Bye Bye Fixed Gear

Fixed gear bikes are hardly the most underground super secret bikes in the world (these are) but they are still relatively unknown to the general population. That may be about to change though, and what is going to happen when everyone and their dog know about these radical death traps?

 The photo above was taken in HMV, their buyers don’t order in any old thing, they see that book as a money making opportunity, that is not a book about fixed gear culture but rather a sign that our ‘lifestyle’ is being absorbed into the mainstream. Underground activities are always eventually scooped up, chewed up and fucked up by greedy money grabbers in ties, it’s how it is unfortunately.

That book (which is very good apparently) may just represent the beginning of the end of fixed gear culture as we know it and next year Premium Rush will be released, a film about people on brakeless bikes and crashing them into things whilst riding very badly around the city, or at least that’s what the Daily Mail will tell it’s readers. Then a minor moral panic will kick off, followed by a widespread awareness of these illegal bikes and the police will start hassling us. Or the film could flop (very likely) and nothing will change.

Yes, hyperbole is a great thing but I’ve watched skateboarding being torn apart by suits over the last 15 years or so and an article entitled “The Rise and Fall of Skateboard Chic” on The Guardian site spawned this post. It is at least a relatively interesting article but before you decide that I am just being a cynical bastard (which I am) be sure to look at the accompanying “Skateboard Fashion on the Catwalk and High Street” slideshow. It is so unbelievably wide of the mark that it’s not even laughable, the people that are putting out this ridiculous bullshit are the very same people that will be selling us out when the time comes…