SCARFACE

https://www.dirtragmag.com/web/article.php?ID=744

mattface 

Interesting interpretation... that's not what I took from that article at all.

HereNT

Yeah, nothing about brakeless, and he switched to a geared MTB after the divorce...

skanking biker

agreed---indeed, it would seem that riding brakeless COST him his marriage

morbot

the moral of the story was learn to use gears or else you will get lost in the monotony of the single speed and lose everything you love. so, an anti-fixed gear article, though more just for metaphorical reasons

chicagoamdream

What a ridiculous article.

skanking biker

agreed--sounds to me like his wife $crewed him over and that his fixed gear kept him sane through the ordeal

*new*guy

I think this is pretty spot on.

"There is only one problem with the fixed gear bike—you have only one gear, and its possible to get lulled into a hypnotic trance. Here's how my ride goes—jump on the bike. Mindlessly turn the crank. Move forward. Balance. Steer a little to the left. Compensate. Steer a little to the right. Push a little harder on the hills. Pull back a little on the descents. Day in and day out, the ride is pretty much the same."

monkey

The ex got the dream house.
"If you aint no punk holla 'We Want Prenup!'"

oilfreeandhappy

Strange article. It kind of hit home, because my wife is on my case because I haven't adjusted her brakes yet.

morbot

to push as hard as you can against the world, and yet to be always pushed back at with the overwhelming force that the world is capable of, is to remind us of what we really are. the mind wills us to go faster and longer, denying our limits and denying our fallibility; only the body bows to the real. the mind rejects the world when we are wronged, the body is beyond good and evil. we are unceasingly reminded that our will is infinitesimally small compared to the insurmountable force of the real.

schiavonec

It sounds like this 'problem' is just perspective. When you have a level of control that allows you to 'fly on autopilot' or to have your muscle memory 'ride' for your mind it sounds more like zen (and I'm no philosopher or 'deep' individual) than a problem.


LOL 'lulled into a hypnotic trance'. Bottle it and sell it as a pill instead of a cheap fixie so people don't have to get off the couch and you will gain access to the 'real' marketplace.

Ken Cox

Really.
I didn't agree with everything the author wrote, and, in fact disagreed with much.
Nonetheless, the article served the purpose of making me think.

My daughter got married this last Saturday afternoon.
What an emotional ordeal.
Wait until you have a grown daughter and you'll understand.

Anyway, I got up that morning and told my wife I needed a sanity ride and I'd try to get back before the wedding.
So, I went and did THE HILL on my fixed gear bike.

Later that day, after the wedding and in the quiet of our home, my wife described my morning sanity ride as "a very smart thing to do."
Yes.

A few days or weeks ago, I flew several patients from an automobile accident that killed an entire family.
I can't talk too much about it because of patient confidentiality, but I identified very much with one of the patients, who died on the helicopter.
That night I rode home in the dark against a vicious wind.
What a blessing.

skanking biker

At least in my personal experience, riding fixed helps me keep sane---No smaller gears to fall back on--no excuses--just me, my bike, the hill, the ride. Simple, yes, mindnumbing--thats the point. If i dont make it, i have no one to blame but myself---so long as i can take the hill, i can face the job the next day. No matter how bad it burns, it is solely an issue of willpower to make it. The simplicitly of the ride is what keeps me sane. The toll on my willpower means that if i possess the fortitude to make it up the hill, i can handle the a-holes at work.

It sounds to me that the author would have gone off his rocker were it not for his "sanity rides"

MKRG

Monotonous and unchanging. Interesting perspective. Albeit wrong. Gears allow the bike to adapt to the rider. Therefore the bike is what adapts and is flexible. If the bike doesn't change it forces the rider to adapt and be resilient. Just another way to look at it.

Ken Cox

What a delicious challenge.
I learn something everytime I ride my fixed gear bike.
I revel in the intimacy, the inescapable effortless concentration.

My wife says a kite cannot fly unless a string attaches it to the ground.
Somehow, my one fixed gear keeps me grounded, and I fly.

muftek

DUH, the original poster is implying that the marriage fell apart because, as you can clearly see in the picture, the author is NOT riding brakeless.

1>2

Can someone older than myself explain to me why marriages end like that? Is boredom really a *****?

Ken Cox

If someone marries because his or her life partner has a nice body or face, that soon fades.

I mean, we all look beautiful to someone at some point in our lives, if only for two weeks or two years.

However, beauty goes its way, and people find themselves fascinated more by their work and their hobbies than by their partner.

Marry your best friend.
Friendship has its own beauty, and it lasts.

bigbikerbrian

man. this thread got kind of serious. i mean, relationship counseling?
however, i agree with ken cox. seriously, i do.

skanking biker

because people get married when they are still twitterpated--then when the monotony of family life takes hold they feel cheated: "why arent things the way they used to be--i want excitement, adventure, etc" --this happened to two of my best friends--married right out of HS or while in college, while they were still "in love." The "in love" thing fades fast. Both of my friends had to take 2 jobs to support a family--the wife stayed home and got bored and upset b/c my friends worked all the time. [not that its always the female's fault--another one of my male friends got mad at his wife for spending all of her time with the baby and the fact he couldnt hang out with his beer budies anymore, and left her].

Its much harder to love someone than be "in love" with them.

In contrast, my uncle married his best friend of 10 years in his 30s--both were friends while they dated others-they knew each other inside and out by the time they got hitched--no suprises there--20 years and going strong. he works on his cars while she does her thing--they both respect each other's hobbies and arent trying to change one another
--

That and people are such self-centered egoists today that when they can't achieve instant gratification, encounter problems that require time and committment to work out, they quit and move onto the next flavor of the month.

Part of it is also that marriage doesnt mean what it used to. My grandparents fought constantly, but still found a way to make it work for 60 years. Today, someone in thier shoes would have said the hell with it and moved on
---I guess living through the great depression and a world war puts domestic arguments over a canopener in perspective.


My 2 worthless cents

invicta

I side with Kanye here...

MKRG

I agree with Ken Cox. Unfortunately she doesn't.

kennethalan

THAT is the best thing written in this forum in a long time. It wasn't even bike related either. Strange.

geog_dash

"Which gear am I in? Am I in the right gear? Is my cadence right? What does the computer say? There's a rise coming, but it's also turning downwind a bit. Should I shift up or down? Should I shift now or wait until I slow down? ... O.K. I've shifted gears. Haven't I? I thought I heard something, but it seems the same. Look down. Has the chain moved? Is it about to shift? Did it jump two? ... Am I cross chaining? What's that noise? Does that thing need cleaning again? ..."

I'll take riding "mindlessly" any day of the week. Mindless in this context means paying attention to my body and my surroundings, not some Italian posing gadget.

Yes, I know how gears work, and how to clean drive trains, and how to adjust limit stops and indexing. I'm just not sure it's worth the trouble. To each his own.