Is it becoming hip to hate hipsters? I don't see what the big deal is. Most of them are kids and young adults who have built up a fashionable culture around bikes. I really don't see how this negatively affects the traditional bike culture. In my opinion it just enriches it. Sure this culture may go out of fashion but when the dust settles there will be a couple of former members who have developed a life long commitment to bicycling.

So please give me a clear reason why these kids negatively affect the bicycle community. Make your argument as to why they are “stupid”.

To whom are you directing these questions?

This was my favorite part:

"As a skateboarder, it really pisses me off that those kids that rode bikes kept riding bikes."

Umm...to the participants of this thread that have called "hipsters" , or kids doing tricks on fixed gear bikes, stupid. It was a general inquiry to the anti-hipster crowd.

Using a fixed gear road bike or track bike for tricks is as stupid as using an expensive silver butter knife as a screwdriver. Yes, it may work. But there are much cheaper, durable, and purpose built tools that will do a better job.

Is that answer good enough?

Well, I think it's passed that actually, and now it's mainstream to hate hipsters:

Article on hipster hating in our largest national newspaper

So I guess that means that hipsters were hip, then it became hip to mock them. Now that it's mainstream to mock them, does that mean hipsters are hip again?

Man I'm glad I gave up trying to be hip. Being 30 is so liberating, I don't have to be old or young!

Screwing screws with a pure silver butter knife, that sounds pimp for sure. As long as it gets the job done!!!

I suppose you are going to complain about people who drive Ferrari's and Lamborghini's around the center of the city where they can barely make it out of 1st gear for 80% of the time.

No. THIS is pimp...AND it gets the job done:

http://p1.pinkbike.com/photo/1899/med/mpbpic1899568.jpg
Dave Mirra's gold plated Haro.

Yup. That's just as stupid. Also just as stupid: Hummers, H2, and H3s and any other SUV that never touches dirt.

i like practicing tricks on my fixed wheel bike
it makes me a better rider and it's fun
i am not exactly pulling 180s off of stair sets but practicing stands and hopping up onto things and riding off as well...practical trickery

yes, a bmx bike is the right tool for the job but i think people like to push limits and see what's capable, so why not do tricks on your fixed road bike?

Assuming you only want one tool in your apartment and you need it for spreading butter and as a screw driver it makes sense to have a butter knife used as a screwdriver. These kids may want a bike that they can commute on and do tricks on - to them a fixed gear is a viable solution. Are you suggesting that they own two bikes: one for tricks and one for commutes? Not everyone has the money or space to have two bikes.

Is it easier to do tricks on a BMX? If so it means that it is harder to do them on a fixed gear and therefore more challenging - maybe they like the added challenge.

This post is pure Carleton.

i thinks its fun to make fun of these kind of things just kind of on of a surface level, simply because its easy and its something that some of us have been into for 10 plus years, but the truth is as long as people are riding their bikes its ****ing awesome. i dont give a **** if you have 43 gears and you only ride it to walk your dog. its all for fun. the truth is i quit riding bmx about 10 years ago when i got my track bike and i never in a million years thought i would see people doing **** like that. maybe some of us are jealous we didnt start it? its like vert skaters making fun of skaters who quit skating vert and only skated street back in the day.
but it is still fun to make some jokes....

But is it not like using a plate as a throwing disk and vice versa? It is absurd beyond reason to use one's tools for purposes other than that for which they were built. Fun is the device of plebians and should not be used for such a refined sport as the single-speed track bicycle. Would you use a plastic tray as a sled? Would you put a hat on a cat? Of course not! So why should one use his or her collection of tubes welded together and propelled by the device of a crank, chain, and cog for a purpose other than that which it has the name of and was, indeed, built for? Just as a BMX bike only belongs on the BM, a Track bike only belongs on the track.

yes i would use a tray as a sled. just like i would use a garbage can lid. and i would put a hat on a cat because it would be funny. theres a crazy theory called evolution. bmx and track didn't exist since the big bang. where do you think mountain bikes came from? they evolved out of creativity. also what the **** is a bm? a ****? are you saying a bmx bike belongs on a ****? or are you saying a bmx bike belongs on a "bicycle motor?"

I want to clarify my position on this using a few statements:

- I don't feel that goofing-off on a track bike is bad. It's fun.
- I do feel that if one is going to graduate from goofing-off to becoming a stunt rider, a track bike is not the right tool for the job.
- I do feel that making, posting, and/or selling videos of you doing lame tricks is...well...lame (sorry, folks).
- I feel that all bicycles are essentially the same. However, due to rider's demands and ingenuity, they have evolved into several different directions. This is why "hardcore" fixed freestylers keep asking for more rugged parts and/or use BMX components. BUT what they don't realize is that eventually these freestyle fixies (or whatever they will be called) will take years to evolve from this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3421/...8c1faaae_b.jpg
(Prolly's Milwaukee Bicycle Co fixed gear)

into something like this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/...7421916a_b.jpg
(Volume Sledgehammer 26")


...which has existed for years. Why not just buy one now? SRSLY.

Some people like cats, some like dogs. Watching fixie tricks is much more fun for me than waching someone on a BMX bike doing whatever the bike was made for. It's not something i'd pay for, it's not something i'd pay more than a few minutes attention to if i saw it in real life, but it's still interesting to watch. I really don't care at all for BMX bikes. I wouldn't care at all if someone did loop-the-loops all day through fire and lions and knives and mirrors and tornadoes on a BMX bike, but i'd say, "Hey, that's neat!" if someone was doing the flip the frame around the front wheel thing on a track bike.

I hate seeing track bikes being ridden like bmx bikes. Track bikes belong on the track and if not on the track, to be ridden fast. They were never intended for tricks, the design of a fixed gear cannot hold up to the abuse. It makes me laugh when I see the young fixie kids riding with the bmx kids trickin it up in the parking lot.

because it doesnt have a fixed wheel! haha. i like how all these fixie riders rip off bmx tricks and give them new names. history repeats itself once again.

If you follow the link you will see that the owner describes it as a "fixed gear 26". Ha! :D

Here's a question though. Why is it when someone rides a BMX out on the streets (I've seen them at Alleycats, Mass, commuting, etc.) people think it's funny ... but when someone does a barspin on a track bike, it's lame/stupid?

I mean ... why is it such a big deal? CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG?!?!?!?

I think it would look funnier if someone was carrying their BMX bike out on the street.

To each their own - Fixed trick riders, and Fixed trick rider bashers. They are both entertaining to watch and to listen to. The riders because they are awkward and silly , and the bashers because they're arguments againsed are baseless and silly.

i started riding bmx before the first x-games. it was much more of a positive scene then. you ran into someone else with a bike (or a skateboard, for that matter) and you were instantly friends. most of my friends were skaters. we sessioned the same spots. we were all outcasts. it was the best time of my life. as time went on, i got way more into painting graffiti than riding my bmx. add injuries to that, and i had essentially dropped out of riding my bmx about 6 years ago. i still kept my bikes to dick around on, but between pursuing other interests and the fact that i couldn't stand the cliquey nature of the "scene" anymore, i found that the best thing to do was leave it behind and ride my bike (alone) at night.

when i decided to purchase a new bike, for the sake of transportation, i was attracted to the simplicity of fixed gears. i worked in a shop for several years and, honestly, i hate dealing with brakes/gears/etc.... plus, i like the aesthetic of a simple/classy looking bike.

what i cannot stand is the cliquey nature of people who own track/fixed gear bikes. it's overwhelmingly gay to care that much about what someones running or what someone else is doing. the way it is, i have severe social anxiety and i don't like people looking at me (on or off of a bike....) and being that i live in brooklyn, i don't want any part of the "scene" or anyone involved in it..... so, again, i ride alone and, usually, at night.

it's been mentioned already, but if you're looking to do tricks.... get a bmx bike. if you really want to sit in a parking lot and destroy your (generally) expensive fixed gear by doing tricks that lack the grace and style of tricks done on a bmx bike, good for you. have a super time. personally, i think it looks goofy and i'd rather go fast, but so long as you leave me alone.... i don't really care what you do.


i'd rather watch something like this any day of the week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xiJuHFEKKQ

When I was a kid, my friends and I used to dumpster-dive for big pieces of cardboard. We would take these old refrigerator boxes out to the park or a busy street corner and set up a boombox and bust out some pop and break moves to electro beats and drink little 25-cent juices and eat Funyuns.

Then those a-holes from the box company would come by and say, "Hey, you stupid punks. Your using that cardboard wrong. You're supposed to put a refrigerator in it, not dance on it!"

Jerks.


bf

If they can barspin, they're probably running brakeless, and we all know that's lame/stupid as hell..

What, seriously?

Like how fixed riders get **** for riding brakeless, but I have never seen anyone give a rats ass about the brakeless bmx'ers.
Damn double standards!;)