The Fixed Gear Forum have been co-opted.
05-21-07 | 05:18 PM
#101
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 424
Likes: 0
From: Baltimore
Originally Posted by wroomwroomoops
(well, it sure looked like it was a crime, around Dallas. Man, that's some weird, weird place.).
05-21-07 | 05:58 PM
#102
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 267
Likes: 0
From: SF Bay Area, CA
Originally Posted by kaiju-velo
1) The great irony is that messengers carry around stuff for . . . corporate law firms. How punk is that?
I don't care if you are rockin a SOMEC lugged track bike with Sugino 75s--if you are carrying a deposition or a court filing for a big-XXX law-firm then you are serving their ends. So your uber-hip niche actually never was that.
2) I agree vaguely with the sentiment behind this--or perhaps my interpretation of it. By commodifying fixed gear culture you can buy the experience of being alternative without actually changing your life in a meaningful way. The problem with capitalism is that it can transform it's opposite into a commodity and then make money off of the fantasy of resistance.
3) However--in the long run maybe the fixie craze will coincide with rising oil prices in a meaningul way--people will realize they can use their bikes for transportation and it will be--gasp--fun! That's an outcome anyone who actually endorses positive change should like. So sorry if your niche that made you feel special got blown wide open--welcome to seeing more people on bikes.
4) The paradox and truth about fixies becoming as mainstream as any other bike is that cycling as serious transportation is not mainstream enough!
That said a Surly Steamroller complete is a sick bike I wish I had one. I'm quite happy however with my SOMA Rush with Soma rims/hubs/no-name cogs and Bontrager bullhorns. I ride whenever I can especially when a car would be more convenient--
I don't care if you are rockin a SOMEC lugged track bike with Sugino 75s--if you are carrying a deposition or a court filing for a big-XXX law-firm then you are serving their ends. So your uber-hip niche actually never was that.
2) I agree vaguely with the sentiment behind this--or perhaps my interpretation of it. By commodifying fixed gear culture you can buy the experience of being alternative without actually changing your life in a meaningful way. The problem with capitalism is that it can transform it's opposite into a commodity and then make money off of the fantasy of resistance.
3) However--in the long run maybe the fixie craze will coincide with rising oil prices in a meaningul way--people will realize they can use their bikes for transportation and it will be--gasp--fun! That's an outcome anyone who actually endorses positive change should like. So sorry if your niche that made you feel special got blown wide open--welcome to seeing more people on bikes.
4) The paradox and truth about fixies becoming as mainstream as any other bike is that cycling as serious transportation is not mainstream enough!
That said a Surly Steamroller complete is a sick bike I wish I had one. I'm quite happy however with my SOMA Rush with Soma rims/hubs/no-name cogs and Bontrager bullhorns. I ride whenever I can especially when a car would be more convenient--
05-21-07 | 07:17 PM
#103
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 251
Likes: 0
From: Seattle
Originally Posted by andypants
Whatev, I'm so over parkour.
05-21-07 | 07:33 PM
#104
Guayakill
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
From: Nueva York City
Originally Posted by jblon
Fixed gear bikes are obviously super popular in many bigger cities, and gaining popularity like crazy. One of the biggest reasons for our population's collective fascination with fixies is the romanticized association with what it sees as a punk, DIY messenger culture. The bikes represent a rejection of the trend and profit-seeking bike industry, which will push $2,000 carbon race bikes on middle-aged doctors who ride the bike path on weekends. The fixed-gear image for most people, is the individual, exotic, stripped-down thoroughbred conversion. The impossible conglomeration of parts-bin cast-offs and goodwill finds into an indestructible 17-lb comet. Combine that with a few well-worn internet videos of daring NYC messengers and you've created a monster. A marketer's wet dream. A largely fictional idea of a subculture ready-made for corporate co-opting. It happened to skate-boarding, and now it's happening to fixed-gear bikes. Pre-built steamrollers? Kona Paddy-wagon? All they need now is to come factory-direct with race cards in the spokes.
To be clear though, I have absolutely nothing against people who buy and ride factory fixies like the ones I just mentioned--there's already way too much snobbishness in the bike world to get caught up in that. Just as most people will never deliver a package on them, most people on road racers will never enter a crit. Hell, most people on a 7-inch freeride bike will never take a drop big enough to use half their travel. My point is only that this gradual corporate takeover is happening right now, and it is somewhat sad to see what used to be a rejection of bland consumerist values subsumed by them. It seems to me to be against the spirit of what fixed gear bikes used to be.
So ride your fixie for all the other reasons you got it, but not because it's edgy and cool--make no mistake, fixed-gear bikes are on their way to being as mainstream as any other kind of bike. I would hope Wal-Mart never starts selling one, but they have gotten into carbon fiber, so who knows.
To be clear though, I have absolutely nothing against people who buy and ride factory fixies like the ones I just mentioned--there's already way too much snobbishness in the bike world to get caught up in that. Just as most people will never deliver a package on them, most people on road racers will never enter a crit. Hell, most people on a 7-inch freeride bike will never take a drop big enough to use half their travel. My point is only that this gradual corporate takeover is happening right now, and it is somewhat sad to see what used to be a rejection of bland consumerist values subsumed by them. It seems to me to be against the spirit of what fixed gear bikes used to be.
So ride your fixie for all the other reasons you got it, but not because it's edgy and cool--make no mistake, fixed-gear bikes are on their way to being as mainstream as any other kind of bike. I would hope Wal-Mart never starts selling one, but they have gotten into carbon fiber, so who knows.
i have 2 bicycles, and I just purchased my 3rd one - a fixie off craigslist and it is a stock motobecane messenger (i'm sure this kills you).... i been riding to work for the past 2 years and I love to share my bike passion with as many people as possible. Fixed gear bikes for everyone!
Last edited by rickhunter; 05-21-07 at 07:41 PM.
05-21-07 | 08:00 PM
#105
not actually Nickatina
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,447
Likes: 0
From: OR
LMAO @ [165]'s oxygen post.
Let's get one thing straight, though, about the original post. Riding track bikes in the street is not even a fraction as big as skateboarding has been in each of its high points.
Fixed gears are still relatively underground. You could call using bicycles as a means of transportation semi-mainsteam, but even that's a minority when you compare it to car drivers/car culture. We're a minority of a minority, and as such, we're really not even as big as skateboarding when it was in it's more underground phases, for comparison's sake. I don't care if your mom just bought a Bianchi Pista, I don't care if you think things have suddenly 'blown up' because of the NYT article, fixed gears are still on the fringe for the most part in comparison to skateboarding until they become a household name like Tony Hawk.
My apologies for getting a little too involved in the topic, but fallacies need correcting. I ride my fixie for fun and exercise like the majority on here, and hopefully soon, I'll ride it for money too. When my whole extended family purchases Steamrollers, I'll still be riding and not caring about how 'sold out' it is.
Let's get one thing straight, though, about the original post. Riding track bikes in the street is not even a fraction as big as skateboarding has been in each of its high points.
Fixed gears are still relatively underground. You could call using bicycles as a means of transportation semi-mainsteam, but even that's a minority when you compare it to car drivers/car culture. We're a minority of a minority, and as such, we're really not even as big as skateboarding when it was in it's more underground phases, for comparison's sake. I don't care if your mom just bought a Bianchi Pista, I don't care if you think things have suddenly 'blown up' because of the NYT article, fixed gears are still on the fringe for the most part in comparison to skateboarding until they become a household name like Tony Hawk.
My apologies for getting a little too involved in the topic, but fallacies need correcting. I ride my fixie for fun and exercise like the majority on here, and hopefully soon, I'll ride it for money too. When my whole extended family purchases Steamrollers, I'll still be riding and not caring about how 'sold out' it is.
05-21-07 | 08:02 PM
#106
in ur ____, ___ing ur ___
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 189
Likes: 0
From: Brooklyn
Bikes: IRO Mark V
Originally Posted by doofo
lol @ thread
loooooooooooooooooooooooooove it
anyway here is a visual representation of the hating in this forum
and
fixgearing is not a crime!
loooooooooooooooooooooooooove it
anyway here is a visual representation of the hating in this forum
and
fixgearing is not a crime!
BENZENE FTW!
05-21-07 | 08:22 PM
#107
Utilitarian Boy
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,235
Likes: 5
From: Bronx, NY
Bikes: Check the sig to find out
okay so fixed was supposed to be an exclusive thing to the "punk/outcast/messenger/whatever" but now you know how the Caribbean folks feel now. It was they after all who brought the fixed sensation to NYC and other cities so let's not forget that. They rode those because that was all they had in their country not to be different or try and be different but because they made do with what they had
05-21-07 | 08:43 PM
#108
ex-everything.
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 606
Likes: 0
From: Charlestown, MA
Bikes: venerable surly crosscheck
You got mad when H&M started selling white studded belts, too, didn't you.
Shut up and ride.
Shut up and ride.
05-21-07 | 08:47 PM
#109
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 997
Likes: 0
nothing meaningful or witty to say, just in before the lock.
05-21-07 | 08:51 PM
#110
Utilitarian Boy
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,235
Likes: 5
From: Bronx, NY
Bikes: Check the sig to find out
Originally Posted by soze
You got mad when H&M started selling white studded belts, too, didn't you.
Shut up and ride.
Shut up and ride.
05-21-07 | 10:38 PM
#111
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 272
Likes: 0
From: Seattle
I don't know how many of you missed the memo...but riding a bike makes you uncool regardless of your gearing.
05-21-07 | 10:43 PM
#112
All around nice guy
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,742
Likes: 0
From: Sunny Seattle
Bikes: THE KIND WITH TWO WHEELS AND ONE GEAR
Corporate Sponsorship= Main stream
05-21-07 | 11:32 PM
#113
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 623
Likes: 0
Why does everyone hate the Surly complete? What is wrong with selling a decently built bike for 250 over the frame price?
05-22-07 | 12:01 AM
#115
thomas masini lives
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,495
Likes: 1
From: i aint dh no mo'
because surlys used to be cool before they sold out
05-22-07 | 12:01 AM
#116
Anyway, all I can say is I was rockin' a fierce mullet before half you punks were born. Know that AC/DC or Ozzy shirt you wear ironically? I owned it when it was made the first time, at the concert I went to. You punks are commodifying the only thing that is more real, more legit than fixed, and that is rock and roll. So, laugh at the OP while you can, but when you're older, you'll see that kids these days suck, everything is being sold out, and nothing is sacred, nothing.
\m/ (-_-) \m/
\m/ (-_-) \m/
05-22-07 | 12:08 AM
#117
sVe
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,063
Likes: 0
From: Hellsinki, Funland
Bikes: Nishiki Continental fixed winter beater, Fixed Surly CrossCheck
Originally Posted by wroomwroomoops
The dude mentioned the Myllypuro hall a few times. I'm starting to realize it's a big deal. What I'd like to know, is does CCH organize group rides?
)Pertti Siren is the guy you want, his contanct details ought to be in the net somewhere...
05-22-07 | 12:10 AM
#118
(((Fully Awake)))
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 5,589
Likes: 0
From: ~Serenading with sensous soliloquies whilst singing supple sentences that are simultaneously suppling my sonnets with serenity serendipitously.~ -Serendipper
Bikes: Guerciotti Pista-Giant Carbon-Bridgestone300- Batavus Type Champion Road Bike, Specialized Hardrock Commuter, On-One The Gimp (SS Rigid MTB/hit by a truck)- Raleigh Sports 3-speed,Gatsby Scorcher, comming soon...The Penny Farthing Highwheel!
You joined just to give that uninspired, tired-ass monolouge?
Kill yourself.
Kill yourself.
05-22-07 | 12:29 AM
#119
Fell off the Sober Sofa.
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 193
Likes: 0
From: Gainesville, Florida
Bikes: Independent Fabrication Deluxe XT, Club Fuji Dura Ace... Specialized Stump Jumper, Trek 930, Cannondale M300... who knows what the cat will drag in next?
Fixed gears get me laid.
05-22-07 | 12:52 AM
#120
some new kind of kick
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,542
Likes: 1
From: Smog Valley
Bikes: SOMA Rush, Miyata 912, Kogswell Mod. G, want a porteur bike
Originally Posted by doofo
because surlys used to be cool before they sold out
and come complete? WTF? I hear good stuff from Surly from
several LBS mechanics--the only down side is that they are heavy.
As far as the 80s lugged steel bike reference above--I have one and
I ride it as it was intended--as a bike with lotsa gears--Miyata 912.
As far as Keirin goes--the fixation with this makes little sense to me. Sure
a Nagasawa or 3Rensho frame would be nice but NJS
components are not meant for the street nor are they
really the best in that context--NJS bikes often have
free bearings in the bottom bracket and exposed bearings
where you should have cones or cartridges on the street.
Anyway I hope that cheap, good fixed bikes blacken the skies.
BTW I don't have a Surly so I am not coming from that angle--
I just think they are a decent company and that Keirin is overrated
and rarified.
05-22-07 | 01:10 AM
#121
ex-everything.
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 606
Likes: 0
From: Charlestown, MA
Bikes: venerable surly crosscheck
Originally Posted by Gyeswho
who me? i could care less its just folks should quit claiming things they have "rights" to when they aren't the originators
I think we're on the same side here.
05-22-07 | 02:14 AM
#122
sVe
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,063
Likes: 0
From: Hellsinki, Funland
Bikes: Nishiki Continental fixed winter beater, Fixed Surly CrossCheck
Surlys are the bestest bikes known to man and it is my duty to exterminate all heretics who even think of disagreeing.
05-22-07 | 04:31 AM
#123
Utilitarian Boy
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,235
Likes: 5
From: Bronx, NY
Bikes: Check the sig to find out
Originally Posted by soze
My response was directed at the original poster. Sorry about any confusion.
I think we're on the same side here.
I think we're on the same side here.
cool im glad we see I to I on this topic
05-22-07 | 05:37 AM
#124
Sir Fallalot
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 5,288
Likes: 17
Originally Posted by Bikkhu
Surlys are the bestest bikes known to man and it is my duty to exterminate all heretics who even think of disagreeing.
05-22-07 | 06:29 AM
#125
(((Fully Awake)))
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 5,589
Likes: 0
From: ~Serenading with sensous soliloquies whilst singing supple sentences that are simultaneously suppling my sonnets with serenity serendipitously.~ -Serendipper
Bikes: Guerciotti Pista-Giant Carbon-Bridgestone300- Batavus Type Champion Road Bike, Specialized Hardrock Commuter, On-One The Gimp (SS Rigid MTB/hit by a truck)- Raleigh Sports 3-speed,Gatsby Scorcher, comming soon...The Penny Farthing Highwheel!
Originally Posted by Yoshi
Delivering packages on the street using a track bike is "co-opting" them. So is doing anything with a track bike that is not racing them on the velodrome.
In other words, you already fail.
In other words, you already fail.
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