I had a guy stop me last night...

hideous aint it:)

I love it

mashton Whose is the orange pursuit with the aerospoke? I met you up at King X when Heather was over... You rode past us outside the John Snow last night but zoomed by before we could figure out your name. Doh!

Ah yup, that was me. Damn could have done with a quick half last night... next time

aiden hideous aint it:)

your just jealous :) You going down HH tomorrow then? I'll ring you at 8:30 to make sure you're up

errr!? hows my name spelt wrong in that quote?....are you gonig to be about later tonight?...i need to sort a few things out on the couger

aido errr!? hows my name spelt wrong in that quote?

not sure !?! :s

Yup, think we're having another BBQ tonight, so i'm going to be back pretty early - i'll give you a bell

[cite]tapioca:[/cite][quote]aido errr!? hows my name spelt wrong in that quote?

not sure !?! :s

Yup, think we're having another BBQ tonight, so i'm going to be back pretty early - i'll give you a bell[/quote]
alright cool! speak to you later!

Locking my bike outside MonkeyChews Chalk Farm... A chap having a cigarette looks me, and then the bike up and down, and says...

"Is there still good money in the courier game?"

Cue stammering on my part... Nah mate, I'm just a Fakenger...

roland Locking my bike outside MonkeyChews Chalk Farm... A chap having a cigarette looks me, and then the bike up and down, and says...

"Is there still good money in the courier game?"

Cue stammering on my part... Nah mate, I'm just a Fakenger...

I bet u said.... "There used to be.... now all of these wankers have started taking the jobs..." ??? :-)

Some drunk guy regarding my Steamer said "how do you brake on that fing and where are the gears?"

I replied "the gears are in my legs and I brake with my mind."

He said my bike was a heavy piece of shit, stumbled off and tripped over a pile of crates.

i love that "how do you brake" question, even if you do have a brake, followed by sharp intake of breath, like a plumber giving a quote for a new boiler.

pootlin up brick lane today some drunk old dude screamin out at me..."the bike, the bike"
fuck knows what that means

PeterD pootlin up brick lane today some drunk old dude screamin out at me..."the bike, the bike"
fuck knows what that means

Did you check if your bike was on fire? It was probably that.

peejay78 i love that "how do you brake" question, even if you do have a brake, followed by sharp intake of breath, like a plumber giving a quote for a new boiler.

haaaa yeah, I've got that.

One of my work mates saw me pushing my bike through the shopping centre once and was like "I thought you said you'd spent loads of money on it? It doesn't even have suspension!"

Sigh...

he's got a point, i mean, when i see those shiny full sus mtbs that cost £100 for two in a stock liquidity clearance in the back pages of the daily mail sunday supplement i realise just how foolish i have been.

tallsam [quote]PeterD pootlin up brick lane today some drunk old dude screamin out at me..."the bike, the bike"
fuck knows what that means

Did you check if your bike was on fire? It was probably that.[/quote]

it was on fire alright ;)

peejay78 he's got a point, i mean, when i see those shiny full sus mtbs that cost £100 for two in a stock liquidity clearance in the back pages of the daily mail sunday supplement i realise just how foolish i have been.

I was taking a rest on a bench by the river in Deptford yesterday, when I was disturbed by a weird squeaking noise.

[em]Ee-aw ee-aw ee-aw ee-aw ...[/em]

It was the rear suspension on a full suspension MTB, tyres handsomely flat, seat inefficiently low, the piston creaking as it pumped with each pedal revolution.

It's yet another maintenance item for the owners to neglect. I don't think I exaggerate when I say that it probably took him four times as much effort as it would on my bike. And yet people scorn simple machines with one gear!

drug dealer full-suss pavement bike. single-pivot with lots of flex and a shock with a weak spring and no damping. it's the pinnacle of cycling.

Hey Guys,

New here from Canada, riding a fugi track for a few years that i rode out of the shop in Toronto... Had not rode a bike since I was 12 (i was 27), and thought it was a good way to get around, and get some exercise, as if find running about as fun as doing my taxes. Long story short, totally addicted, and now near oxford looking for a bike, and having looked around shops for the last little while, I'm totally discouraged as I haven't found a single one, not a single one, where someone behind the counter hasn't a) rolled their eyes at me and told me how long they'd been riding fixed, and that maybe I should start with a geared bike with breaks, cause "it's not as easy as it looks", or b) told me what i was looking for which was totally different from what i asked, or c) wanted £300 for a used bike or minimum £600 for a new one.

I'm like Jeremy Clarkson frustrated about the porsche range, "i just want a car with the engine at the back!" I just want a cheap bike with a fixed gear and no breaks!

to be honest, the guys in the Toronto bike shop snickered a bit as i left for the first time, but where my best friends when I'd returned for a two months later for a new tyre... guess i'd earned it.

I'm heading into london in the next week or so to check out BLB or the Brixton shop, but i just can't understand why asking for a fixie in a bike shop is like asking a record store clerk if they had that Nirvana record the day after the album went number one. (if you re-read that last sentence it looks like i said the album took a piss.)

but this site is a great resource, thanks, and sorry for the rant! And if any trendy people reading this DO hate their track bike, send it my way.

"Brakes" - I trust you're not at Oxford University... ; )

go to somewhere other than BLB. read the frame for life thread.
Try a small cycle shop like Cavendish Cycles on New Cavendish street, or Brixton.
or come to putney and get a Bob Jackson.
Or, ask fixed gear andy.

breaks vs. brakes....

actually, it's the Canadian spelling, like tyres vs. tires... it's because french Canadians refer to stopping as taking a "break" from driving.

Na, just kidding, my tiny artist brain just does whatever the spell check says to do when i make a type-o.

thanks for the tips, htay!

mikerobertsox,

brixton cycles is my local, and they are invariably helpful and enthusiastic, some of the younger ones can be a bit too cool for school, but pretty much they'll give you helpful and useful advice and won't look down their noses at you, also they've always been a bit more adventurous than most common or garden bike shops, think it has something to do with being next door to the skatepark. They've got a nice display case with phil and sugino components and tend to stock quite a few surly frames.
So give them a go
enjoy riding fixed

I guess this is the best place for this...
I've had this happen many times before but this one kinda left me a friend lost at the end.
Got stopped leaving Green Park on friday night after meeting some friends by a posh Pink Dress shirt wearing gentleman. Who wanted to know about where i got my bike as he wanted a single speed.
Now this guy came to the park in his business attire then changed into his casual park outfit at the park. Basically looked he looked like someone who got his outfit straight from the catalog.
Talked to him abit then I told him to go buy a genisis flyer, but he said he looked at thoe but they were £449 or whatever and he though that was expensive.
To which i gave him the as if you can't afford that look. Told him to try ebay and BLB.
Then i just said goto fixedgearlondon.com and get thim to build something.
The conversion then went something like this..
fixed.com?
No fixedgearlondon.com
fixedlondon.com
No fixedgearlondon.com
fixedgear.com
No fixedgearlondon.com
fixedgearlondon.com
Yes

a month ago with my wife, both of us with bikes. her's the trek commuter, mine the uni gear conversion.
3 kids get . we're standing by the doors.
as they're getting off one of them looks at my bike and says:
"cor. those tyres are thin. i bet that goes fast dunnit?"

:)

(he obviously never saw me earlier that afternoon...)

My trouble ascending is that I'm always fiddling with the gears trying to find the best combination of effort and cadence to get up the incline. I'm sure that a more experienced cyclist doesn't have this problem.

With a fixed I don't have to worry about any of this - there is no excuse but to just build some speed up and mash it up the slope, frequently passing furiously peddled geared bikes.

Not very efficient, but I'm sure it's great training because I'm getting much better at hills.

If you really understand cadence and gears and ride a geared bike you will be able to destroy almost anyone on a fixed gear. Maybe I am horribly wrong, but whenever I rode my Ciocc or my Chesini and some fixie tried to race me they could not keep up. Although I have found it somewhat easier to keep a very constant pace on my fixed gears.for obvious reasons......but that was over five years go so my memory is fading....