The Foot Down

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

Brother cycles now has t-shirts up for grabs at their website, I’m a big fan of their logo and of black t-shirts so this is right up my street. Pick one up in their shop.They also posted the photo below to their blog this week with the good old fashioned ‘coming soon’ tagline, black on black is always good, some nice black decals is all I need to make my bike fully goth. I’ve been riding my Brother Cycles frame for a few months now and I absolutely love it, I will NEVER EVER buy a frame without threaded dropout adjusters again, this thing just holds that back hub in place perfectly, no more slack chain and no more spending ages getting the tension in the first place. The paint is tough as nails too, I really shouldn’t have said that because it’ll probably get all scratched up now but what the hey. If you are after a really decent frameset for a really decent price then start with Brother Cycles, I’m not easily pleased and I am pleased!

Today is a very exciting day, the reprint’s of Gavin ‘Boikzmoind’ Strange’s Death Before Derailleur t-shirts are ready for buying. They are available in black and white, printed by White Duck Screenprint on Continental tees and available from his online shop for £15.

Long time readers might remember what happened to my original one, if you don’t know I was ploughed down by some prick who’s bloody car managed to break my collarbone and rip a hole through my right thigh muscle. All my clothes had to be cut off at the hospital, lucky for me I was wearing my favourite jeans, t-shirt and hoody that day, yay!

David / Cornwall
Cinelli MASH frame and fork
Columbus intergrated headset
Cinelli Bianca XL Stem
Ritchey Aerobase carbon bars
Bontrager carbon speed limit aero brake lever
Bontrager Speed limit caliper brake
Bontrager XXX-Lite carbon seatpost
Sella Itallia SLR Fibra saddle
Phil Wood White Large flange front hub
H Plus Son white rim
Custom cut white spokes
Dia-Compe SS white tyre
SRAM S300 Chainset
Truvative GXP external BB
Blackspire CNC 41T chainring
KMC 710 SL Super BLING Chain
BLB 16T White sproket
Chub Hub rear hub
DT Swiss black champion DB spokes
H Plus Son Black rim
Bontrager XXX-Lite tyre

I have been a very silly boy, when I discovered the DVS Keirin Pack shoes the other week I didn’t look through the whole catalogue, today I found these t-shirts which are bangin’. They have the NJS knockoff logo on the front and the Keirin racer number on the back shoulder and arm. This was actually gonna be the next Foot Down t-shirt range but it looks like I was beaten to it, never mind hey. They’ll be available spring 2011.

Cardiff’s second fixed gear alleycat is planned for September 11th, it doesn’t start until 8 so it’ll be 10x more confusing for people like me that only know their way from Jessops to the Apple Store and back. The first race back in May was bangin’ and I expect this to be no less so. Hopefully more of the Bristol Trackdropouts can come over the Bridge for an ass whupping this time, and YOU too, wherever you are!

For more info pop over to the Fixed Gear Cardiff blog…

A couple of weeks back one of the Fixed Gear Cardiff lot posted on Facebook about a little get together they were planning, this is a pretty regular thing for them but it caught the attention of us Swansea boys and after a fair few people showed some interest the local meet became a mini-event with spoke cards and everything.

The Spiral Sprints were to be a series of races up and down a new multi story car park which sounded like a gas so Sion, Evs and myself hit the road and met up with all the guys (and gal) at the pub for pre-race drinks. We headed off about 8ish and made our way towards the car park, as the traffic light around the corner turned green we all went hell for leather across the road, through the barriers and up and up and up and up and up the spiral ramp, it was like it was never gonna end, the sprint across the roof determined Paul as the champ. Security was on us within seconds, like flies around shit, and we were kicked out putting an end to the sprints. The ride back down the ramps was fun and pretty scary, we headed off down to the bay for a quick trackstand comp (which I came second in, but I will come first one day!), I gave out some misprinted ‘Oh God’ t-shirts and a set of Skullcandy earphones as prizes and then we headed home.

Fixed Gear Cardiff – Spiral Sprints from The Foot Down on Vimeo.

This may have been the worlds shortest race, at about 30 seconds or so I’d like to hear of a shorter one, but more of these semi-organised events are on the cards. Good stuff guys!

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!

Mat / London
Brother Cycles Frame
Aerospoke front and rear
Miche Advanced Crankset
San Marco Rolls saddle
Miche Supertype Seatpost
Nitto Technique Stem
Charge Riser Bars
V8 Pedals