flexo

ok, im a long time cyclist but i haven't been riding a fixed gear for very long. in finding parts and advice online and in my various LBS's, and on forums and CL, the idea that a fixed gear is the ride for a 'hipster' is everywhere. this has been a little confusing to me, especially the occasional (and virulent) anti-hipsters-on-fixed-gear explosions on nyc CL. most of the fixed gear rider i see are messengers, working, downtown. whats so hip about that?
but then yesterday i went on a ride to queens that took me through williamsburg and over the williamsburg bridge and o-my-god do i get it now. half the bikes over the bridge were fixed-gears, and bedford avenue was lined with them chained to poles. Most were without brakes, and a strangely large percentage of the riders were upright with their hands close together on the top of track bars (both uphill and downhill). so thats where they all are. of course, williamsburgs 'resurgence' was founded on maybe-i-didnt-do-it-first-but-i-was-the-first-one-to-realise-it-was-cool hipness, and, typical for this everyones-an-anti-conformist nabe, everyone had on the same fixed-gear riding uniform (t shirt, jeans rolled up to mid-shin or 'capri' style long shorts, a sort of wide head band thing.)
now, there were two things in particular that were confusing: 1, why does no one wear a helmet? in my unscientific analysis, only the people with stupidly nice bikes had helmets on. as if they needed longer lives to justify their extravagant purchases. 2, on the way back to manhattan over the w-burg bridge, on the downhill slope, you cant get any speed cuz about every 20 ft there are serious 'speed bump' type things (some sort of metal 1/2in platform presumably involved in holding the bridge together). i feel sorry for anyone coming into manhattan on that bridge on a regular basis. will the williamsburg explosion of fixed gear (which i assume to mean steel road frame, thin tires, etc) lead to the hipness of the queensborough bridge? its a much more comfortable ride.
so my point is that yes, riding a fixed is clearly hip beyond the pale. there's nothing inherently wrong with that, i guess it is just demoralizing to see so many people looking the same are acting like they are cooler than you b/c they are different. whatever. im all for more people on their bikes, more people riding fixed. as a friend recently said, he isn't riding fixed for the alt-bike-culture thing, but just b/c he likes the riding style. as with many things, just because hipsters decide something is cool doesn't make it less worthwhile. so why does it feel so oppressive?

mattista

Are we really gonna do this again? Fixed bikes are nice and simple and lots of people enjoy riding them. I presume the people reading this forum either ride fixed/ss or are interested in what it is like to ride fixed/ss.

Right. Just don't let it feel oppressive. I went for one of the best rides ever today, stopped by and caught the second half of the baseball game and drank a few beers. My legs feel beat. It's great. Don't let it matter.

brunning

it's pretty simple, ride whatever bike you like and don't worry your pretty little head about anyone else.

wearing a helmet is never a bad idea, but you can make that decision for yourself.

and who needs to get speed on the williamsburg bridge? you wanna exit into delancey street traffic at 40mph?

Slodo

It is very strange that the "scene" is so enormous out there. I'm in Chicago and, yes, you do see the ocassional classic hipster on a fixed-gear (no handlebar tape, severe stem angles, no brakes, decals, etc.) but out here it is really limited to occasional sightings of these people. I don't know if that's really cool or really sux that there is such a community out there. I suppose if no one is acting like they're excluding newbies and other riders its cool. Perhaps fixed will be in the 2000s what the mountain bike was in the mid-1990s......

53-11_alltheway

Fixed gear for me isn't about being hip or cool. The main reason I want one is for riding on recovery days. I do a 25 mile relatively flat ride on those days. Why put wear on my other bike for this?

I'm also attracted to simplicity of the design.

ostro

The no helmet thing is what gets to me. The justification for not wearing one is just plain ridiculous and its is on par with getting into a car and not buckling up.

Looking cool does not make you invincible. Just plain ridiculous.

steaktaco

- t shirt,
- jeans rolled up to mid-shin or 'capri' style long shorts,
- a sort of wide head band thing

anything else I need?

weed eater

anyone have a pic of this "wide head band thing"? i can't picture it. sounds very un-hip to me.

steaktaco, you forgot
- a quarter in case you need to call home

H23

I've been riding a long time, also, and only this fall started riding fixed. I admit I did it because I was suckered by the hype. There sure are some benefits to fixed, I certainly don't care about the fashion-side of it, but the training benefits are real.

Back in the 80's, very very few people were riding fixed. We all thought it was extremely impractical and only worthy for a track.

Slodo

Yeah, leg warmers I think.

jacobs

..

flexo

yeah, im sure you guys have all had to deal with this sort of rant before, sorry. but it is a little out of control here in nyc. like the people at an unnamed LBS who look at me funny cuz im carrying a helmet. and who act like they don't want to be helpful with fixie questions cuz it all just a bunch of mad hipsters. (i wanted to know what they thought about the miche cog system - perhaps a question for another post). so i guess the corollary problem is all the people who think they are cooler than the hipsters, or just have had enough.
im all for people riding whatever they want, and im riding fixed for a slew of reasons that are mostly (though not completely, i admit) unrelated to looking cool. its just weird when you do something you want to do and have to deal with all this backlash for something you're not even a part of. on the other hand, this hipster fixie crowd is mighty entertaining.
now this head band thing _is_ a little odd. its like 2 in wide, looks like cotton, usually black. worn back from the forehead a bit, usually with medium length or relatively short hair. its a little girlie in a kind of roughed-up-metrosexual sort of way. its one of those things that looks good on a few people but ridiculous on a lot of others. (kinda like all the hip ckicks wearing cowboy boots and skirts, another summer craze here in new york)
so whats the deal with riding so high on the handlebars? i tried it, so uncomfortable. ive seen messengers do it too and never got it.

Slodo

But seriously, if you guys think about it the more hipsters riding the better. Young, urban hip people generally have lots of expendable income so they buy their way into coolness. Think about this tho- the more they spend the more companies put into r&d and coming out with new and more products. I already see it. A few years back it was tricky to find good fixed/single parts on the web; today even performancebike and nashbar are starting to regularly stock hubs, bars, and other stuff. It can only be good for the pack. So go out there and spend you trendy youths!!

pitboss

this is actaully a good question - the cog mounting system is what I assume you mean, correct? The carrier+cog set-up. what are the questions?

12XU

The only people I see with true track bikes aren't hipsters as a person previously suggested, but the truly in the know hardcore messengers and track riders. Next misinformed statement please...

ostro

I think he was wondering if they were "hip" or not.

pitboss

go away, bad monkey...

ostro

but i love hanging out here...

HereNT

I typically ride with my hands right at the stem or where the drop starts (only a couple of inches away) and rarely hit the drops. It just feels better there, and the responsivness/twichyness is a lot more pronounced.... Don't know why I do it, it just feels right.

gonesh9

I was a bit concerned about this whole concept, too, when I started riding fixed. But now have realized, who gives a shift? There's a few holier-than-thou fixters around here, but for the most part people riding them are just discovering the joys that riding them bring. I know I am. To those who care what kind of bike I'm riding, bitsh at me all you want for intruding on your scene, but I ride my bike more than most. The ones riding for the fad of it will soon enough switch to the next fad that comes along. Fixed gears have been around a lot longer than geared bikes, so I just consider myself a nostalgist rather than a hipster.

i_DROP

I started riding becuase I read about it in Vice.

WithNail

alright, well I just have one question: is it worse to be the hipster or the jacka$$ that thinks they´re so cool they can call anyone else riding a fixie a hipster? If they bother you so much then you´re just as bad as them. Just ignore them and pay attention to your own riding.

I´m not pointing fingers at anyone, but I´m just getting sick of hipster bashing being the new topic of choice and the new hip insult.

and no I don´t wear a headband, I roll up my jeans to my knees and the only reason I wear a t-shirt is because I can´t afford those beautiful vintage wool jerseys they had at keirin cafe and cicli berlinetta...

flexo

im putting together a new bike, with miche cranks and bb, and i noticed the cog mounting system when i was looking online. it seems like a good, sensible system (esp given that it is 1/8) but i was wondering if it works well, basically just if someone who has used it would recommend it. and if it makes sense for city riding, as it is clearly intended for track use. anyone out there riding with it? should this be a seperate thread?

shants

it seems to me that, so long as the person riding the bike genuinely loves riding the bike, who really cares? i've seen hipster girlfriends and dudes bungling around on their fixed conversions, uninterested in any substantial riding -- anything that might make them sweat. that is ridiculous, but you cannot necessarily determine how committed and authentic someone is just from their appearance.

there are ******s who do everything. just because they do what you want to do, doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it.

WithNail

what´s the difference? I just looked on their website and it looks like a regular track hub. I mean I know it has a way different threading that any other hub, so what´s the difference or do they have a new one that´s not on their website?