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asm How about instead of saying anything, to refer to our mode of transport, we make some form of gesture/sign language. Or maybe just a noise?
"yeah I ride an EUUUUUUUAUAUAAGHH. How about you?"
WARNING: You're rapidly heading in the direction of "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince"
Stop now before thousands of fakengers become users of a mode of transport formerly known as ............................................. -
I got a four letter word for ya
B.I.K.E
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It's a bit American English, init. I'm quite partial to W.A.N.K.E.R, which isn't very high currency in the US. I always got a cheap laugh watching the end credits of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' cos the music was done by a Mr Thomas Wanker :)
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BringMeMyFix It's a bit American English, init. I'm quite partial to W.A.N.K.E.R, which isn't very high currency in the US. I always got a cheap laugh watching the end credits of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' cos the music was done by a Mr Thomas Wanker :)
American English:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsPYJIat0lo
But they left out Al's best line: Loopy Cnuts.
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BringMeMyFix It's a bit American English, init. I'm quite partial to W.A.N.K.E.R, which isn't very high currency in the US. I always got a cheap laugh watching the end credits of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' cos the music was done by a Mr Thomas Wanker :)
yeah...but W.A.N.K.R. (pronounced like flicK-ARRR) is also a 5 letter word.
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StarrerGang I just realized that I am somehow tired of the term f-i-x-e-d
It went from a clean technical term to supercharged associativity, or am I wrong ?How about :Funny-Gear or Furious-Gear, or Flabbergasted Gear,Fixed-Beer,, Flare-Gun or Fold-Genital ?
you name it
Correction on two points- "fixed" was never a clean technical term, it was abbreviated from fixed-gear or fixed-wheel (as the Jamaicans call it and is a more accurate counterpoint to free-wheel). Until say the last five years if you asked if a bike was fixed even a mechanic would have defaulted to a fixed vs. broken association, rather than fixed-wheel. As for "supercharged associativity", you are correct and wrong; the study of semiotics dictates that fundamentally association is the only factor by which words have meaning(with exception to the guttural responses), that they are signifiers that refer to, in this case- a certain material configuration, but may also refer to an action, concept, etc. (i.e. there is no fundamental connection between the word "apple" and that thing which we refer to as an apple- and it is no more accurately described as an apple than a "manzana" in Spanish, and more abstractly there is no correspondence between numbers and their associated values- 3 only equals 1+1+1 because the collective holds it to). It is, as you pointed out, fascinating that "fixed" has so quickly been endued with such great cultural connotation, that with it comes certain presumptions about individual and community corresponding to aesthetic and consumption behaviors. I think "fixed" is indicative of the postmodern conundrum and we, as fixed riders are postmoderns, the cultural associations are manifestations of this.
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Further, as, and if, one considers postmodernism as some thinkers suggest- the zenith of modernity, rather than the rejection there of, the reversion to fixed drive-train bicycles, in some cases in preference to automobile transportation poses an interesting problem for analysis. If we were postmodern in the sense that we exemplified modernity would we not drive cars? or at least some Dura-ace loaded carbon-fiber monstrosity? I will suggest that this is not the case, that the zenith of postmodernism is characterized by the recovery of that which is essential to modernitys' reconciliation with man. What enables him/her, but does not undermine self-worth or the intrinsic value of labor. The mad-scientists of modernity envisioned a mechanical transcendence beyond humanity, which in itself is transcendent and thus can only ever consume technology. The “fixie” allows us to use the bicycle machine only so far as it is something that we propel and ride, it offers no mechanical advantage that promotes sloth. It epitomizes the “essential” that we crave to recover meaning and allows us to further re-cultivate authenticity.
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architectom [quote]StarrerGang I just realized that I am somehow tired of the term f-i-x-e-d
It went from a clean technical term to supercharged associativity, or am I wrong ?How about :Funny-Gear or Furious-Gear, or Flabbergasted Gear,Fixed-Beer,, Flare-Gun or Fold-Genital ?
you name it
Correction on two points- "fixed" was never a clean technical term, it was abbreviated from fixed-gear or fixed-wheel (as the Jamaicans call it and is a more accurate counterpoint to free-wheel). Until say the last five years if you asked if a bike was fixed even a mechanic would have defaulted to a fixed vs. broken association, rather than fixed-wheel. As for "supercharged associativity", you are correct and wrong; the study of semiotics dictates that fundamentally association is the only factor by which words have meaning(with exception to the guttural responses), that they are signifiers that refer to, in this case- a certain material configuration, but may also refer to an action, concept, etc. (i.e. there is no fundamental connection between the word "apple" and that thing which we refer to as an apple- and it is no more accurately described as an apple than a "manzana" in Spanish, and more abstractly there is no correspondence between numbers and their associated values- 3 only equals 1+1+1 because the collective holds it to). It is, as you pointed out, fascinating that "fixed" has so quickly been endued with such great cultural connotation, that with it comes certain presumptions about individual and community corresponding to aesthetic and consumption behaviors. I think "fixed" is indicative of the postmodern conundrum and we, as fixed riders are postmoderns, the cultural associations are manifestations of this.[/quote]
my good god - have you studied this topic? or maybe a lil to much time on your hands ; )
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q-u-e-e-r is also a five letter word which I would like to take back from the homosexuals, and w-a-n-k-e-r from whoever they are, wankers undoubtedly. One could say fixed is queer in the traditional meaning of the word, but they stole it, which is odd (queer if you will), because it is a self-deprecating term.
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millierider [quote]architectom [quote]StarrerGang I just realized that I am somehow tired of the term f-i-x-e-d
It went from a clean technical term to supercharged associativity, or am I wrong ?How about :Funny-Gear or Furious-Gear, or Flabbergasted Gear,Fixed-Beer,, Flare-Gun or Fold-Genital ?
you name it
Correction on two points- "fixed" was never a clean technical term, it was abbreviated from fixed-gear or fixed-wheel (as the Jamaicans call it and is a more accurate counterpoint to free-wheel). Until say the last five years if you asked if a bike was fixed even a mechanic would have defaulted to a fixed vs. broken association, rather than fixed-wheel. As for "supercharged associativity", you are correct and wrong; the study of semiotics dictates that fundamentally association is the only factor by which words have meaning(with exception to the guttural responses), that they are signifiers that refer to, in this case- a certain material configuration, but may also refer to an action, concept, etc. (i.e. there is no fundamental connection between the word "apple" and that thing which we refer to as an apple- and it is no more accurately described as an apple than a "manzana" in Spanish, and more abstractly there is no correspondence between numbers and their associated values- 3 only equals 1+1+1 because the collective holds it to). It is, as you pointed out, fascinating that "fixed" has so quickly been endued with such great cultural connotation, that with it comes certain presumptions about individual and community corresponding to aesthetic and consumption behaviors. I think "fixed" is indicative of the postmodern conundrum and we, as fixed riders are postmoderns, the cultural associations are manifestations of this.[/quote]
my good god - have you studied this topic? or maybe a lil to much time on your hands ; )[/quote]
No, not too much time, I have read all of the primary texts on postmodern philosophy and semiotics, they played into my art history thesis. as a result i have not enough time.
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Hmmm... I think I understand what you are saying. After all, the bicycle is the quickest man can travel under his own propulsion. I don't follow why there should be any reason that we would pick the particular moment in the evolution of the bicycle that is 'fixed wheel/gear'. Recumbents are more energy efficient - as are gears in general. Does this really equate to promoting sloth? The efficiency of speed and endurance are not slothful. On the other hand, the fixed is not the most primitive of bicycles - otherwise we would be all astride 'wooden hobby horses'.
Therefore the popularity of the fixed bike is characterised simpy by a number of practical considerations - ease of maintenance, no need of gears in the city etc. Of course, the idea of simplifying the bike down to the components that the individual can maintain would perhaps support the idea that this is the connection between the individual and modernity.
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Very good Roland, I think that the recumbent places the man at a passive position which is psychologically inferior to the upright position of a traditional bike, consider Freud’s(to whom I would generally not refer) psycho-sexual ideas and the position one is placed in(that of the woman) when riding a recumbent, where the upright places the individual over the bike, straddling. As for sloth, freewheels promote coasting. The wooden hobby horse, is not modern, in the sense that it is simply a cart that one stands over, derived from the position one takes on a horse, in some models of postmodernism( those which place it as being antithetical to modernism) this might figure into the equation and bridge the post with the pre.
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Fixed is a 5 letter word
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@Danzel
I just realized that I am somehow tired of the term f-i-x-e-d
It went from a clean technical term to supercharged associativity, or am I wrong ?
How about :Funny-Gear or Furious-Gear, or Flabbergasted Gear,Fixed-Beer,, Flare-Gun or Fold-Genital ?
you name it