Fixed Gear Freestyle is for Mentalists
I saw this photo of Torey Thornton on Twitter this morning and it blew my mind a little bit…
Regular readers will know that I’m yet to immerse myself into the world of fixed gear freestyle for various reasons: lack of money to buy a trick bike; somewhere to store said bike; my healing collarbone; my total lack of bike stunt skills and maybe most importantly the fact that I can see just how fucking dangerous it looks! I’m no pussy, I’ve broken bones and twisted my ankles more times than you’ve had hot dinners over the years and kept on going but that was on a skateboard which I could kick away, not on a huge lump of metal. I look at this photo and all I can see is the top tube snapping and gouging its way through his belly and out of his back.
As I’ve said a few times I find a lot of the freestyle stuff pretty wack and ugly looking but the photo above is just awesome, it’s 100% balls out, no pissing about craziness. I’d love to be jumping off roofs and doing huge sets of steps but just running off a curb fills me with terror, it’s embarrassing; I’ll bomb a hill as fast as my legs will go and burn through rush hour traffic but even a simple wheelie is too much for me! I’m sure I could do all the twirly whirly shit and would really enjoy it but it’s a bit 2009 now innit.
I often wonder what the standard of the UK fixed gear freestyle scene is actually like, there are a couple of names from London (Oscar, Super Ted) that seem to kick some ass but apart from them I am unaware of any other riders busting out really crazy shit and pushing boundaries here.
What are your thoughts on this? Are there any rippers around your way?
Related posts:
- Does Fixed Gear Freestyle Suck? Is fixed gear freestyle something that we’ll all be ashamed of in a few years?...
- Book Review – Fixed: Global Fixed-Gear Bike Culture A review of Fixed: Global Fixed-Gear Bike Culture, the first book to look at the scene from it’s origins 100+ years ago right up to the present craze....
- Fixed Gear Tricks in Bristol A couple of videos of a chap named Swede doing some fixed gear tricks around Bristol....
- Fixed Gear Bikes in Un-Cool Places Forget graffiti, say no to the gritty alleyway, lets see your bike outside the library or locked up at Tesco....
- Old Men Love Fixed Gear Bikes Old men love to talk about riding fixed gears back in the day, share your stories about your conversations with them......
