Aidan a (Turd Ferguson) got me into cycling around the time of my 19th birthday (late April of this year).
Persuaded me to buy a cheapish 2nd hand road bike off of the bay. Now, I learned to ride a bike like everyone else did when they were yay high, but frankly at the age of 19 I hadn't even got on a bike since about the age of 12.
So I had a bit of a crash course (and several near death experiences) more or less learning to ride a bike again on the back streets of Southwark. Since getting back into bikes I have yet to change gear once, as the old Raleigh had its gears on the lower tube, and when I first started riding any attempt to remove a hand from the handlebars resulted in instant embarrassment & pain. Therefore the progression to proper single-speed was an easy one, with a new set of wheels and a bit of modification to the cranks. This came just before the May Critical Mass, which was a really pleasant night and that was when I really started to want a fixie. Fastforward a few months and I finally plucked up the courage and raided my savings for a bianchi pista, which i then crashed horrifically & more or less instantly, but survived (and so did the bike). So now here I am riding gingerly in London on a fixed and loving it! Hurrah.
Aidan a (Turd Ferguson) got me into cycling around the time of my 19th birthday (late April of this year).
Persuaded me to buy a cheapish 2nd hand road bike off of the bay. Now, I learned to ride a bike like everyone else did when they were yay high, but frankly at the age of 19 I hadn't even got on a bike since about the age of 12.
So I had a bit of a crash course (and several near death experiences) more or less learning to ride a bike again on the back streets of Southwark. Since getting back into bikes I have yet to change gear once, as the old Raleigh had its gears on the lower tube, and when I first started riding any attempt to remove a hand from the handlebars resulted in instant embarrassment & pain. Therefore the progression to proper single-speed was an easy one, with a new set of wheels and a bit of modification to the cranks. This came just before the May Critical Mass, which was a really pleasant night and that was when I really started to want a fixie. Fastforward a few months and I finally plucked up the courage and raided my savings for a bianchi pista, which i then crashed horrifically & more or less instantly, but survived (and so did the bike). So now here I am riding gingerly in London on a fixed and loving it! Hurrah.