Thought Patterns
by Emanuel
June 11, 2007 at 21:29
filed under cycling, rant, Vancouver
Tagged cycling, fixed gear, Vancouver
It took a full year to get the set-up as I wanted it and it was worth the wait. Darren at Dream Cycle helped me put my bike together, and although I was going for a low-key look, I’ve been getting a lot of attention and compliments about my fixie out in the streets as I ride.
Discovering a while back the joy of riding a fixed gear has changed how I cycle: the simplicity, the silence, the control and the need to be completely in tune with my cadence has been amazing. I yet have to ride my fixie on a any ride that is over a few hours as I’ve stuck to my regular road bike for those rides but I’m looking forward to my eventual first fixed century ride.
I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer?
We are getting soft…As for me, give me a fixed gear!
–Henri Desgrange, 1902
Although fixed gear bikes might be quite fashionable these days, they’ve been hot for quite some time, even enough for Hollywood to make a movie about the NYC messenger culture back in 1986. The story is cheesy and lacking in solid direction but there are some sweet bike scenes, specially the one where Kevin Bacon “dances” on his bike with his so-80s ballet-jazz girlfriend.
Here’s my set-up
Check here for more sweet fixed gear bikes.
Pat
Qu’est que c’est que ce bicloone à l’ancienne..??!!
Je plaisante, belle bécane. Les photos sont nice. Comme globalement tout le site d’ailleurs… ça t’arrive de faire les choses de travers ou bien jamais?!
La class tout ça, bon flow. Je vais y jeter un oeil attentif dorénavant…
A plus.
Patrick.
Thought Patterns
on September 9, 2007 at 14:13
[...] There are quite a few fixed gear movies coming out / premiering this fall and it’ll be interesting to see how the 2007 snapshots of the fixie culture have evolved from how it was previously captured, either a few years ago (as in this NYC fixed gear alley cat clip by Lucas Brunelle) or a few decades ago, notably in an Hollywood example mentioned in one of my previous posts. [...]
YT
Méchand beau bike!!!
Se fut un plaisir de se renconter entre deux p’tite brou!
peace!
Archives (2) - Summertime | Thought Patterns
on March 3, 2009 at 08:42
[...] enough it will be the time of the year when I start heading out on my fixed gear and wander through the city in search of interesting photos to snap. Here’s one I dug [...]
My (almost) daily climb - part 2 | Thought Patterns
on June 6, 2009 at 11:30
[...] been beautiful these past few weeks. I’ve been enjoying the climb more and more on my fixed gear and of course that’s much easier when I’m not climbing under light drizzle. It makes [...]