FT article

where one finds out that Jan from BLB is a former lawyer! Hence maybe the hard negotiating skills

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecc5efd8-93f9-11dc-acd0-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

It's a better article than most of the ones in this vein. Wonder what NYC couriers would say that its the Londoners who started the trend for vintage steel frames :-)

Bah. Werk blocks bugmenot. Does anyone have an ft.com login to hand?

I like the fact that it doesn't mention the use of brakeless bikes on the street (the less people know about it the better IMO)

In favour of the fixie

By Tom Bogdanowicz

Published: November 16 2007 16:19 | Last updated: November 16 2007 16:19

Given £1,000 ($2,000) to spend on a bicycle, most sensible people would select one with 30 smooth gears, lightweight suspension for the bumps, and disc brakes that stop on a sixpence. Yet a rapidly growing number of urban riders are rejecting a century of innovation and spending large sums of money on bikes without gears, without suspension, with only one brake and not even a freewheel.

The choice of buying a fixed-wheel bike or “track bike” for city use appears to defy common sense, convenience and considerations of personal safety. Non-initiates to the so-called “fixie” consider their owners to have a few screws loose as well as missing a few gears. The disadvantages of fixed-wheel bikes are obvious – you can’t freewheel down hills, you can’t change gear going uphill, you have to time stopping to perfection otherwise you land on your rear and, without mudguards, you get soaked every time it rains.

Yet fans of the fixie swear that nothing can beat it for urban riding. Indeed, the majority of Britain’s urban cycling professionals, the couriers who ride for a living all day, choose to ride fixies. What’s more, the latest bicycle fashion is spreading from couriers to health enthusiasts to commuters.

At Condor Cycles, the central-London shop, fixed-wheel bikes are a top seller – accounting for half the sales of the Condor brand. Greg Needham of Condor’s says they expect to sell more than 700 of the fixed Pista model: “Sales of fixies are so strong that we’ve brought out two new models to satisfy demand.” It’s the same story at Roberts Cycles, where bikes are tailor-made for the cognoscenti. Owner Chas Roberts says he’s built more track bikes in the past two years than in the previous five. Cycle producers are jumping on the bandwagon as well.

Specialized, one of the world’s largest cycle makers, has just launched a UK-specific version of its popular Langster fixie, complete with Union Jack transfers. Bike-shop owners say recent wholesale deliveries of fixies from large manufacturers LeMond and Trek were nabbed in a day.

As converts discover, it may take a week or two to get over the initial fear of vaulting over the handlebars when you try to stop but thereafter, fixie riding becomes a curious pleasure. “A fixed wheel gives me more control,” says fixie-cyclist Charlotte Barnes from west London. “I feel in closer contact with the bike.” Johnny Wilkinson, a cyclist from Hackney, in east London, and owner of two fixies, says: “I love the simplicity, and it teaches you to keep an eye on the road ahead.” And fixies are not just the ultimate in cycle fashion but also for speed – weighing about 8kg, track bikes are half the weight of a mountain bike. With no gears, they are also easily repaired. Then there’s the theft deterrent – fewer parts to steal and harder for a thief to ride away. Finally, fixies offer the promise of increased fitness as you keep pedalling and also use your muscles to slow the bike.

For newcomers to fixies, there is the option of using a single-speed freewheel at first: most shop-bought fixies have a freewheel on one side of the rear hub and a fixed cog on the other.

Fixed-wheel bikes are not new. Boneshakers and Penny Farthings had fixed wheels and the earliest Tour de France races, 100 years ago, were contested by fixed-wheel bikes. The founder of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, lamented the switch to bikes with gears: “Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur?”

In spite of Desgrange’s misgivings, fixies became limited to velodromes or tracks – hence the name “track bike”. At velodromes such as those in Manchester and Herne Hill in south London, the bikes even differ from street-fixies in having no brakes at all and special glued-on tyres called tubs.

The return to urban streets was first initiated by New York bike messengers who turned fixies into a cult, complete with upturned, sawn-off racing handlebars and old inner tubes wrapped round the frame to protect the paintwork. London couriers and commuters followed the US trend but with a European twist: retro design and a penchant for classic steel frames.

Retro-fixie fashion is all about style and individuality. Traditional steel frames are slimmer, sleeker and more decorative than aluminium. Vintage steel frames are now so popular that there’s a shop, Brick Lane Cycles, in London’s East End, that specialises in this type of bike. The shop’s owner Jan Milewski, a former Polish lawyer turned London bike courier, says his customers like to personalise their fixies and he can barely keep up with demand. “Most of our classic frames are sold before they arrive,” he says.

These days, most independent bike shops carry a few fixie models, and British custom-bike builders can make you a frame that is as traditional or decorative as you wish. You are advised to take it easy at first, perhaps using a single-speed freewheel to begin with and then trying the fixed cog on minor roads. One option is to first sample the pleasures and pitfalls of fixed wheel at a velodrome taster session. But beware: you could get fixated on fixed.

just for the record - i am no longer in hackers

from the piece - "Johnny Wilkinson, a cyclist from Hackney, in east London, and owner of two fixies, says: “I love the simplicity, and it teaches you to keep an eye on the road ahead.”

i remember this guy taking photos of the bike and interviewing me outside of one of my fave boozers - the Albion on Goldsmiths Row - quality football pub. i think he wrote the piece for the free paper that people who are members of the LCC get.

my boss gave me that article to read yesterday, he sez he wants a fixie now

tell him its shit........we have an issue on our hands.

le car I like the fact that it doesn't mention the use of brakeless bikes on the street (the less people know about it the better IMO)

Me too - one of the good things about it (along with being more broadly accurate than most of these articles)

also the amount of times it is mentioned on here, as we are quite often at the top of google searches

Tom Bog is an LCC guy.

Who's this west Lundun Charlotte Barnes then eh? Fess up!

seen her a few times on Critical Mass, she's tall with red hair usually hangs around on the ACF forum.

Charlotte is a good strong rider just did PBP earlier this year but on gears not fixed, she rode a 200km Audax with me on her fixed once, BBill might remember her from that one he was on the same ride :)
She has a new Mercian fixed it's a beaut'

I wonder if she's one of the mysterious fixie chicks spotted around Ealing? They're multiplying..

Heh, I remember Charlotte from crit. mass and when the cycling+ forum was the place for all things UK fixed. She built one hell of an all-purpose fixed complete with the biggest saddlebag I've ever seen, almost got one to replace my mess'er bag at the time!
I did like that article, apart from one or two comments. It was really straightforward and fairly accurate. Agreed with momentum and lecar about the no brakes thing not being mentioned.
And as for "we have an issue on our hands", the 'issue' has already happened!
I feel like an old man (or buffalo bill) harping on about back in the day...

trampsparadise
And as for "we have an issue on our hands", the 'issue' has already happened!
I feel like an old man (or buffalo bill) harping on about back in the day...

Indeed techone. I was thinking the same thing last night as I put some new toeclips on the lady's bike. Realised that I bought the pedals (SR track pedals), clips and straps for a fiver. Won't happen agaion for a while.

Never met her (Charlotte) in person, although she is one of my customers! £$€

Roberto Never met her (Charlotte) in person, although she is one of my customers! £$€

Dude I reckon everyone in London who ride a fixed gear bike is probably one of you customers :-)

From todays Guardian......at the end of an article about Ghent, where some of us are going on Saturday!!!

But you don't have to go to Ghent for a taste of something similar, if a little less balletic. Last Saturday night, I took part in a roller-race in London. This pits pairs of riders racing against each other on stationary bikes that sit on rollers linked to a large, stopwatch-style dial with an arrow for each rider. You race over a nominal 500m, so it's like a track sprint, lasting just over 20 seconds at an absolutely killing cadence.

It has a gladiatorial quality, in this case underlined by the staging (courtesy of Rapha and Rollapaluza) inside a boxing ring, surrounded by a baying crowd. On a previous occasion, the journalists' team - staffed by the honed athletes of Cycling Weekly - were winners. This time, with me guesting, they were roundly trounced by a messengers' squad. A popular result, as you might guess.

In the 1960s, roller-racing was a popular winter event, somewhere between a sport and a fairground attraction, with all-comers pitting themselves against a professional, Eddie Wingrave (whom I came to know as a gloriously cantankerous race commissaire in latter years), who toured along with a big band and chorus girls. With its decline, the tradition was barely kept alive in the obscure premises of cycling clubs. Now, it has been reinvented by the courier community, which has brought roller-racing to a paying audience of fixie-riding hip urbanites, complete with bottled beer, band and DJ. A scene is definitely happening: coming to you soon, the new rock'n'rollers.

complete piece: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2214991,00.html

Nice bit of promotion there!! :)

Shit.. with the fresh influx of skinny legged hipsters my chances of ever winning one of these is disappearing faster than my first beer of the night..

Hippy,

for a fee, I can arrange for your competitors to be ahem handicapped.

well... good publicity and all that, but journalists really have the mastered the art of making good things sound shit i.e.
"it has been reinvented by the courier community, which has brought roller-racing to a paying audience of fixie-riding hip urbanites, complete with bottled beer, band and DJ. A scene is definitely happening: coming to you soon, the new rock'n'rollers."
or
"Retro-fixie fashion is all about style and individuality" (irony?)

True maybe, but every time an article like that is published I could almost become embarrassed to ride my bike.
Or maybe I woke up feeling a touch more cynical than usual today

at least it comes from a genuine cyclist , who rides a lot more miles than most and goes out of his way to experience as many different forms of cycling as he can, rather than the opinions of a motorist in an office?

again i agree with winston but RC is right; the writer has genralised the scene like every other journalist(spelling)