So fixies. What's the deal? I remember last year, the fixie was something to be proud of...something you rescued out of a dumpster and then fixed up, slapped a fixed cog on the back and rode around like a new child. Maybe not too pretty, but the point was that you built it yourself.
Recently I began stumbling across sites online like http://www.republicbike.com, where you can log on and "build your own fixie", meaning choose the colors and have it shipped fully assembled to your doorstep. Is this okay?
In fact, this is the very same website used by Urban Outfitters to allow riders to build-a-fixie for about $300. This is a pretty good deal, and the bikes are actually pretty awesome. But there's just something about the concept...
Is it as snazzy to just pick out the colors and components as to dumpster your frame and pull a little fix-me-up? So conflicted...
1 comment:
Wooohoo. I couldn't disagree with you more on this one. Sadly, I don't think that fixed gear bicycles are the product of home-made-dumpster-dive-refurbishment. Fixed gear bicycles used to be the only type of bicycle; the Tour de France and all other bike races were competed in using fixed gear bicycles. These days, fixed gear bicycles persist in their finest at the tracks, where super fancy, decked-out and specialized fixed-gear bicycles reign supreme.
Fixed-gear is a mechanical system, just like a free-wheel is; it affects how a bicycle is ridden. How that system applies to the riders' style is, I think, still a matter of personality, skill, cultural background, and whatever else. It's still two separate issues.
I will always, no matter what kind of bike, be looking for whatever way I can to make mine unique, shiny, colorful (or not...), smooth and finely performing. I love fixed gear for the unity and power-transfer between the cyclist and the cycle.
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