Hell yeah...when I was a kid racing BMX in the 80s, we discovered a gnarly series of trails in the woods made by motorcross racers running along a river near my house which stretched for miles. My friends and I would spend entire days down at those trails doing stuff just like that.

Last year I went up to my hometown, drove down to the ol' river and was extremely disappointed to find rows and rows of crappy condos where the trails were.

http://i.imgur.com/MJPQ3.gif

Can anything be the purest form of something without sounding like a tool?

so, going back to the 60's roots. I have a ****ty beach cruiser, LETS DUE EEEEEEET

Hell yeah...when I was a kid racing BMX in the 80s, we discovered a gnarly series of trails in the woods made by motorcross racers running along a river near my house which stretched for miles. My friends and I would spend entire days down at those trails doing stuff just like that.

Last year I went up to my hometown, drove down to the ol' river and was extremely disappointed to find rows and rows of crappy condos where the trails were.

This is exactly the same experience I had...down to the condos replacing the old trails we used as kids.

Man, so many summers as a kid spent discovering and riding trails in the woods. I miss it all.

Great. But its not like the trails are hard or technical. And they're skidding like jackasses. Hella erosion brah.

They are just doing what, Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher, etc did back in the day. Which created mountain biking

Great. But its not like the trails are hard or technical.

Why do they need to be? They're having a blast. Are you so over fun that everything needs to be "hard or technical" to be worth doing now?

Think you're a badass....?

Nope, I'm too much wuss for some of the doubles that yellow bike dude was hittin'.

I wish we had trails like that here.

I wish we had trails like that here.

This vid was filmed in my hometown (Bellingham) I've spent many fun summers on the plethora of bike trails up there. The mountain biking infrastructure is just incredible. The guys in the video are soooo typical of bellingham. Nobody there knows what a hipster is because pretty much everyone is one :P There's a really big and lucrative mountain bike scene up there but sadly nobody knows what a fixed gear is. I probably saw two other guys riding fixed last summer and I rode almost every day.

Here's a short clip of one of the trails on Galbraith Mt. (In bellingham). You could spend days up there and still not cover it all. I've biked probably half of them but I'm not a very good mountian biker so a lot of them were too crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5KDI0NETuc

This map probably outlines 10% of the trails on the mountian.
http://www.mountainbikebill.com/images/Trails/WA-Galbraith/Galbraith-WA-GE-SS.jpg

Can anyone tell I'm homesick?

^ that looks like so much fun. Next bike I'm buying is a MTB. Epic, how is it riding single speed? any problems?

One of the worst parts about the Portland/Vancouver metro area is the long drive to get to real trails. I've been car free for a few years now so rarely get to hit trails. Closest trailhead is 25 miles away, or I can take the bus to the end of the line and it's just a 13 mile ride from there to the trailhead.

I should just move up to B'ham.

^ that looks like so much fun. Next bike I'm buying is a MTB. Epic, how is it riding single speed? any problems?

Once you get the right gear ratio it's a breeze. I love not worrying about the chain hopping off. I rode 32-18 on my 29er all summer and I never had an issue. It was slow on the street between trails but even on the steep stuff I could mash just fine.

Oh man thats low. I was thinking of possibly building one up with something like 30-11 or 33-12 haha

I tried 32x15 on my 26er on local trails and didn't get too far. Gonna try 32x17 here pretty soon.

I rode 34x17 on my 26er last winter before I sold it. On flatter stuff, it was fine. Then I took it out to Camp Horizon, where there's a ton of elevation changes, and it was a freakin' nightmare. Ended up converting to 1x7. Man I miss that bike.

That little black dog is the shizzy!!!

Call me a *****, but that looks mostly frightening.

Great. But its not like the trails are hard or technical. And they're skidding like jackasses. Hella erosion brah.
did you miss the part where the guy was jumping huge gaps (WITHOUT a back tire???????) and doing wallrides......?
keep in mind, this was all done on a worksman-esque cruiser with steel wheels and a coaster brake!

did you miss the part where the guy was jumping huge gaps (WITHOUT a back tire???????) and doing wallrides......?
keep in mind, this was all done on a worksman-esque cruiser with steel wheels and a coaster brake!

Yup. Got bored and stopped watching about a minute in.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having fun. I love having fun. I just don't see the "badass" part the OP was referring to. And no, I don't think I'm one either.

Yup. Got bored and stopped watching about a minute in.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having fun. I love having fun. I just don't see the "badass" part the OP was referring to. And no, I don't think I'm one either.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n110/Hootskoogins/Body-Movin/Giffypics/djcrumbs-debbiedowner-smallified.gif

This looks awesome, and it's pretty clear that some of the riding is badass, more badass than what I can pull off on a klunker.

They are just doing what, Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher, etc did back in the day. Which created mountain biking

Precisely. Why is this supposed to be badass?

That was badass. Maybe you should mountain bike a bit more, you'll have a better understanding of how hard what they're doing is/was.

Precisely. Why is this supposed to be badass?
hey doohickie....go grab an old single speed schwinn cruiser with a coaster brake.
then, jump a couple gaps like they did...throw in a couple wall rides.
hell, just go bunny hop or launch off a ramp on the damn thing.
try it, and you just might see why i called these guys badasses......

Good point.... When I was a kid we used to do that stuff with Schwinn Stingrays, but it's been ages since I've done anything like that.

Good point.... When I was a kid we used to do that stuff with Schwinn Stingrays, but it's been ages since I've done anything like that.

you took your stingrays to the pacific northwest and did huge gaps and wall rides?
impressive!!

That video was shot about a half hour south of the BC border. 2-4 hours south of the North Shore trails, depending on how your border crossing goes.

/nitpick

Good point.... When I was a kid we used to do that stuff with Schwinn Stingrays, but it's been ages since I've done anything like that.

If you were riding like that on Stingrays when you were a kid you must be amazing now. I've been mountain biking hard for the last 18 years and I still can't pull a lot of those kinds of airs, even on a jump bike.

Impressive.

Anything like that, guys. We did some jumps and stuff, sure, but no, we didn't have trails with pipes or stuff like that. Back then we were all just trying to be Evel Knievel.

That was badass. Maybe you should mountain bike a bit more, you'll have a better understanding of how hard what they're doing is/was.

Yeah cus I never mountain bike.

So I've got my eye on one of these Murray Pro early mtb/atb thing.

I have never been able to get a hold of coaster brakes....

But I definitely will as soon as I find some trails with hills like those.

they're all pro riders so obviously they are shredding the hell out of those trails. that's all just lightning fast, and full rigid for some of those gaps takes ridiculous skill.

This vid was filmed in my hometown (Bellingham) I've spent many fun summers on the plethora of bike trails up there. The mountain biking infrastructure is just incredible. The guys in the video are soooo typical of bellingham. Nobody there knows what a hipster is because pretty much everyone is one :P There's a really big and lucrative mountain bike scene up there but sadly nobody knows what a fixed gear is. I probably saw two other guys riding fixed last summer and I rode almost every day.

Here's a short clip of one of the trails on Galbraith Mt. (In bellingham). You could spend days up there and still not cover it all. I've biked probably half of them but I'm not a very good mountian biker so a lot of them were too crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5KDI0NETuc




Oh, my... that looks like way too much fun. I'm with you though, I'm not sure if I have the cojones to do some of those trails.

I have never been able to get a hold of coaster brakes....

But I definitely will as soon as I find some trails with hills like those.


Really? I haven't looked in too many new shops, but our local CO-OP has a grip of them. I also see the at bicycle-swap-meets all the time. Try and find a place like one of those

Yeah, coaster brake 26" steel wheels abound. Check out all the cruisers you see.

Or for an aluminum rim coaster brake wheel:

http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_info.php?products_id=447010

Really? I haven't looked in too many new shops, but our local CO-OP has a grip of them. I also see the at bicycle-swap-meets all the time. Try and find a place like one of those

Ahh....

I meant "get a hold on", as in "I do not understand" coaster brakes. My brain is just hardwired to hand brakes and can even adapt for a fixed gear. But I just don't consider coaster brakes to be safe or practical in any way.

Would they be fun if I had trails like those shown? HELL YESS!! But I'll stick to my hand brakes 'til I move a thousand miles away from flatlandsville.

Sweet vid!! Time for different bars on the Torker...