October 2, 2007
Baskets Are the New Minimalism
It’s a classic example of fixie bike lust: the carefully accented color coordination, expensive but mismatched wheels, improbably narrow handlebars, and, of course, lack of any unsightly “extras” such as gears and brakes. But wait...is that a basket we see?
We love – and love to hate – those slim fixie kids. In our fair city -- and, 
apparently, in every other city and town on the globe (our friend just back from Budapest reports that the place is crawling with them) -- one either a) rides a fixie, b) wants to ride one, or c) hates fixies and their aficionados. Preliminary and informal research (soon to appear in the Journal of Mundane Behavior) indicates that these groups can be mapped with a simple Venn diagram:
About half of those who hate riders also (secretly?) wish they rode; a small portion of those who ride also hate other fixie kids or, in rare cases, themselves. As a San Francisco attorney of our acquaintance remarked to us during a recent Critical Mass, "It’s strange, I often don't like the people who like the same things that I like."
But kids aside, the bicycles are beautiful -- it’s well known that the two most beautiful films ever made, the Lumière brothers’ Bicycliste (1896) and Jorgen Leth’s Umlige Time (1974) are fundamentally about the sleek beauty of the fixed-gear bicycle. So what’s with the sudden front basket epidemic? We’ve even spotted fixies with (gasp!) fenders. We predict that fixie riders will soon be falling over one another to attach all sorts of chromed racks, mirrors, lights, bells, and whistles, like the Vespa-riding Mods in that old Fine Young Cannibals video (yow).
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the might be good looking, but they're hard on your knees, especially the ligaments. More than one fixie rider has trouble walking after some years on one
Baskets make sense as far as utility. I just don't get why the need for those pads on every tube, or only wrapping your bars half-way down. Can someone explain?
I love big baskets!
a decent post on sfist.com - damn. can we create a 'decent' category, please?
broken link to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb18cnXFBhI
put me near the triple intersection area.
jt, the tubular pads are for hupping your bike up and down stairs - it saves the shoulders. At least that's why I have one. As for abbreviated wrapping of the handlebars, I think it comes from an attempt to mimic the style of Japanese Keirin Racing bikes, which have only the lower portion of their handlebars wrapped ('cause you never use the tops wheile sprinting). see here.
zing.
i liked you better whining about rape/murder posts, peter.
#4 ... I'm with you.
#5 ... which is ironic since most fixie riders only use the tops because they can't reach their deep-drop track bars.
I thought the no brakes thing was funny until I first saw a guy on a fixie plow into pedestrians on Geary St. Now I think they're pretty dangerous.
Depending on the day, whenever I walk by ritual I either want to destroy or drool over the fixed gear bikes... and their girlfriends...
If you love to hate fixie riders, you'll LOVE Bike Snob NYC: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/
I agree, this is a good post. Nice job, Jonathan Hunt.
I love/hate fixies. They're beautiful, but retarded... just like their soft-headed, trend-beholden riders. That whole tatt-sleeve, PBR, American Spirit, ironic mustache lifestyle is so fucking tired.
Totally hate. They're not especially attractive and they lack the fundamentals that make them usable. I honestly can't imagine how anyone manages to get by using a fixed-gear bike with the hills in this city. Hell, even with gearing trying to bike up hills is pretty terrible.
The fact that they don't have brakes, however, makes them a potential public menace. I don't want to jump to the shrill, demanding, "make the government fix it immediately" viewpoint so often seen in this city, but it might be a good idea to make it illegal to ride a bicycle that doesn't have brakes. Or, at least, to look into how many accidents are actually caused by them and then make a reasoned decision based on this.
It's love/hate for me. I like the look and style, but think they are totally ridiculous to ride in the city.
http://bayareacyclist.com/something-less-than-love/3/
Technically, the back wheel of a fixie qualifies as a braking device since the rider can lock pedals and skid to a stop. A messenger in Oregon I think eventually won her case on this technicality as she had been cited for riding without a brake which is illegal in Portland.
I'm just pointing out what the law says, becuause I don't think they are as safe as my road bike which has brakes and doesn't require me to fishtail/skid to be able to stop.
What I want to know is how my group, those who hate fixies (in my case it's the riders' attitude toward me, a commuter cyclist, when they pass me) got relegated to group "c".
c'mon, let's beat this horse some more. i'm not done hating yet!
Well, I certainly have never been passed on my bike by a fixie. Hell, they're just in the way most of the time, chatting at Ritual and blocking the bike lane or yammering on with their fixie friend side by side in the BL taking up space.