Fixed-Gear Article in the Observer 9th March

put that in your pipe and smoke it.

nice letter.....

VB is also right too.....

But this thread is exceptionally long.....it's a crap article granted....we're not exactky victims....are we?

I'm surprised anybody's actually all that bothered about it. I couldn't really care less if they write about fixed wheels at all. I'm more concerned about how the media portrays cyclists in general, because to the average joe on the road, that's all I am.

Whether I ride a fixed wheel, road bike, shopper, mountain bike or fucking unicycle - it's all the same to most non-cyclists.

And no one's looking at your drivetrain anyway except other fixed wheel riders.

It's the principle ! ! (what principle I forgot in all the fuzz)

Owyeah. Got it: Alice Fisher

Edit: Ignore this.......

i know everyone gotten all het up about this article, but honestly i've seen much worse hatchet jobs and shoddy journalism. i thought the article did at least portray some positive aspects of the whole fixed gear scene (community aspect, creative side and link to artistic stuff etc etc), and she did make some good attempts to speak to the right people.

As a comparison, late last year there was a story in Melbourne's biggest-selling daily paper, the Herald-Sun, about a 'terrifying' rave party near Melbourne, apparently full of overdoses, druggies and fights (this paper has a shocking reputation for senstionalism). The journo ripped unsolicited quotes off a local dance/party forum (inthemix.com.au), googled the forum members to discover their real names and published their forum posts under their real names without permission.

The wheels fell off when she included a quote from one 'Ralph Wiggum'. pwned. Google 'Annalise Walliker' and 'Ralph Wiggum' to read the full story.

Compared to that, this article is almost a puff-piece.

that photoshop is the duck's nuts, too :)

yeah, good letter cornelius you summed it up well.

its a joke guys...i dont think anyone actually got pissed off about it...we were just having a bit of fun.

hhhaaaaaaa!

Aidan has spoken.....therefore I agree.

Aidan for Mayor

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2260410,00.html

I like this article on cycling. Epecially the dig at the end about shite freesheets.

photoben http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2260410,00.html

I like this article on cycling. Epecially the dig at the end about shite freesheets.

Quite.

And when you look at the other stuff that she has written for Matt's column when he is absent (minded?) it all turns out to be quite reasonable stuff, and a real account of cycle commuting. Wonderful.

Highlighting the good beats highlighting the bad any day.

im not really offended, i dont like the peice, but i do like saying Alice fisher, and find this thread funny.

papers are full of bulshit written by bullshitters.
it makes me laugh when the lefty/liberal broadsheets have articles about green this, sustanable that, eco somethingelse and then in the glossy supplement it's full of expensive tat to make your life more meaningful, telling us to buy shit we don't need. why not travel to mongolia to buy a birthing blanket from a native, or perhaps the patio heater disguised as a lifesize replica of Michaelangelo's david is just the thing for your garden? it makes you feel like your life is worthwhile and you get to pollute the atmosphere while you do it.
cunts.

the greenest thing you can do is fucking kill yourself you ignorant cunt.*

and breath.. in... out... relax.

*aimed at the general public not anyone in particular.

MrSmith
the greenest thing you can do is fucking kill yourself you ignorant cunt.

i remind members of the green party this every time they ask for my money/ vote/ time/ drugs/ whatever else they want.

more shitty guardian fact-checking:

Writing in The Guardian today Lynda LaPlante says "At the moment I'm reading a book by Geoffrey Robinson, 'The Unconventional Minister'; he's the husband of my very good friend Kathy Lette".

Kathy Lette can't be such a good mate as her husband is actually called Geoffrey Robertson. He has never written a book called An Unconventional Minister and, indeed, has never been a minister (either govt or religious). There is an ex Labour govt minister called Geoffrey Robinson but he's nowt to do with Kathy Lette. Well done to both Lynda & them industrious Guardian fact checkers. You think that if they were such "very good friends" she might know the name of her friend's husband and, you know, have some kind of clue as to what job he does.

Also I was interested today to discover that the voice of "You've Been Tangoed" in the early 1990s is none other than Gil Scot-Heron, who was accepting practically any offers at a particularly low ebb in his crack addiction?

laugh my ass off!!this article cant be real surely.

No brakes,no gears:the latest bike craze by alice fisher-style correspondent.

hmm think i'll go home and listen to Public Enemy hmm A letter to the New york post sound about fitting...

MrSmith it makes me laugh when the lefty/liberal broadsheets have articles about green this, sustanable that, eco somethingelse and then in the glossy supplement it's full of expensive tat to make your life more meaningful, telling us to buy shit we don't need. why not travel to mongolia to buy a birthing blanket from a native, or perhaps the patio heater disguised as a lifesize replica of Michaelangelo's david is just the thing for your garden? it makes you feel like your life is worthwhile and you get to pollute the atmosphere while you do it.

Funnily enough, I was just listening to the BBC World Service and they spoke to a woman here in SF about the growing trend of 'Eco-Therapists'. They are psychologists that are concerned specifically with middle-class pricks suffering anxiety about not doing enough for the environment.

No, really.
*
'Well, doctor, I just don't feel like I recycle enough plastics and I feel like I should be composting more of my food waste, but I just can't find a compost box to match the finish on my Aga, which only gets used to warm up my gourmet ready meals...'

'There, there, dear - it's ok to feel bad about the environment and talking to me about it is far better than actually inconveniencing your lifestyle by doing a little more. Now, if you can just input your PIN number here...'*

When the BBC guy asked her whether she thought that the idea of 'green guilt' was more than a little pathetic, she audibly shrugged and just said 'Yes, absolutely, but you just can't tell these people'.

Long article about 'Green Worry'.

Also, it's thought in many quarters that recycling is actually counter-productive, as the energy used to sort through the used goods that find their way to recycling centres and actually recycle said goods completely negates the environmental impact (sometimes even having a worse effect) that re-using the natural resources has.

EcoWorld's 'Recycling Myths' article.

'*Jenny *has a therapist who makes her feel better about driving her kids to school in a bloody great 4X4. HARDEN THE FUCK UP, JENNY!'

pilky [quote]Jos [quote]benanza Clearly a well researched article. Alleycats to fight the war on drugs? What the fuck.

I've seen the Gaurdian do horrible things twice now regarding bikes.. they really need to get someone who knows stuff about bikes to do their research! I'd love to see a wheel set that cost 1000's lol... and her idea about alleycats is also, ehm, interesting.
They've actually corrected it online now (not the bit about the wheels or the alleycats) but they got Laura's details corrected.. its a start.

Momentum The popularity of fixed gears in the UK (and everything that goes with it) is lagging a couple of years behind the US. Judging by what has been going on in the US, I'd expect to see a lot more of this sort of shit for a while as more and more people get involved.

How do you mean exactly? Do you mean more ppl (as in a higher percentage of the population) are riding fixed wheels?
Do you have any proof of this? Its not that I don't believe you, just wondering how true it is (I don't doubt it is true btw).

Also, as a seperate point, I agree with the following:

chris crash im not really offended, i dont like the peice, but i do like saying Alice fisher, and find this thread funny.

and

aidan its a joke guys...i dont think anyone actually got pissed off about it...we were just having a bit of fun.

Yeah I just saw it as a bit of fun. The article seems alright apart from the overuse of the word fixie and the suggestion that we all ride around brakeless. If anything it'll drum up a bit of support for the fixed scene and there will be some brakeless collisions resulting in no human harm but loads of nice bike parts on eBay.

don't get me wrong; i still think the article was awful...

i quite liked it.

what of it.

go put on shoes you hypster!

MrSmith papers are full of bulshit written by bullshitters.
it makes me laugh when the lefty/liberal broadsheets have articles about green this, sustanable that, eco somethingelse and then in the glossy supplement it's full of expensive tat to make your life more meaningful, telling us to buy shit we don't need. why not travel to mongolia to buy a birthing blanket from a native, or perhaps the patio heater disguised as a lifesize replica of Michaelangelo's david is just the thing for your garden? it makes you feel like your life is worthwhile and you get to pollute the atmosphere while you do it.
cunts.

the greenest thing you can do is fucking kill yourself you ignorant cunt.*

and breath.. in... out... relax.

*aimed at the general public not anyone in particular.

Easy, tiger. The tone of this thread is hilarious, actually, when you take a step back from it - "How dare these journalists write a superficial, generalised, sensationalised piece about fixed wheel bikes - all journalists are lazy lying scum who should kill themselves!"

(I'm a journalist, btw, and I ride a fixed wheel bike. And I used to write about green issues.)