veggiemafia

Fixed gear bikes are getting popular?

I hadn't noticed.

mander

As Freddy Nietzsche said "Where one can no longer love, there one should pass by".

massappeal

if that narrator had an less of a personality, he'd be dead

vomitron

When he said he was doing a documentary on fixed gear bikes, I started talking as much intense sht as I could. The SF/NYC stuff was actually pretty tame, in comparison. He kept trying to bait me into talking trash about roadies, which I thought was hilarious, because I have some intense roadie lust.

He kept asking me, "So what's it like having an amazingly hot bike? Like do people approach you on the street and stuff?" or, "Do you feel like, I don't know, above other people with their road conversions?"

I wish he had published the other sht talking I did.

Serendipper 

I like your NYC comments. They were hilarious. "one crank" LOL

sivat

Dude was riding a converted S-Works bike. I emailed him when he said he was looking for people to talk to, but when I found him at ridazz and listened to the people he was talking to, I just couldn't be a part of it. I think its weird that they focus so much about how weird it is to ride in jeans. Thousands of people commute to work on walmart mountain bikes in jeans every day. I think it would be more strange to show up for a mellow, low speed, low mileage ride in full lycra.

Serendipper 

I just wish they focused on the bikes more. You can always overdub the dialog...but cheezy echno and headshots of random people don't make a good cycling documentary, IMNHO.

robx

if this was written down (like, for a newspaper)...it wouldnt even be good enough for my school's paper.
the narration is just...god..so bad.

heroblast

bahahahaha....

marqueemoon

almost as bad as the music

bonechilling

My friend from the Netherlands is shocked that people get
dressed up to ride their bikes. Growing up in Amsterdam,
it wouldn't occur to her to ride in anything other than her
work or everyday clothes.

sivat

That's the problem with the bicycling magazine mindset (the guy did the documentary for bicycling). They think every ride is a "training" ride. You need to have your full CSC kit to match your CSC team edition bike. They seem to forget that some people just like to jump on a bike and ride for fun.

andypants

Bike riding in jeans? It's so necessary.


I was also suprised how bicycling magazine doesn't know that sometimes people ride in their normal clothes. I think the fact that they sponsored it adds to the tone of that video, that all fixed riders are young and inexperienced. I think some definitely are, but not every kid with a candy bike.

p.s.- I hate the shins and so do most of my friends that ride.

mander

^^ Yeah it's like they went out of their way to find this jobroni to represent fixed riders, and then had vomitron the courier and the store guy in there to represent (respectively) the bemused trackies and couriers, and the store owners cashing in. Well that's part of the story but it's not the whole thing.

sleepy

So track bikes are popular. Big whoop.
When I was a kid, I remember all the other cats tripping on how punk and hardcore were getting mainstream.
It's still around in some way or another.
Thing is, with a bicycle a means of transportation, like a trackbike, are always going to be around.
That's why you all ride it, right? 'Cuz it's simple, it's enervating, and it makes us all feel good.
And when Jason Lee stops riding it, or doesn't, you still going to ride it.
The real amusing aspect of it all, it that the videoblog, or whatever it's called, was calling out what this forum does regularly. A diss on all the "hipsters" and whatnot.
Vontz is down. He trains. Has been longer than me. Longer than some of us. So it's a little understandable when a longtime roadie notices all these fools ridin' bikes all over town.
So... Whatever. This thread died a while back. Though I'd say my piece.

Placid Casual

But...but...but...there are people riding BIKES! In JEANS! On BIKES!

With JEANS on, on their BIKES!

Has this guy ever been out of the United States? Or noticed all the immigrants in LA who ride to and from work in their street clothes? Or been to any community with the word "Beach" in it?

br995

My biggest complaint is the price of things now.

That, and people who can't ride/don't ride getting on a brakeless bike and causing accidents.

killsurfcity

i find it funny how all of these docs start with the "spin" and then go and find the interviews to do with it. like what vtron said about them baiting him. if you're doing a ****ing doc ****ing document ****! don't ask leading questions.

dijos

I'm surprised to see folks who get into Fixed gear bikes who haven't ridden since they were kids? I don't know about you, but I've always owned/ridden some kind of bike, since 2nd grade. Funny video, though. "One crank" FTW.

zelah

look at all these ******y ******s

atleast that girl with the lisp

barba

The music was a bad, but it seemed an ok little video.

I guess at some non-trivial level, I would rather have people ride bikes to the coffee shop/bar to be a part of a scene rather than drive a car. Frankly, they will be there being hip one way or another, so they might as well do so on a bike.

We have had a rash of people on fixed geared bikes doing stupid things around my way. Riding with no brakes and flat pedals on your first bike since you gave up your BMX in 1987 can have some dicey/hilarious moments. I have seen more than a few wobbly, low-speed sidewalk riders of late. I will still take it over that SUV craze that swept the country.

sleepy

Immigrants don't wear expensive supertight pre-ripped designer jeans on their bikes.
Heh, Andrew certainly wasn't trying to make anything "serious" here.
Yeah, questions were leading, but... whatever. least he asked everyone around the "fixie" spectrum.

MadeInKIM

I'm sure if you asked your friend as to whether her 75 year old grandma would ride her bike to the local market and ride it back with all her groceries in saddlebags and a front basket, the answer would be yes. Regardless of what that grandmother would be wearing (most definitely not lycra).
Point being, that in the Netherlands (as well as Denmark, China, a lot of Germany, etc. though i've only lived in the Netherlands) bicylcing is an everyday, and often necessary activity (as an efficient transportation mode). Because it is not an exclusively (and surprisingly, a fairly rare) recreational activity, there would be no need to dress in bike-specific apparel.
An exaggerated analogy would be people driving to work, or the supermarket, or gasp their LBS, in flame-******ant suits and full helmets, with their favorite Nascar sponsors all over their SUV.

Regardless, i support people riding in jeans. By wearing "everyday" clothing, and riding for "everyday" activities, then cycling becomes that much more of an "everyday" activity in the American (and for better or worse, global) psyche.

Placid Casual

Apparently, speaking with a slight affected lisp is the new dfas;alksjdf;askdfjas;dfkjasd;fkasjdf;la