Fixed-Gear Article in the Observer 9th March

RPM that's an incredible bit of P-shop! excellent work tynan

Shhhhh. . . .

that is the best thing i have ever seen....fact!

Wheels, that is very funny. You've had me laughing out loud.

Wheels. That's Ace. Have tears in my eyes from laughing....

Excellent satire, 'son' :D

i nearly coughed up a lung...oh the mirth!

velocity boy [quote]mister k wow... where can i get some of these 'handbuilt' wheels?
do i need to get them imported?
will they cost me thousands??
;-)

A pair of lightweight wheels are handbuilt and will indeed set you back thousands.

You can find them over here:
http://www.carbonsports.com/LW_Fixie.lasso

An idea of the pricing here:
http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/app/web/SubCategory.aspx?BrandID=16[/quote]

lol. was trying to be sarcastic, but i guess it didn't come across though my keyboard.
just thought it was funny that they emphasised 'hand-built' when it covers most wheels out there.

scott not scot Ok...joking aside....I've said it before...WE don't own the sole rights to fixed gear....sure we all love riding them...but it spreads a lot further than this forum,and it's inevitable that it will get written about...both in favour and against.
I don't know Alice Fisher personally...but for all i know she could be one of the nicest people you could meet. Sure,her article isn't a fair representation of fixed gear riding...but at the end of the day we can't say she hasn't done any research this time...she had input from two people that have the respect of this whole forum....roxy and andy....and maybe they've been misquoted on certain things...but at least she started on the right foot compared to many of the other articles i've read.
I'm pretty sure she didn't set out to harm the whole fixed gear 'scene' despite the headline having a very good chance of doing so.
For the uneducated reading that article...they have probably formed opinions of fixed gear riders as being a bit stupid or unhinged for riding these 'bikes with no brakes'....and for any of those people that search for more information and end up here....we don't always do a great job of proving otherwise.
If anyone is seriously bothered by the article...maybe the time would be better spent writing a letter to Alice explaining why the article isn't a fair representation?
You may now begin calling me names...:)

Alice was incredibly nice when I talked to her. She seemed very interested and seemed genuinely concerned with getting the piece right. Until getting specific photo requests and seeing where it was headed I was excited about the article. She made it clear she didn't have final edit.
As you may have noticed they didn't use one of my photos nor any of the other photographer's work I sent them to. New York, WTF?
When I called Alice on saturday with my concerns she immediately put me in touch with her editor. Her editor, Lucy, assured me that they were putting out a balanced piece.

I have written to both of them [at 1am this morning] explaining what parts [all of it] of the article I find objectional or just plain wrong. I haven't heard back yet.

"some old bastard on a bike" fucking genius! kudos tynan wheels

Bloody hell you guys are gunna have fun if you think this is bad!

Wait till the Standard jumps on this!!

that's very very funny.

"She's implying that the 'fixie' is for fashionistas that use the bike as a fashion accessory. Some do but 5% of us on here and elsewhere ride because we just like riding bikes, simple"

i agree with you here, pistanator. it's at least 5%, judging by the deep-v count. it's so achingly, embarassingly hip to ride fixed in London, and everyone knows it, they just don't want to admit it. not unlike like the proverbial levellers fan, stood in a sea of your own shit at some alternative festival, bellowing out 'one way' at the top of your smoke-addled lungs with 50 thousand other soap dodging, identikit, lank-haired crustafarians.

hahhaa, that's awesome dude. i thought someone had just posted the article photo again until i saw 'fuck' in the headline :)

amazing photoshop....and just great satire.

Sounds like the article was commissioned by an editor and Alice Fisher was tasked with writing it. The Editor will decide the headline. personally I have to say it is much better to engage with journo's than not, because at least you may get your point across even if the article isn't all you wanted. the article was going to be written anyway and could easily have been sensationalist stuff about "Kamikaze fixie racing in london" or "poice clamp down on illegal bicycle races". If you engage you can do damage limitation and if you make the comparison with snowboarding and skateboarding, well they are pretty mainstream and accepted now. oh yeah Alice Fisher

piss funny photochop^^^^^

quality piece of writing.

Alice Fisher

i dont know why everyone gets pissed off about the whole colour matching deep Vs to your bike thing, they are slightly heavy compared to other rims but they are strong enough for this to be canceled out, also if you look at the majority of non fixed wheel bikes they are in some way colour coordinated, not just racing road bikes with handlebar tape and water bottles but with super high end hubs and rims (the new canecreek ones, for example) so why do some people automaticly think that just because a person has matched their wheels to the rest of their bike they therefore dont care about bikes or anything as much as they do or whatever.

as for the article, what a load of shit, the editor has a lot to answer for especially the use of a photo showing riders in nyc even though the article is about london and they even spoke with a photographer in london with a keen interest in bikes.

i haven't read all this thread but the article is yesterdays news,in fact it wasn't even news it was ephemeral waffle to fill column inches most gaurdian readers wouldn't even bother reading it unless they have a vauge interest in cycling.
tbh i can't see what all the fuss is about when tomorrow it's going to be forgotten about by 99.999999999999999999999999999999%. of the u.k population.
if you said 'brakeless fixie' to somebody in the street they wouldn't have a clue what you were on about, I know a farmer in kent who gets annoyed by trespassing balloonists who land in his fields in the summer. I bet balloonists are hotly debating "brakeless" landings and trespassing right now. i mean it's technically illegal but does anybody*give a toss?

*the general public

wheels, you sir are a wit.

if someone wrote a shit article about balloonists landing in a farmers field i would give a toss. :)

MrSmith i haven't read all this thread but the article is yesterdays news,in fact it wasn't even news it was ephemeral waffle to fill column inches most gaurdian readers wouldn't even bother reading it unless they have a vauge interest in cycling.
tbh i can't see what all the fuss is about when tomorrow it's going to be forgotten about by 99.999999999999999999999999999999%. of the u.k population.
if you said 'brakeless fixie' to somebody in the street they wouldn't have a clue what you were on about, I know a farmer in kent who gets annoyed by trespassing balloonists who land in his fields in the summer. I bet balloonists are hotly debating "brakeless" landings and trespassing right now. i mean it's technically illegal but does anybody*give a toss?

*the general public

trespass isn't illegal, only aggravated trespass is. so if you trespassed by accident or without any intension of doing anything wrong then its not illegal. but i see what your saying about most people not really caring, howevr, given this is the london fixed gear and single speed forum most people on here would be a little bit pissed off by it.

should we not be linking Alice fisher of the observer to what a cunt? more simple and damaging

like this

Alice Fisher

Alice Fisher of the Observer

who? Alice Fisher...

oh thank you "wheels" - I can't stop laughin - you can keep your fixies and fixed gears and fixed wheels - what I ride is a "hip hop slave bike" - class mate

trouser & shoe correspondant , I am having fucking kittens here

There is a column in Observer called summat like Have Your Say, where people are allowed to retort to an article written in the previous week that they disagree with. Perhaps someone could write in? Or should we just ignore it and keep under the radar?

And as Rakan wisely puts it, soon as The Below Standard picks up on this we'll be fucked...