i have mixed feelings about this new trend of fixie freestyling. on the one hand, i love all new cycling things by default. but for some reason, i find myself watching fixie freestyle videos online and just being generally irked. let me clarify…

the first thing i find is i often find myself slipping into that mental trap of "what are they doing? those bikes aren’t meant for that!" but that’s bullshit and i know it — look at where BMX came from — the schwinn stingray wasn’t meant for what those 70s kids did to and on it. plus, as a result of plenty of these riders breaking the parts that "aren’t meant for it," now they make track-inspired frames that ARE beefier and that CAN take the beating. (just like BMX, btw.) so that aspect of my brain’s inherent dislike of this new thing sort of works itself out. some kids wanted to do tricks on their track bikes, the bikes couldn’t take it, so new bikes were made that could. fine. i’ll let that one go. the bikes ARE meant for it now.

but let’s move on. i also feel this tweaky, wierd "they’re just re-appropriating a bunch of other tricks from other sports" thing in my head. a lot of what those guys are doing was started in the early 1900s. it was called acrobatic cycling, and they still do it in the circus. then let’s not forget all the little endo-to-360-rollbacks they rock in their sessions — those are straight off the knobbies of the 80s BMX parking lot freestyle sessions. and then all that is mixed with current BMX shit, too — 180s down big sets of stairs, and the handful of kids that rock handrail grinds now, too. that’s all new shit. and it’s already going further into the BMX playbook — there’s two fixie freestylers i know of who are running pegs now and popping icepick grinds and shit. that’s actually pretty hardcore. so what’s my deal? am i for some reason being protective of something? like i’m putting myself out there as a wall between these new kids and all the old heads, trying to say "get your own shit!" or am i being that fuckin hater who doesn’t want to let the new shit develop FROM the old? i mean, even my beloved BMX was started by kids emulating their motocross heroes. and when freestyle, which was born of that, died out and was reborn as street riding, let’s be honest — most of that was emulating skateboarding, which in turn was emulating surfing when IT was first invented. so what gives me the right to say that what these fixie freestylers is doing is "stealing" or in any way "wrong?"

and here’s another conflict happening in my brain, perhaps related to point 1 — fixie freestyle is comprised of tricks that are pretty basic when they’re done on a bike that’s "meant for it." a 180 down a 5-stair is a yawner on a BMX bike. but there’s the rub — it’s a fucking trick just to be able to set up a bunnyhop on a fixed-gear bike — trust me, i know. so is it inherently more hardcore to be doing even lame tricks on a bike that MAKES the tricks harder? and if so, why didn’t brian scura (old BMX guy who ran a fixed gear) get props back in ’82?

and let’s talk about where this all came from, too — people have been racing fixed-gear bikes in the velodromes for years — it’s an olympic sport, for pete’s sake. but then the messengers took those bikes to the streets back in the early ’80s. and i KNOW a bunch of people said "those bikes aren’t meant for that!" so am i that guy, just all over again? and what about those of use who were riding for 20 years and then decided to give fixed a try? before the trend blew up, we were hated by the messengers cause we were on "their" bikes. but they were on someone else’s bikes! so where does the path start, and where does it end? who "owns" what? maybe none of us own shit and we’re all just always borrowing from someone else.

i think in the end, the conclusion i’ve come to after battling it out in my head for the last year is that a) it’s a new trend in cycling, which rocks. fuck it, it’s more asses in more saddles. b) nobody has the right to claim anything. there’s ALWAYS someone who did it before you. and that includes me. i can’t hate on these kids just cause i was making fixies out of BMX parts since day 1. c) it’s so new that nothing is set in stone. when the fixie freestylers of 2033 look back at last year when it all blew up, they’ll laugh at the bunnyhop-to-wheelie-to-barspin lines just like me and the old BMX heads laugh at miami hoppers.

it’s all a cycle. (heh, so to speak.) who knows where it will go?

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yeah, THAT’S what i’m talkin about.

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recently, cinelli teamed up with OG SF bombers MASHSF to make a frame that addressed all of the crew’s needs — street-ready, road-ready, and fixed. MASHSF rode these frames on the tour de california this year, and the limited run of 1000 frames is out now, though imaginably sold out right about … now.

anyway, HERE’S the site for the collaboration, and i just wanna pay note to the sick design, where instead of a background image, they have a background video — in this instance, video of the crew on the TdC.

"constructed in milan to fully engage the full tradition and spirit of cinelli with a new tradition of riding, still emerging from san francisco’s three-dimensional maze of inclines, blind alleys and fast-moving variables in high traffic."

also, "…fast-moving variables in high traffic" is my new favorite anything.

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I’ve wanted to ride a velodrome forever… or at least as far back as my first road bike (high school, Nishiki, 33 pounds)… sadly non exist here in SF (though type in www.sfvelodrome.com as Google would encourage, and you see the snarky result)… but there IS one in San Jose. Hmmm?

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i have no idea how that thing works, but it looks sweet as FUCK, and you can see a lot more pics of the bike HERE, though the listing has ended.

also, note the WOOD rims.

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that final picture there, the logo is bead blasted out of the chrome plating. SICK.

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THIS is a GREAT idea. just view existing posts or create your own to turn up a riding buddy when you’re new in town. anywhere.

awesome.

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Setting aside the fact that ‘redband trailer’ is becoming a little bit over-used and ill-fitting these days, this IS kind of fun for all the crashes interwoven with vid clippery, posturing kids, and SF wheelwork…

http://vimeo.com/5530697

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THIS is pretty great.

campaign continues with THIS.

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This is a gallery of Ironlung’s Schwixie(tm) bike build project photos. Click any image to enlarge it and make clucking sounds of approval!

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