Will you still be riding in 5 years?

I saw this geez on a track bike with the most chopped risers ever, furiously pedalling bow-legged. It was really funny. It made me think he must be a mountain biker, or a bmxer, but he's not a road/track biker.

It also made me think about the kind of people that are riding these bikes in London. A lot of people are definately riding them because they're trendy. Fixed wheel bikes, like tamagotchis, flared jeans and pagers, will go out of fashion. I don't know when, but they will. You will look back and think "Aubergine deep v's, what the fuck was i thinking!?"

I like to think people will learn to love riding bikes for transportation, for fitness, and for fun. If fixed wheeled bikes achieve this, then more power to them, but it also made me wonder :

Will you still be riding in 5 years?

Hell yeah, just slower.

you wan tamagotchi? ten dolla
me ride long time

Rode various different bicycles for the last twenty years (the last 10 on a bmx) and can't see it being any different for the next twenty.

Just something special about gliding along on a well sorted machine.

Orange Deep-Vs matching my light, tyre and mudguard??? what am I thinking??

can't wait for the new trend to arrive

I had a penny dropping moment early this year that train/tubing it to work was making me fat(ter) lazy and unwell and tried a hybrid bike and found it good-ish. Not really ever using the gears and then finding my gear hanger knackered led me to the path of the singlespeed and hence to this forum where the path of the fixed was illuminated.
My Xmas present (arriving January duh!)solely from teh travelcard savings will be a Bob Jackson built with love from the advice on this board. I can't imagine getting back on public transport in London just to travel to work ever again and thanks to all for helping remind me just how much fun I had on my Hawk racer from Woolworths in 1980-something.

No.

After reading your oh-so-perceptive comments, I have realised that I am a fake-a-list-enger and not fit to share the road with you.

Anyone wanna buy my bikes, which I now realise are just not-so-fashionable accessories that will not take away my existential pain?

comie on bill - you know you have to have at least 30,000 posts before you can sell anything tsk.tsk

Yeah, ok this is a dumb op. It's not really a proper question (you could get hit by a bus tomorrow), more like a thought-stream i was having.

Buffalo bill - i think you're jumping to assumptions. I didn't intend to come across as an elitist, anyone can share the road with me.

So if the guy had not been furiously pedalling and not been bow-legged that would have placed him securely in the serious cyclist bracket?
How you style out your bike is your own business in my book so you cant really judge the proficency or legitimacy of a cyclist by looks surely?
But in answer to your question: Yes until I cant anymore.
Surely the hype's died down a bit now over the fixed gear thing...it is winter after all! I mean i actually managed to win a frame on ebay the other day for under a ton.
Amazing.

Bow legged riders in the bunch are a pain in the arse though - literally, if they use their knee caps to barge you out the way (I can think of an Eastway regular who used to do this, unintentionally or otherwise)...

this bow legged thing could come in real handy at holborn junction.

im 34 and still cant drive an automobile of any flavour, so i guess i'll still be on a bike in 5 years

I've always had a dream that I could use only Black Cabs to get around london and not have to worry about money.... you know, like rich women with fur!

Will you still be posting on this forum in 5 years?

I like riding a bike, but maintaining gears is irritating so I ride my geared bike only when I can't do the ride fixed. So yeah, I probably will still be riding my fixie in 5 years, assuming I don't move somewhere where it would be unfeasible.

Bill: haha! Though I suspect the guy I saw in BLB a while ago buying a bright pink bike with matching Deep Vs might go through that thought process in a year or two...

Yeah, i probably shouldn't have judged this geezer, in an ideal world ... but people judge each other all the time. Even without realizing it. I don't have any problems with any cyclist (unless they're brakelss and crash into me). Or bus driver, or car driver. I was just thinking about it earlier..

People buy ipods partly because they are good music players, but also because they are fashionable. People buy it because, with it, they are buying into an image. Same as Rapha clothing. In this respect, i don't see any difference between them with fixies. People just want to feel like they are part of a community, just look at the existence of this forum. This isn't a bad thing, it's just human nature. I'm not being condescending or elistist, i'm no different to anyone. I don't know why people are so touchy about it.

It was really funny pedalling, though.

Made me smile

lpg Fixed wheel bikes, like tamagotchis, flared jeans and pagers, will go out of fashion.

What fresh hell is this !?

Out, you say !? I have just dropped 200 nuggets to have a custom tamagotchi pocket sewn into my flares !

Nobody told me about any of this 'out' stuff.

ah, IMAGE.

let's not stop it because that how us designers make money right?????

really sick of it myself to be honest. fuck them all branding twats, look at what tony malone dafoney did to witcomb. if they start selling cheese tomorrow it'll be a hundred quid but no better than tesco's finest. cunts.

h2o I like riding a bike, but maintaining gears is irritating so I ride my geared bike only when I can't do the ride fixed. So yeah, I probably will still be riding my fixie in 5 years, assuming I don't move somewhere where it would be unfeasible.

Bill: haha! Though I suspect the guy I saw in BLB a while ago buying a bright pink bike with matching Deep Vs might go through that thought process in a year or two...

Now i'm sure you're not talking about me because i don't have pink deep v's...infact the only guy I know with a pink bike and deep v's would never go through this process i'm sure, and neither will I.

Anyway, who gives a shit. Ride what you like when you like.

tynan [quote]lpg Fixed wheel bikes, like tamagotchis, flared jeans and pagers, will go out of fashion.

What fresh hell is this !?

Out, you say !? I have just dropped 200 nuggets to have a custom tamagotchi pocket sewn into my flares !

Nobody told me about any of this 'out' stuff.[/quote]

nah he's stating those famous OUT examples

like the german angry kid and all your base you know

lpg Yeah, i probably shouldn't have judged this geezer, in an ideal world ... but people judge each other all the time. Even without realizing it. I don't have any problems with any cyclist (unless they're brakelss and crash into me). Or bus driver, or car driver. I was just thinking about it earlier..

People buy ipods partly because they are good music players, but also because they are fashionable. People buy it because, with it, they are buying into an image. Same as Rapha clothing. In this respect, i don't see any difference between them with fixies. People just want to feel like they are part of a community, just look at the existence of this forum. This isn't a bad thing, it's just human nature. I'm not being condescending or elistist, i'm no different to anyone. I don't know why people are so touchy about it.

It was really funny pedalling, though.

I bought an ipod recently because my creative zen micro gave up the ghost. I'd returned it three times already because the headphone jack didn't work. Ipods came down well under two hundred for a 80gb hard drive, and I figured that it was good value for money and that it would last. Aesthetically it's pleasing - Apple have good designers - but it spends most of its life in my pocket, well out of sight. I don't really feel like it's a fashion statement. I certainly don't talk to other people on the street who have them.

I actually got quite irritated at first when riding fixed got fashionable. I didn't want people to think I was riding fixed to be fashionable! But I quite liked the camaraderie that appears to have developed around fixies - hence this forum and the one on fixedgeargallery. Bill's site has that feel as well, though that's primarily for couriers and he was zine-ing long before that.

...or till you die.

Mr Brown [quote]h2o I like riding a bike, but maintaining gears is irritating so I ride my geared bike only when I can't do the ride fixed. So yeah, I probably will still be riding my fixie in 5 years, assuming I don't move somewhere where it would be unfeasible.

Bill: haha! Though I suspect the guy I saw in BLB a while ago buying a bright pink bike with matching Deep Vs might go through that thought process in a year or two...

Now i'm sure you're not talking about me because i don't have pink deep v's...infact the only guy I know with a pink bike and deep v's would never go through this process i'm sure, and neither will I.

Anyway, who gives a shit. Ride what you like when you like.[/quote]

The guy I saw in BLB didn't appear to have ridden a bike in a while, and had that well-fed city boy look about him. I doubt he's on this board.

interesting, well I'll look for his very own 'witness call' police sign soon.