And Now For Something Completely Different.......

[street]

Don't know if this will be of interest to anyone, but I was quite impressed 
Some guys larking about on fixed wheelers, doing some fairly cool moves:

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*DISCLAIMER- I have no interest in road bikes normally* 

[TwoBobRob]

S'alright   

Have you seen the vid of the crazy courier riders swarming all over the place?  Some of that was pretty gnarly.....

[street]

No haven't seen that, couriers were something I had huge respect for when I was at school so I might search for it! They always seemed to have the best bikes, beat up old Rockhoppers and the like with 700C wheels shoehorned in and loads of insulation tape to disguise any value....... boy we're really getting off topic now, sorry! 

[TwoBobRob]

It's a proper ride out, very fast with a lot of riders just rampaging everywhere   

New York I think, but I'm not sure on that.

[thesku11s]

fixies are a bit 2007 arent they ? ! 

lol.

The whole things had a bit of a fashion boom over the past few years, think its almost on its way out now.

All the big names like nike & puma have already cashed in on it!


Ive been riding a fixed commuting bike for a while now, can thoroughly reccomend it - I could never get on with gears & brakes on road bikes so stayed away from them.

Building up a track style road bike really showed me how simple, slick and efficent a bike could be. - a lot like new school bmx's


You get a sense of control you dont have with regular road bikes, and more even muscle workout. - they are used as training bikes by many professional cyclists and general athletes.

[SaMAlex]

FBM make a fixed wheel road/track bike

[selfpreservation]

fixed wheel bikes are cool and have there place, in many ways they are like spin bikes no freewheeling only hills instead of resistance , not practical in torbay where i live, i dont change gear much, never off the big front ring but round here there are some serious endless inclines if you seek them out , im not sure about the current trend of riding brakless on the road, essentially a track bike on the highway seems dangerous  to me , if your approaching the lights at 30mph and they change no amount of back pedaling is gonna stop you

[bmxer4ever]

Whoah! That bit where he wheelies through the cross traffic at around 1m40s is mental!

Fixy really started for couriers in San Francisco, then spread worldwide through the courier community. A lot of the guys here in Glasgow have moved onto them in the last decade.

I worked as a bike courier - on my Condor !- early '90's in Glasgow. (Lost a stone in weight in 3 weeks!!).
I'd met the main guys on the scene in George Square about that time when I was freestylin and bunnyhoppin on to this stage thing that was set up there - they'd never seen anyone bunnyhop so high, so we got to talking.

A little while later, a guy I knew called me up and asked me if I wanted to fill in for one of his bike couriers - he worked for a company called Falcon Couriers I think.
Gave it a go and got on really well with all the Glasgow riders. Being able to do lots of tricks helped! I soon became as fast as anyone else because I could take shortcuts that you just couldn't do on a road bike. Amazing for your fitness, but the weather could take the piss sometimes. Mind you, once you're wet, you can't get any wetter!

Ended up going over to Zurich with them for the '99 Courier World Championships- there was about 15 riders and we took a small crew to film the whole thing too. I'd managed to secure sponsorship from Local (Legendary Glasgow skate/snowboard shop. I was tight with Mic the owner!) and Carratti who gave us some bike parts - tubes, tyres, cables - and some cool GT road racer cycling tops for the boys and helmets too.
A mad time - I was absolutely knackered organising it, riding and filming.
I'm sure I've got some pics here somewhere - post 'em up when I find 'em.
G

[Steve Shindig]

Hey Gary, I didn't know it was you... Please upload GET UP onto youtube!

[bmxer4ever]

Hey Gary, I didn't know it was you... Please upload GET UP onto youtube!

Welsh Denny was thinking of doin that for me - I don't have the facilities at the moment. Both my vids would work on YouTube - the were edited in sections less than 10 minutes long, so they'd be fine to post as little complete vid parts.

So what does the "B." stand for - usernames are always a b1tch for me! (Mine isn't exactly revealing either!).

[Steve Shindig]

Hey Gary, I didn't know it was you... Please upload GET UP onto youtube!

Welsh Denny was thinking of doin that for me - I don't have the facilities at the moment. Both my vids would work on YouTube - the were edited in sections less than 10 minutes long, so they'd be fine to post as little complete vid parts.

So what does the "B." stand for - usernames are always a b1tch for me! (Mine isn't exactly revealing either!).

hey Gary, The B's for Bartholomew.  We've not met, but Get Up was one of the first videos I was given and alone with copy of Ross Milne's Tense Nervous Headache...  I watched them both to death!

[bmxer4ever]

Cool! I'll need to see what I can do about gettin' some of the vid sections posted then.
Cheers,
G