Originally Posted by phidauex

I listen to anything Dan the Automator has touched,

Originally Posted by SamHouston

ya see that's the part I don't really get, folks that don't acknowledge other cyclists on the road. I mean on the road we're a minority no matter what you ride and a marginalized minority at that, seperate but equal, acknowledged by the law but not the majority road users we share it with. So it just makes sense to me to be friendly to cyclists in general as a sense of solidarity is at least some comfort is it not?

Originally Posted by me

So it just makes sense to me to be friendly to cyclists in general as a sense of solidarity is at least some comfort is it not?

Originally Posted by boots

filtersweep's got it right. if "poseurs" exist in the fixie world, they're not the grad students and graphic artists who dress kind of like messengers as they commute to work from brooklyn.

moe, who runs keiren cycle cafe in berlin, put it perfectly. "everywhere you go in williamsburg, you see them. the hipster walking his pista next to his japanese girlfriend."

Originally Posted by boots

moe, who runs keiren cycle cafe in berlin, put it perfectly. "everywhere you go in williamsburg, you see them. the hipster walking his pista next to his japanese girlfriend."

Originally Posted by doofo

what a ****ing bump

Originally Posted by gonesh9

just curious... not that it matters though.

a background on me:
only a few years ago i was a strict mountain biker. then i bought a touring bike and started commuting to work every day. i fell in love with the bicycle. about 6 months ago i got a beater fixie off e-bay, and got hooked. about 2 months ago i got a surly cross check with flip-flip hub and am completely infatuated. i really only ride the fixed side, and even though i have brakes i never use them.

some more info that might be of use:
~i am an avid beer drinker... being from the nw, i've always had a thing for good micro beers. i still drink them, but find myself ordering pbr occasionally. i'm not sure what's happening here.

~i'm vegan, but have been for 8 years, so i don't think i did it for fixie style reasons.

~my music of choice has mostly become various indie rock bands, and a few odd klezmer or gypsy punk bands. before my fixie-hood, i mostly listened to reggae, psyche, and jazz.

~i have gone from using velcro ankle straps to rolling my right pant leg up.

i'm just confused about all this, as i admit that what i am attracted to is partly the style, but it's mostly about the ride. i don't think i can go back to geared bikes for very many miles. i still do ride my mountain bike and love the singletrack, but it's not the same as it used to be. i still listen to reggae, but would rather put on some boards of canada or something....

Originally Posted by nexus6

If you have to ask... you probably are, sorry!

Originally Posted by Jose R

That's insane. If I acknowledged every cyclist I saw or came across (whether riding fixed or not) simply because I'm part of a "marginalized minority" I would be in a neck brace and shoulder sling. I'm also part of another "marginalized minority", but does that mean I have to say hi to every mexican, dominican or puerto rican I encounter on the streets of NY?

I don't know about Toronto, but here in NYC, I can throw a stone out my window and hit at least two cyclist. And quite frankly I don't distinguish between messenger cyclists or roadie cyclists or commuter cyclist.

Having said that, I will say hello to you if:

a) you are riding a nice bike

b) if you say hello to me first

c) if you are european (and living in williamsburg does not count)

d) if you are an older gentleman wearing your vintage kit

e) if you are a hot babe on a hot bike (or not so hot bike).

All others need not apply.

And what kind of solidarity am I supposed to have with messengers, other roadies or commuters? The fact I'm riding a two wheeled vechicle?

poseurs indeed.

Originally Posted by Ken Cox

HexagonSun wrote:

"...for your next feat will you be riding your fixie up K2?"

I have lived 58 years now.
I have flown helicopters for 36 of those 58 years, and I love my job.
I want more than anything else (that I want for myself) to keep doing my present job for at least another 10 years, to age 68 and beyond.
Riding a fixed gear bike plays a major role in acheiving that goal.

Some years ago, about ten years ago, I started having too many training injuries, and actually had two back surgeries and a knee sugery all in the period of about two years.
Doctors and friends described this as the normal aging process and suggested that I simply consider my active athletic years part of the past.
OK.

So I healed from my surgeries, sat on the couch, put on 65 pounds of blubber, and I continued to experience injuries and pain, becoming a cripple.
The couch potato thing didn't seem to work for me, and so I researched aging and, in a couple of weeks I turned myself into a leading authority on aging.
Please allow me to share what I learned.

If from age 18 we eat, sleep and exercise perfectly; and, if we experience no physical nor emotional trauma, or disease; and, if we have meaningful work and wholesome, satisfying relationships; then, our bodies and minds will not age until we reach our 63rd year of life.
Everything we see in our bodies and psyche prior to the age of 63, and which we interpret as evidence of the normal aging process, represents not aging at all but rather damage due to stress and imperfect body management.

Please consider the following analogy.

If an airplane has a glide ratio of 20 to one, that means, without an engine providing thrust, the airplane will glide twenty units of distance forward for every unit of altitude it descends.
This same airplane, with its glide ratio of 20 to one, will glide 200 miles if it has an altitude of 10 miles when and if the engine quits.

Similarly, our bodies and minds have a glide ratio.
Genetically, as a general analogy, our engines quit at age 63.
The height of our health at age 63 determines how much altitude we have, and how far, and for how long we can glide before we hit the ground.
Now, if we have bomb in our cargo compartment, like cancer or some other genetically preordained disease, then forget about altitudes and glide ratios.
Generally, though, on the average, if we arrive at age 63 with lots of altitude, in terms of health, then we have a long ways to go before hitting the ground.

An honest examination of my health issues showed my pain and injuries to come from over-training, inadequate training, and from inelegant repetitive movements.
My ruptured disks came from too many hours in the gym per week, too much weight, too many reptitions, too many miles of roadwork and not enough recovery time.
Similarly, the pain in my knee came not from anything wrong with my knee, but from decades of doing the same thing in my upper back and ribs, without realizing how movement in one part of my body affected my body as a whole, and all the years of repetitive stresses finally coming to focus in my right knee.

My knee doctor gets birthday cards from the US Olympic Ski Team.
People fly here from all over the world to have him do their knee surgeries.
He knows knees.

When he told me I didn't have anything wrong with my knees, and that he had done everything he could surgically, I had to listen.
After all, the guy has the credentials and the international reputation.
When he used the Xrays to show me the load paths and movement patterns in my whole body, originating in my upper back and leading to the pain in my knee, I had to believe him.
When he sent me to the physical therapist, and a physical therapist that specializes in movement, I had to believe in that process, as well.

The general public believes a man my age cannot ride a fixed gear bike.
They all say the same thing, regarding the knees and age and fixed gear bikes.
Well, I think we all know of exceptions to the public's perceptions of old guys riding fixed gear bikes.
And yet, we also know the public has grasped some degree of truth about fixed gear bikes and knees and older riders, even if they and we lack clarity about the connections and relationships.

It turns out that fixed gear bikes require especially good body mechanics of the rider.
If the rider does not have perfect and elegant body mechanics, this will quickly evidence itself as pain, and especially pain in the knees.
In a younger man, youth, resilience and the ability to rapidly heal will mask many inelegances, and will do so over a relatively long period of time.
However, in an older man, such as myself, the body almost immediately responds to inelegance with pain, and, conversely, to elegance with comfort.

A fixed gear bike, more than any other constraint, as they call it, gives the body very clear and immediate feedback regarding the quality and the organization of movement, as well as the quality of body maintenance.
Not only does pain in my knee help me see the organization of my upper back and neck more clearly and immediately, it also give me feedback regarding my diet and hydration.
If I eat inappropriately and under-hydrate, I feel it in my legs and wind and in my (lack of) enthusiasm.
My pain and strength levels also give me insight into my rest and recovery and the number of miles I ride in a week.

I have devoted an entire year of my life to nothing except learning to orgainze my body's movements so that my body in turn can comfortably ride a fixed gear bike and enjoy it.
If I feel pain in my knee while riding, I can generally FIX it within minutes by attending to my whole body's mechanics.
It can get quite complex and requires huge amounts of concentration and discipline which I did not previously have, and especially the ability to look inward and see how my body works and interacts with itself.

In many ways, the fixed gear bike reminds me of the sword, and most notably the Yagyu Ryu school of the sword.
It does not surprise me that the Japanese have such a passion for Keirin racing.

Similarly, I have a life long fascination with violence and non-violence.
In Aikido, one practices with the sword in order to develop an understanding of distance, relationship and intent.
At the very highest levels, both Aikidoka and Judoka seem to have the ability to read minds.
They can't, or don't read minds; rather, they have learned and incorporated in their awareness hundreds and thousands of subtle clues, which they get from the slightest nuance of orientation, distance, closure, timing, rhythm, and, which makes the intent of their dance partner transparent to them.

Similarly, the rider of a fixed gear bike handicaps himself with a constraint that forces him or her to the highest levels of awareness, whether they consciously choose this awareness or not.
Further, the vulnerability and constraint of a fixed gear rider sailing through a sea of giant, mindless fish; or trekking amidst a stampeding herd of angry, cell-phone infested water buffalo teaches the rider more about self-defense and the so-called martial arts than he could ever learn in the dojo. I tell my friends I practice Bikido whenever I ride my fixed gear bike.
Yes, and riding my fixed gear bike as a martial art takes me back to the Yagyu Ryu school of the Sword.

From KINGFISHER WOODWORKS:

"The Yagyu bokken is a sword of finesse and evasion. The techniques of the Yagyu Ryu involve moving into positions quickly and lightly. This wooden sword is very thin and fast and not oriented to influencing the path of another weapon through heavy contact."

Try reading it this way:

"The fixed gear bike is a bike of finesse and evasion. The techniques of the fixed gear bike involve moving into positions quickly and lightly. This fixed gear bike is very thin and fast and not oriented to influencing the path of another vehicle through heavy contact."

If I can arrive at 63 years of age without a car, and riding an 81" fixed gear bike every day, then I will have attained a great height from which to glide, and perhaps even soar.
If I can ride a fixed gear bike into my 70's, then I will very probably have attained a black belt in Bikido.
I will have no special costume to wear signifiying that attainment.
However, other Bikidokas will see me as pass each other riding, and I will see them, and we will exchange nods and smiles, and confer upon each other the black belt of Bikido.
Furthermore, the intent of the giant SUV riders will become so transparent to us, we will see through them as through the wind.
I see and feel the wind in ways the SUV riders will never understand, as do we all, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

Originally Posted by Serpico

lose the PBR, that stuff tastes like ****

drinking it and saying you like it is posing