Relationship of Cars and Fixed Gear bicycles
 

Is it just me, or am I seeing a huge pattern of people that used to build cars (mostly Hondas or other imports) that have now ventured into the whole Fixed Gear arena? I'm seeing huge similarities between both worlds, instead of buying sweet JDM Mugen, HKS, or ARC parts for their cars, it's just like buying NJS Nitto, 3Rensho, or Sugino parts for your bike. I just saw a person in the main "show your bike thread" with an "i-VTEC" sticker on his fork.

I've built up several hondas, an Evo, and I've given up on my G35 ever since I got into biking, but does anybody else see this trend happening? Instead of spending $1,600 on the wheelset for my G35 I can build an entire new bike for half of that, so maybe that's why.

I can count to potato.

that's more of a west coast thing. asians with spikey hair and a bad hype-habit chillin' with their bros out in Cali, more often than not. but the white kids in the 'burbs will pick up on it as well. it's all just conspicuous consumerism and they've moved onto the next fad that they think will get them some teenpuss.

^^holy crap that is funny.

I believe what you are basing this idea that tuners have moved on to FG's on is a logical fallacy known as "Observational Selection". Observational selection is the process of keeping the sample of data that agrees with your premise, and ignoring the sample of data that does not.

The correlation you are seeing stems from the fact that this forum is primarily full of guys in the 16-30 year old range. This would be the target age group for "import tuners" and "former import tuners". In my only-semi-scientific opinion; this is a correlation not a causation thing.

don't forget about optional stopping and social constructionism! Hey, lets talk philosophy...

!!

Yeah it might be the return on investment thing.

If you drop $3,000 to tune up your Civic, nobody is going to know the difference - at least, not without you pointing it out to them, which makes you a supa******.
If you drop $3,000 on a bike, you are a star.

I am not sure if I agree on the entire idea ... but I do think many people I know who enjoy tuning their bikes also have a background in working on automobiles. I think it might just be a personality thing. They seem to enjoy working on machinery. I love working on my bike, obviously, and cars are of some interest to me also. But since I do not own one, I haven't really had the chance to learn about auto repair and maintenance.

huge pattern might be a bit of an overstatement.

There's a difference between spending (wasting?) money and investing. People throw the word "invest" around a lot, and there's no investing going on when it comes to bikes unless you're buyng some super-rare bike-in-a-glass-case type thing and you're going to auction it off for possible profit.

No, trendsters SPEND money on stuff, not invest. The only return I can think of is social points and a neato feeling.

"Invest" means something like "give up in exchange for future advantage". There's no requirement for that future advantage to be in the form of monetary gain.

The return on investment is exactly what you guessed it is: cool points and social status or, as psirue concisely put it, "teenpuss".

$3K into your civic will get you very little admiration and teenpuss.
$3K in your bike will get lots more ooh's and ahh's, in addition to teenpuss.

Thus, greater return (ooh's, ahh's, teenpuss) on investment ($3K).

Trendsters should invest on moving out of their parent's house. :p

this. it's more about fixing/tweaking things and enjoying subtle differences for me. i try not to attract attention whenever possible… as much as i love the idea of a 911 clubsport, ducati SS, or blingy 3Rensho, i'd get irritated really quick with that sort of attention.

no relation at all. i mean, im an audi tech and have been 'messing' with cars my whole life, and i ride a fixed gear. explain my friends who i ride with who dont give a **** about cars and even wear socks that have the 'no cars' sign on them. how could they have possibly gotten on a fixed gear bike without first being interested in cars? seriously, a thread like the 'vws and fixies' thread is cool, i like both, but there is no correlation.

also i have a problem with overkill syndrome. there's a guy in my town who just sold his lotus exige and bought a new ferrari, and he can't even drive it… not that he goes much of anywhere other than to park it in front of the bar on saturday nights.

i 'accepted' the lotus since we do have a few (poorly maintained) back roads around here, and it's a nimble, unique car, but a ferrari? come on.

not that i ride my felt to its capacity ever.

I've got well over $3K tied up in bikes and bike accessories and I get no teen-puss. I guess I'm doing it wrong. http://www.easttnriders.com/forum/im...milies/102.gif

Me too. My friends think it's outrageous, but it's way less than the average person spends on a car monthly.

I agree with the 'its probably people that just like to tinker' thing. I used to like playing with older European cars, but trying to live in a city, without a driveway of your own, with a project car, gets to be a PITA. Bikes are just as fun to wrench on, cost a tiny fraction of the money, assist with fitness, and even once you have a fast one, you don't have to worry about tickets, impoundings, etc :)

I've built 4 Jeeps (CJ3a, CJ8, XJ, TJ), an 84' Blazer, a '68 shortwide, and now I drive a 1990 Mercedes so I don't have to work on a car ever again.

Working on bikes is a lot cheaper of a hobby, it's healthier, and I'm not constantly getting tickets/DWIs.

Another weird correlation I've seen, as a drummer myself, is that a lot of cyclists are also drummers. Does anyone else play the drums out there?

I am a drummer. I like the mechanical workings of things and figuring out how things work. I think this discussion is more about what kind of persononality is attracted to tuning cars, bikes, drums, etc.

i was going to make a thread about music/bikes but not anymore...i'm a drummer as well

details on your setup?

yeah where is all this teenpuss i've been hearing about?

We just go where ever the carbon fiber leads us. :)

yeah for 3k, tuning a civic and you think you won't notice a difference, BS. or any car. :lol: