The Foot Down

I have seen some weird shit in my life but this really takes the biscuit, I think this may actually be my first non-bike post but it would be a crime for me not to share this thing. The video is WEIRD but with a bit of a scientific voice-over it would probably have been passable as not mental, the video is one thing but it’s the sound that takes this thing to a whole new level. My very good friend Kate from Smiles-all-round sent it to me, check out her Tumblr!

This comic strip pretty much sums up how I feel about helmets, I don’t wear one and I honestly can’t see me ever changing my mind. I can understand why people wear them but I’d like to hear people’s opinions on the matter and get a nice little debate going from fixed gear riders, the helmet debate is usually fought out amongst roadies, commuters, mountain bikers, unicyclists and all other manner of weirdos in the same thread but I’ve yet to hear what WE think.

I’m sure you’ve all seen these advertisements, they’ve been posted up on a load of blogs over the last few months and they are hard hitting for sure but they just don’t shake me. I grew up skateboarding and have fallen on my head loads of times, I’ve been bruised, grazed and had stitches and I’m f-f-fine. I suppose getting hit by a car and falling down some steps are quite different but surely bonking your head is bonking your head? I don’t think anyone would argue that wearing a helmet would reduce the pain of bashing your head against the ground but if you live your life worrying about hurting yourself every now and then you’d be one boring mother fucker. The human body can take a lot of punishment and we’ve evolved to have quick reactions and reflexes, 99% of the time you’ll fall off your bike and won’t hit your head, you are far more likely to scratch your knee or break your wrist but there is no argument for pads and wrist guards, probably because you are unlikely to die from a sore knee.

There is research that swings both ways when it comes to helmets, some says “yes! helmets will save your life!” but a few more clicks around in Google and you’ll find some professor or other saying that wearing a helmet makes you more likely to be hit by a car in the first place. Whether a helmet is safer or not is irrelevant in my opinion because no amount of proof will get a majority to wear a helmet, I’m not really interested in research I’m interested in hearing why YOU wear or don’t wear one, after all personal safety is personal and I feel that we also shouldn’t be dictated to by governments that introduce helmet wearing laws.

I’ve just had my tea and have completely forgotten where I was…uh… Oh yeah, today, after 10 months the dick that ran me over has admitted responsibility so my compensation claim is finally getting somewhere. I was pretty badly injured that day, I flew over the top of the car, breaking my collarbone, cutting a huge gash through my thigh muscle and breaking a rib but my cycling cap didn’t even fall off. My head was completely fine. Maybe I was lucky, maybe my reflexes kept my head from hitting the ground, we’ll never know but I wonder whether years of skating, falling on my ass day in day out for years, has taught me to not just hit the ground like a sack of shit but to land lightly like a lovely little butterfly. I’m just throwing stuff out there but I do believe that some people are safer than others because they aren’t fucking drips, no amount of neon, trouser clipage or a helmet would help a lot of people, street-smarts are important I reckon and that comes with an active ‘extreme’ (yes it’s a stupid word but you know whatimsayin’) lifestyle but with an extreme active lifestyle also comes a higher chance of running red lights and dodging through traffic disregarding the laws of the land so maybe they cancel each other out?

So what do YOU think then? Has becoming a parent changed the way you think? Have past accidents swayed you one way or the other? Are you worried about your stupid-ass hair going flat? Pretty pretty please post in the comments what you think about helmets, keep it nice…

Last Friday I had to catch the bus home, after a bit of a barney with some stuck up bitch in Tesco I am not allowed in my girlfriends company car anymore, ha! I’ve spent practically my whole life getting around by bus, after my parents got divorced in 1994 it was the bus or nothing because my mother can’t drive.

I used to skate into town most of the time when it was dry but still had to bus it home and as long as I had my Walkman I didn’t really mind. When depression finally ravaged my life like wild fire and I lost everything I had catching the bus became a whole different affair. It went from being my way of getting around to the most miserable part of my day, and believe me my days were MISERABLE. Fair enough I probably didn’t help myself by listening to Red House Painters non-stop but I started to see catching the bus for what it actually is: a freak show.

Seriously now, it’s fucking horrible. What is up with all these fully grown adults catching the bus? Why haven’t they learned to drive or discovered bikes or walking? They are all as dull as a brush, they get on and sit in the area for prams/wheelchairs when there are plenty of other seats and are then pissed off when they have to move a few stops later. They stink of piss or B.O or are covered in pastry or feel the need to eat McDonalds. I suppose the old folks can’t be blamed for stinking of piss but they still get on my tits on the bus, I just can’t help but think that they have wasted their lives if they are still using public transport at their age.

One time back in the 80’s I remember this crazy woman get on with a ghettoblaster and was singing along for the whole journey, it has stuck in my mind for so long because such behaviour is insania but since the advent of MP3 mobile phones with speakers it seems that kids think it is absolutely fine to play the shittest music known to man in the back seats, it’s so fucking retarded! Who the fuck is bringing these socially inept idiots up? Why would you play music on a bus? It really grinds my gear!

What I’m trying to say is that discovering cycling has totally changed the way I travel. I’m no longer at the mercy of timetables (that drivers can’t keep); I don’t have to go places when I can I now go when I want; I get around for free now, Swansea buses are ridiculously expensive; I can get from A to B relatively germ free; and cycling is quicker, the bus journey to work takes 35-40 minutes, I can cycle it in 12 minutes. People need to get a grip on reality and swap their bus tickets for bikes.

Oh, I forgot, one time there were these two total mongs sat by me talking about going on holiday, their conversation went like this:
Him: “I want to go somewhere hot, like Siberia or something.”
Her: “Yeah, it’s fucking boiling there innit, I’d have to buy a new bikini.”
If there is any better reason not to catch the bus, I’d like to hear it!

There is an article in The Guardian today about riding brakeless, personally I just think people should mind their own business and let us ride however the hell we feel like it. Read the whole article here, it also links out to a NY Times article from 1987 on the same subject.

I’m enjoying all this fuss over “The only good trick on a track bike is going fast” graphic that popped up a while back, people are upset, bike advocates are on their high horses, tricksters are feeling disrespected, Massan must be the second coming of Jesus or something. Yeah a bike is a bike but fixed gears are the bo-diggidy of bikes and track bikes are the bo-dizzle of fixed gears therefore track bikes must be the bestest. What the hell am I on about? I also like skateboards.

More “ride this or that or not that” things…
http://sfgfc.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/true-dat/
http://ilovebicycles.tumblr.com/post/996306853
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2010/08/bikes_are_bikes.php
http://4416.co.uk/?p=3002

Joey ‘Grime’ Krillz posted this photo up on his Smashenger blog a couple of weeks ago, it’s a scene that practically every fixed gear rider will recognise…

© mkanbergs

One of the greatest things about riding fixed is the chance to talk to old men on the street, they absolutely love to see us young guys and gals riding fixed gear bikes. When I first started riding Evs kept asking me whether  any old men had stopped to chat to me yet and they didn’t for ages and I felt like I was missing out on something but then one day it happened. “Fixed wheel is it?” is the usual introductory line from the old chaps and it often leads on to pretty lengthy conversations about all the adventures that they got up to back in the 50’s or so, this is one of my favourites…

I came out of TK Maxx to find a guy taking a picture of my bike on his mobile phone, he said it was to send to his son to show him that he had seen a bike like the ones he used to ride when he was younger. He went on to tell me about how he had seen a beautiful dark green track bike in the window of a bicycle shop in Morriston when he was a teenager but his parents couldn’t afford to buy it for him. He took on a paper round and started saving as much money as he could, eventually he was able to buy it. One common topic during these chats is about the huge distances these guys used to do on a daily basis like it was nothing. This chap would regularly leave home in the morning and cycle from Swansea to Cardiff, a journey of about 45 miles, he would then race all day long at Maindy Velodrome before cycling back home to Swansea! This wasn’t a “one time I rode all the way to Cardiff, raced, then rode home” story, this was something that he did on a regular basis. Riding 45 miles is no big deal, but riding 90 miles on a mid 80’s GI with hours of track racing in between is bonkers.

My most recent interaction of this kind was about two weeks ago when I was riding home and I spotted an old guy of about 80 or so across the road stop in his tracks and slowly and unsurely make a thumbs up with his hand, he watched me as I went passed then lifted up his thumb and shouted “FIXED WHEEL!”, I looked around, shouted “YEAAAAAAH!” and gave him a thumbs up back. I wish I had stopped for a chat with him, he was so happy and clearly excited by the sight of a young guy like myself riding a fixed gear. I think it’s a real privilege to be involved in something that enables us to talk on the same level with old people because I’m only 29 and I despair when I look at teenagers these days, for pensioners looking at a group of emo kids must be like looking directly into the bowels of hell. I like to think that we give them a little faith in the youth and send them off with a smile on their faces.

I’m sure you all have similar stories to these, pretty please share them in the comments below because I would absolutely love to hear them!

The Foot Down is more than just a bodacious blog, you can find me on some of the major social networks too. I’m not one of those people that just tweets about his own latest blog post 5 times or sends out pointless updates on Facebook, I tweet stuff like “Painting my bedroom in my pants. It’s the fucking boringest thing EVER!” and “Just saw a dude in his early twenties on a mini scooter with bullhorns. What a bellend.” On Facebook I post questions and shit and it’s another place where you can comment on blog posts.

I’m also on Vimeo, I haven’t posted a lot of video yet but it’s something that I will be focusing more on in the near future. Last but not least if you are a geek at heart subscribe to the RSS feed, it’s the best way to keep up with all the raddest shiiiiiiit. Click on the logos below and get all social wiv me…

I just discovered this House of Pistard blog, it’s pretty interesting. Nearly all of the fixed gear blogs focus almost exclusively on posting ‘news’ and arse licking which I find a bit tedious. House of Pistard isn’t 100% fixed gear, it’s a messenger blog which is even better. They post stories and all kinds of other stuff worth reading and like me they like to fucking swear at times.

I bought one of their Merckx t-shirts which is sweeeeeeet, awesome quality tee and the print is really nice too and just look at all those free stickers, everyone knows that the free shit in an envelope is more important that the thing you have actually paid for…

Every year I go to The Gower Show which is basically a giant field full of toffs parading their prize beef around, being a vegan can sometimes be bitter sweet because as much as I hate toffs and every single thing they stand for I also love animals so I bite my tongue and enjoy looking at the fine bovine once a year. I wore my new Cannibal t-shirt knowing that there would be pigs there that I could pose ironically with wearing a tee featuring the logo of a sausage manufacturer but the poor sows were so fat that they just laid on their sides all day and didn’t make for good composition. Luckily there were loads of other pigs around so I posed with them instead, I sure would love to eat a PC Sausage, knowwhati’msayin’?

Before I go and make breakfast I just have to share this with you, call me immature but…

There is an infectious disease going around the world’s surfing community and it is called fixyitis. From Bondi Beach to the shores of Ouha, every dude and his dog wants in on the latest fad.

First I showed you O’Neill, then Animal, and today I present to you the Billabong Fixie messenger bag and cycling cap combo pack. I’m pretty sure that the ‘Fixie’ was in their range last year too but it certainly didn’t come with a, and I quote, “free fancy fixed gear cap”. I almost fell off my chair when I saw the page with this on today, Billabong is pretty wack but they aren’t known for jumping on and off bandwagons, it’ll be interesting to see how many years this bag stays in their range, I’m predicting that when the craze dies down and Billabong drop the bag from their range the “free fancy fixed gear cap” will become something of a collectors item.

To be honest I’m a bit pissed off by this, I was pretty sure that I already had a fancy fixed gear hat but it is clearly just a lame old Rapha cap and cannot possibly be placed on the top shelf with the seriously ice cool Billabong one. “Free fancy fixed gear cap”, what a fucking joke.

I’m 29 today, only one more year of acting like a total bellend before I have to get a grip on my life and start being a proper man. Check out my cake!