for all those here before 2008.

yea, you have to wade through a bit of turd to get to the goodness but the site is still - in my mind - a good source to share information, pick up/sell goodies and hear about rides and races that may otherwise allude me.

+1 on the trading access and FAQ section, I can see setting up the FAQ section means alot of work for some of the mods though.

not to mention share outrageous musical taste and make friends.

This forum is so much better than most of the other forums I frequent.

I’m just hyped on bikes really, and this forum satisfies the track, road and other big wheeled requirements I have.

+1

It’s like the goodness of all the other bike forums combined but with 90% less douche.

I joined when I moved to Brisbane for work and it let me get in contact with a great bunch of guys up here. It is still my number one procrastination tool at work (and home).

Heh, as above, in reverse for me.

Yeh, I agree with Moccos. I find the forum self-regulates over time. We were all n00bs once, and you either get to like the place and stick around or you get over it move away.
I’ve met some great people through the forums, and most of them do more than just ride fixed. All sorts of stuff gets discussed here and organised through here, but the central thing is that we all do or did ride fixed and have an interest in it.

+1 for an faq or noob section.

i suppose many of you would consider me a noob, and that my posts lack substance, but it’s hard to help that.

i came here with bugger all technical knowledge about bikes, so i couldn’t actually post anything helpful to people, and i wasn’t about to ask anyone, because everyone gets raged and told to use the search function. that’s fine in it’s own right, but fairly discouraging to the new kids.
having to sift through posts when you have no real idea about what you’re looking for is a pain in the ass, especially due to so many differing opinions on the forums, it can be hard to learn what components are right for which kind of bike, proper installation, is it okay to just use dowling and a hammer on headsets and all that crap that when you’ve built a bike, which i’ve now done, seems pretty basic, but before that i had no idea what a bottom bracket looked like, let alone did.

i think that having a 25 post count minimum is the right thing to do, but when you get the kids who are that keen to get into fixies, and want to save what little money they have, the quickest thing for them to do is to get up to 25 posts, since they might not cotton on that it’s 25 quality posts.

maybe the help section should get a sub-forum specifically on making your first fixie, and they can have their noob questions in there, without getting their ass handed back to them. sheldon doesn’t go into detail on everything, so maybe things he doesn’t quite touch on could go in there, like how to correctly install a bottom bracket, how tight cranks should be or whether you grease a seatpost or something. at least that way you confine the noob-ness to one section of the forum, rather than having it spread all over it. because noone like to see 20 fifteen word responses to peoples rides when they check the site in the morning.

that said, i really like what the forums have done. i came here knowing nothing, lurked for a while, made some useless posts, went to a couple of events and now i’ve put my own fixie together and understand fairly well how bikes work, and met some cool blokes as well.

I think that I probably have the lowest post/membership-time ratio on the forum which probably makes me more of a lurker than a contributer.

Like most others, when I built my first fixed gear bike in 2006 I had no idea what I was doing. This forum (and google) was my most valuable resource when it came to anything technical or advice on parts/brands etc. I posted some terrible noob questions but they were always answered fairly well by others with more knowledge.
I think it would be a real shame if the forum stalwarts decided to stop answering these questions seriously. Peoples values will change as they learn to appreciate cycling for what it is, rather than jumping on the hipster bandwagon as the majority of new posters tend to be doing.

The whole fixed trend has gotten way out of control. I sold my most recent track bike in part because i didn’t want anything to do with it. I still visit this site everyday because there are still people out there who ride because they love it. And xBBx’s acid tongue make me lol.

I reckon if you don’t want to read noob posts, then don’t open threads that read “Which tyre…” or “…my sisters jeans…” etc etc. Otherwise, the forum is still as good as it ever was.

I road a bmx as a kid and lets be honest that is not a convenient way to comute. I wanted a bike but I was (and still slightly am) scared of the whole idea of a road bike. I saw a few bikes around and thought a fixie was a cool way of getting into riding.

I got donated a frame by tally, bought some cheap parts of fyxomatosis, got other parts from heaps of different users. I even got sent some stickers sent down from Gear.

I knew shit all about bikes back then, but through spending about 8 months on the forum, building up my bike and researching on the net i gained heaps of knowledge. Once I finished that bike I felt so accomplished. I felt that bike represented a lot of what this community is about.

Needless to say that bike sucked balls and after riding down little collins street hill chainless a few too many times i felt it was time to invest some money in a bike that was built with quality parts. I think getting into riding has been one of the best steps ive made in my life so far. I have met people with common interests. Since I arrived in Osaka even despite not being able to speak to many people I have found my own fixed community.

I walked in to a bike shop in Kyoto a couple of weeks ago. It was full of vintage road and track bikes, all the campa you can dream of. Rossin persuits, Colnago tts, track shamal, nos pista cranks, all the panto stems you can picture. I left and few the rest of the day I was in awe.

The moral of my story is that everyone starts out as a noob. I was grilled a number of times and slowly learnt to check thoroughly before posting in the help section. For this reason I dont think the abuse I recieve was such a bad thing. Sure its annoying to see the dumb questions posted but the worst thing is remembering i asked a very similar question when i started.

It all works out in the end; people who really want to learn will either put up with the shit or just try to learn faster.

I have now slightly overcome my fear of lycra and am in the process of building up a roady back home.

Bloody nOObs, always looking for attention…

I dont believe it!!!

I believe I am one of these annoying noobs, and I can dig that there’s gonna be a rift between the older guys and a 20y.o. hipster kid like myself. But I sleep soundly knowing that one day, I’ll be looking at a bunch of noobs and thinking ‘gawd, was I like that?’
Also, despite being on the forum for less that a year, I’ve been riding (shit) bikes since I was a kid, bmx till I was 12, then my uncles old roadie till last year when i bought an se lager. I know the lager was no good, so upon reading (not contributing) to the forum, I’ve been able build bikes, buy new pieces, go on some rides with cool people, and have a good time.
Just interests me though, what are these values that are in opposition?
I want a nice bike, I want to ride it, and I want to ride with cool people.
I’d think it would be the same for everyone?

+1

ok so like alot of people have stated already, we all start out as noobs, i still consider myself a noob in heaps of ways but as we both know brendan i learnt the hard way on this forum and got grilled aplenty when i first started posting here, but it was because you guys the ‘old guard’ we’re(and still are) around to grill and push us noobs in the right direction than we end up being able to put a bike together(road conversion or track build), and can come out to events meet a whole bunch of cool people an eventually learn that a phill wood/ campy record/ dura ace hub cost’s a shit load of money coz it actully work’s.

to give your ego an almighty push that it defiantly doesn’t need, don’t ditch the forum just coz kids these days like colour matched deep dish rims, and track bikes that bar spin, it would be a sorry loss for fixed.org.au, come on because of this forum and your shameless moral compass you got invited to the australian cyclist of the year awards or whatever that was

Yeah, I’m sort of near the same as you Rohan in terms of ratio (you’re near two hundred more posts and 2006 vs. 2008). I’m sick of people calling me a hipster because I ride fixed, even though I was riding at the start of 2008 when spotting another fixed/ss in the city was still a bit of a novelty. There is a problem with some noob attitude if you ask me. People bombing through red lights, wearing no helmets and generally riding like a dick. It was not so much of a problem when there weren’t that many people doing it, but now there’s a giant bag o dicks on the road.

On the weekend I was stalked by a cop through the backstreets because he saw my bike and wanted to fine me for as much as possible. Was waiting behind me and two friends at a red light but he got out of the car when he realised we weren’t going to run it (he actually told me that). After checking that I had a helmet plus front and rear lights, he dogged me for $146 because I didn’t have an ‘effective’ brake. I’m mean, I’m not totally outraged because I know the risk of riding brakeless, but I was commuting at jogging pace through the backstreets, and my legs were a very very effective brake at that speed. I would have had less stopping power had I been skating. A couple of years ago that cop wouldn’t have stalked me for riding a track bike and obeying all ostensible road laws.

Basically It’s good that there’s more people riding bikes but bad that there’s more dicks and bidding wars.

Because of the negatives of the trend I’m thinking about building a three speed mixte with a front rack and low profile rims. I don’t like being identified with many of the assholes that ride about town. And I want a front rack to carry my groceries dammit.

Actually I think Rohan, if you live in St Kilda, and you had the unknown green track bike with Cinelli bb stamp and wc stripes, I was the dude who bought it off you. Might be mistaken though. I’m still riding it about. Swapped out to my better wheelset and had to re-attach the cranks because I’m not sure who put them on but the drive side got all slippy on me coming back aaaaages ago from the ring of fire thing at Pony. That was a strange ride home in the soaking rain.

You’re definitely too old for this shit.

Blakey FTW!!! :slight_smile:

was there an epic thread such as this from previous ‘waves’ ? Back in 06, 08 etc?

not that i recall. otherwise i would’ve had to tell myself to use the search function.

blakey delivers a genuine lol.