SFist: The Fix Is Out

Belgand

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:19:05 -0800

AFAIK fixies took hold because they were favored by messengers who ride in generally flat areas and tend to know what they're doing. Like many other things hipsters find bike messengers to be cool and started to pick them up from there. This is a pretty standard habit: someone is using something for professional reasons that make sense, other people think it's cool, idiots start using something that doesn't make sense for their purposes because they want to imitate. Of course, I'm not a bike messenger, I've never known any bike messengers, and I don't own or know anyone who owns a fixie, but this is what I've gathered over time from the Internet. It all makes sense even if it might not necessarily be entirely true.

bornandraised

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:01:52 -0800

zippy_monster: if i use your inference and project the analogy i am coming up with this: people who have fun on bikes and peacefully coexist with other modes of transportation are crazy could you please let me know if im correct?

zippy_monster

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:07:00 -0800

bornandraised: surely this was founded by the same guys that have the bigfoot corpse in their freezer, no?

bornandraised

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:20:47 -0800

*snaps!* to weissadam's bike messenger friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously, please give him a hug for me one day if you really want to effect change, try critical manners on the second fridays of the month. they OBEY the laws, and still ride as group up market. safe, fun and....omg....LEGAL!

weissadam

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:25:59 -0800

When I first moved to New York, I emailed a friend of mine who is/was a working bike messenger. I was all excited about Critical Mass and asked him if he wanted to go. He said that Critical Mass rides are super slow and only serve to further piss off motorists and worsen relations. He said that real rides are fast, share the road and help promote bicycling to all. It gave me a bit of perspective.

Generic

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:10:00 -0800

Cats ARE assholes. I thought fixies gained a foothold in SF because in an uber-hilly environment, when you're pedaling up a 35-degree climb, every ounce counts. Hence the lighter fixed-gear. Probably BS, but as good an explanation as any.

zippy_monster

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:05:48 -0800

what: sorry to hear you ride a bike.

ejcsanfran

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:35:15 -0800

Actually, since he's pushing the baby stroller in the Lower Haight, it seems pretty unlikely its got a kid in it... Maybe empty soda bottles; pigeons; a tattered Raggedy Ann; garbage; syringes and toilet paper; a boombox playing "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks; or a cinder block. But a baby? Farfetched...

what

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:25:03 -0800

sweet_charles: sorry to hear you've reproduced.

ejcsanfran

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:59:15 -0800

I suspect what SavvyMike is talking about is passengers who alight from MUNI on one of the islands all along Market St and step right from the island into traffic - be it auto and bicycle - without so much as a sidelong glance (and often against a red light). As a cyclist, it's annoying - though I know to watch for it and yield to the pedestrians... Though I tend to mutter to myself, "Hit him, hit him, hit him..." when I see someone step out in front of a moving automobile. Just thinning the herd and keepin' the gene pool safe...

Oznog

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:41:23 -0800

zippy monster: a moose once bit my sister And SavvyMike - if you come close to hitting a pedestrian, YOU are at fault. They have the right of way, especially if they are getting off the bus. That may slow you down a bit, and yes some of them should be a lot more attentive, but you are the one moving much faster with more mass, it's up to you to not smash into them.

Greg

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:27:01 -0800

I read about this in "Who Cares" magazine at the dentist.

ejcsanfran

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:18:44 -0800

SweetCharles: It's not that all cyclists are assholes; all San Franciscans are assholes - except for me... and my cat... and sometimes my b.f. Actually, my cat is a total asshole.

zippy_monster

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:40:04 -0800

SF Joe: moose eat lots of interesting things. Did you know they eat moose wood? http://www.xyz.net/~khltkbr/projects/moose/eat.html

zippy_monster

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:31:06 -0800

NotSoSavvyMike: Maybe that's because you're supposed to not run red lights, yield to pedestrians, pass buses on the LEFT (and not on the right, you shouldn't even come close to clobbering passengers disembarking from a bus), and so-on. Thanks for confirming my beliefs about fixie riders tho.

sweet_charles

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:22:10 -0800

All cyclists are assholes in this town and the fixies are the cream of the butt crop. Assholes and hypocrites to be exact. Cyclists have no problem with their holier than thou attitude toward cars and assume the one on the bike occupies the moral high ground. Meanwhile cyclists don't give a flying fuck about us pedestrians. I've had more than one of you cocksuckers try to squeeze between me and the baby stroller I'm pushing. Next time I tell you fuck off pedal back so I can smash up that pussy face of yours. Im in the lower haight, make sure to stay the fuck out of my way.

SavvyMike

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:18:35 -0800

Same crap, different day... Not all fixed riders are jackasses, I ride fixed, I wear a helmet and obey traffic laws, and it pisses me off when anyone does something dangerous in traffic, this goes for automobiles and pedestrians too! Any time I've come close to getting into an accident with another person it's always been a pedestrian that attempts to walk into the street without checking to see if there was any bike traffic coming, usually people getting off a bus on Market not looking before crossing the street. Traffic safety goes both ways, EVERYONE should be respectful of traffic laws whether they are behind the wheel, on a bike or on foot.

wsanders

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:16:35 -0800

Has anyone actually seen a fixie at the top of a hill? As far as I call tell they are only ridden downtown and in the East Bay flats, and used as fashion accessories to the bearer can hog two seats on BART.

SFJoe

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:59:43 -0800

OK, let me get this straight: this was a debate between people who ride fixed-gear bikes and people who don't. I think I have just found the thing I care about least in the whole wide world. It edges out, "what moose eat" by a nose.

aj

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:55:02 -0800

Problem cyclists or not, with no brakes they are a safety hazard and should be banned from the streets.

travin

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:53:14 -0800

zippy, so owning a fixie alters ones neuropathways to be a miscreant? Perhaps they should be under DEA regulation.

manys

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:47:47 -0800

Why are fixies so popular in one of the most hilly cities in the world? I don't the answer, but I think it relates to the fact that they tend to be problem cyclists. Nah, non-sequitur. Besides, there are many more fixies on Valencia than on the Haight Waggle. Evidence just does not bear out your point (the way you make it). Of course, this doesn't mean that fixies *don't* appeal to people who are inveterate whiners, just as much as it doesn't mean they do, either.

nomnomn

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:39:32 -0800

Mr. Sinister's snark smacks of an NY transplant. Anyway, this leaves out LA, San Diego, DC, and Philly. Motherfuck this definition!

zippy_monster

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:34:04 -0800

jacksevanroo, how can you logically relate a fixed-gear bicycle to problem cyclists? Easily.

ChesterY

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:27:48 -0800

Since when is the prevailing readership of VeloNews comprised of middle-aged midwesterners? I don't get it.

travin

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:27:31 -0800

jacksevanroo, how can you logically relate a fixed-gear bicycle to problem cyclists? Are you expressing that somehow a fixed-gear bike has an allure that is particular to socially aberrant people? Me no comprende.

manys

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:27:25 -0800

a venerable journal much beloved of bike-racing geeks Did something change at VeloNews in the past couple of years? Last I checked it was all about reviews of equipment made by Lance's sponsors and advertisements for fatty Fred half-centuries in Byron.

Oznog

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:12:29 -0800

that should be double. Bah, back to work

Oznog

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:12:06 -0800

Are fixies like, bicyclists that have been 'fixed', i.e. done the doube-Lance Armstrong?

KWillets

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:02:30 -0800

Fixies are all over now. I saw some in rural Japan a few weeks ago.

Joel

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:01:41 -0800

It's not the bike, it's the person on them. That said, you better be a damned skilled and courteous cyclist on a bike with essentially no fucking brakes in this town.

jacksevanroo

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:50:28 -0800

This doesn't address the question: Why are fixies so popular in one of the most hilly cities in the world? I don't the answer, but I think it relates to the fact that they tend to be problem cyclists. Now, non-cyclists, begin your diatribe!

zippy_monster

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:37:52 -0800

What debate? Fixies are idiotic.