Were you a BMXer or did you ride road bikes or MTB’s or skateboarded or…? or did you see MASH and get into riding fixed because of that?
I’m intrigued. I grew up skateboarding, but being older (28) I stopped skating as much in the last 4-5 years and wanted to get something from to get from A-B. I got an old singlespeed, then bought my first fixed complete. Few of the guys I ride with come from BMX or MTB backgrounds and find it funny that I don’t. I also kinda blame my friend Max and Monster Children for getting me interested in fixed gears.
I didn’t think it would consume all my time like it has…
Then it got popular, lots of posers and stuff.
And then someone gave me this old Pug with a knackerd wheel and fixed seemed like the go (an idea that a courier I had been sharing a house had shown me, Bastard got the bug on to me)
The mtb skills come in handy all the time, As anyone who has seen me try to ride in a straight line will testify.
Mines boxing, I got sick of the jogging and the impact on the knees so decided to get myself a bike. Bought a cheapo 2nd hand singlespeed, slowly replaced all the parts over time and decided to give fixed a try. 12 months later and I’m back to a singlespeed (easier on the knees).
Now I ride everywhere, training, work, pub and loving every minute of it.
I changed jobs to a place where I could no longer bring my mtb inside, and as it has a higher resale value than my car there’s no way in hell I was gonna leave it on the street.
So I got a hand me down racer, made it singlespeed, then a couple of months ago converted to fixed.
I’m now finding it’s doing wonders for my fitness. Amazing what being forced to pedal every god damned metre between my house and work will do.
Started touring after leaving school, got into racing a couple of years and built up a cheap fixed wheel for commuting between work, home and college (dynamo lights, front and rear racks). Got into track racing for a few years before getting bored with the racing scene and concentrating on Audaxing. Fixed commuter got stolen from home and the track bike got parked.
After riding for a few years with a number of long-distance fixed blokes, eventually built up a fixed Moulton for Audax, completing 200, 300, 400 and 600 km brevets in 2006 (currently being repainted, again). The Eddy Merckx track bike will be built up again over the next month after being repainted. It will never be used on the road.
As far as bikes go, as a kid I had a dragster, then a coaster brake road bike. Rode to school and had a paper round morning and night. We rode ours everywhere… streets, mini bike tracks, storm drains… you name it.
Then got a road bike which eventually swapped out to a mountain bike. Bought a new mountain bike a few years back and then heard about single speed and changed it over to that. Built up a SS road bike, then heard about fixed and built one up… now on my 3rd.
I ride fixed 6 days and bust the vintage road bike out at least one day a week. Riding means you can drink beers and not get fat!
Got a pair of Surly 1x1 hubs and turned by MTB into a singlespeed. No one rode SS where I was from and everyone thought that I was crazy. But I liked the simplicity of it. Soon after discovered a little site called fixed gear gallery (well, it was little back then). Went out and bought a Dura Ace track cog and put it on the other side of the hub. Was fortunate enough to work out a magic gear for the street. Liked it a lot and got myself various track bikes and converted road bikes. Before I knew it, I hadn’t ridden (or owned) a freewheel/geared bike in 5+ years. I recently got a geared cross bike with good campy gears but soon sold/traded all the geared stuff away and made it a singlespeed/fixed CX’er.
Was using a pig MTB for commuting and JRA and both of the shifter pods crapped out within a month of each other - set the chain on the 44 ring and the RD to about the 16 cog and rode that for a few months until I could be arsed getting new shifters. Learned to love the SS life and when some new shifter pods arrived I missed it. That was about 5 years ago. Various SS and fixed road conversions followed until I bonded with my blue bike in 2006.
I rode BMX for years and ended up tearing my PCL in my right knee,
I got an MTB and converted it to SS rigid and put 1" slicks on it to commute on, after a while i started noticing more messengers and internet presence of singlespeed/fixed road/track bikes then i bought one of those Allegro steel track completes and ran it with a freewheel and front and rear brakes for a while with bullhorn bars… fixed never really appealed to me, but curiosity caved in and i went to fixed a little while later and took off the rear brake and put on risers ALA
rode this setup in '06.
Rode it with a brake for about a year until i had finished building my pretty white Bosomworth… there was no way that I was putting brake pads on the Araya Super Aeros, so that was my first brakeless ride. Afte getting used to riding brakeless it was so fucking fun and enjoyable that i never really looked back.
a few months later MASH came out.
Ended up selling my Allegro to a mate and using that money to put towards the Apollo Record and built up my lugged black steel frame everyday beater to ride to uni and the pub on.
so i guess I’ve been riding fixed all up for a bit over 2 years?
Yeah, I did a paper round for many years as a wee boy and rode my old repco racer everywhere back in the Tas. I moved to the Burn about 5 years ago and started commuting on my MTB for 2-3 years and wanted something faster. I was gonna buy a roadie until I got overtaken by some hardcore with no helmet or brakes down on St Kilda rd and that was it, I found this place and now now I am kinda obsessed, ride my black beater everywhere and am building up a nice weekender…
1st, I rode around in ‘gay parade floats’.
But I had to stop because the seating arrangements made my eyes water.
2nd, I tried riding tigers
But I had to stop because I was losing to many of my body parts
3rd, I saw Snowflake and Christof ‘buff chest’ and ‘ripped abs’, as well as Ratio’s ‘DISC Tuesday night’ skin suit
But they said I wasn’t cool enough to be part of their ‘fixie gang’
So now I am riding mail order brides
I am just waitng for this model to cum in the mail.
First bicycle I can remember riding was a red 16" U shaped thing that my old boy painted red for me. I thought it was the shit and used to race around the back of my olds place like a mad man. Then for my… I think it was 5th b’day i got a white and green Repco Hot-Foot. Coolest thing ever white tyres, and a few bits of green here and there. I remember seeing it in a road safety video and thinking I was the coolest kid cause I had one. Then when I was about about 8 I had saved up enough pennies for a MalvernStar Mongrel, electric purple and 15 of the best gears ever created. Thrashed that thing, jumping and using it as if it were a proper Dh rig until i got a Haro Shredder 20" off a mate at school for 50 beans. Got into BMX racing and eventually bought a Specialized Hemi Team 24" in about year 10. Raced it until I left school and shipped off to Albury/ Wodonga. Still got this one. Didn’t have a bike for a while then when I moved back to Briz got a Craftworks FRM125, bit to heavy for the commute though. Then decide that the hour that it takes to get to uni on the bus could be better spent on a bike so looked around for an old roadie. eventually got a box lot off the bay with a few solid frames and some good bits and started to build my first fix after being inspired by SB. Got my tax return and spent the vast majority of it on nice bits and tomorow will have it finished. The lot also included a HotFoot so it’s come full circle. Now i’ve got 2 Fixed bikes, the Omega which has been powdercoated and modernised and a track Healing in original condition to look at and admire.
My favorite thing now is flying down Edward st full of traffic and passing all the cars hitting the bend at Alice st and racing them up to QUT… Grin from ear to ear
So now there’s the two fix, FRM, Hemi team, and a whole lot of others laying around in the garage.
I just love anything with 2 wheels that you’ve got to pedal, can’t get enough of it. Maybe one day I’ll get a roadie and pull on some lycra.
Been riding bikes my whole life, used to rip it up on my bmx back in the day, I always have loved mtb but living in Melbourne there is not many good tracks close by.
I quit riding bikes with gears a couple of years ago for many many reasons, and only have single speed bikes now.
I was commuting on a BMX and thought how crap is this, so I built up an SS MTB with slicks. Then after riding my dads road bike, I decided a single speed road bike would be much better. While I was researching and finding out about what kind of tensioner to use, I discovered fixies. I always knew about track bikes but thought there was no way you could ride them on the street. I realised fixies were more street friendly and was intrigued.
I like brakeless bikes as you can paint them and they are much simpler, my BMX was brakeless so I didn’t see any danger in it, a fixie seemed like a bit of a challenge and a bit of fun, I have always been a massive fan of skidding, and the the way you skid them is pretty unique, I decided to build one up with a flip flop hub. I never ever flipped the hub or bought a freewheel because I was so impressed with how it rides.
When I built my first fixie there was no such thing as Mash, I hardly saw any fixies ever! Except maybe a few couriers, nobody really talked about them on all the forums, I didn’t know anyone else who had one so I could never try one out, and I thought they would never become popular because of they were kinda impractical for most people. I was shocked how enjoyable riding fixed was, I thought it was a bit of a fun joke, but its become my most prefferred ride now.
Had been riding my mtb for few years. mainly commuting and weekend stuff. Got hit by a car and it took me about a year to get back to riding. I was off the bike about 3 months but then just lost all confidence. I was broke and pissed off and wanted to get back on the bike so i decided to get a new bike as an incentive. I’d done the Melburn Roobaix on the old mountain bike and thought i could do a fixie for cheap. Found a frame in the rubbish, bought an old rear wheel from here and have been riding it almost every day since. Currently saving for something decent… Although i did get some good stuff from the rubbish, Kashimax saddle, sugino crants, mavic/shimano front wheel etc etc. I don’t think i’d ever known you could accelerate that fast…
Skateboarder for years, and then started riding with friends junk 10-speeds from hard rubbish afew years ago, just commuting and crusing around at night etc… About 2 years ago i started to hear alot about track bikes through skate culture/media, and seeing older some older American pros (Jovante Turner, Julien Stranger, Rob Welsh, etc…) riding bikes around and having fun. I started to get sick of my junky old road bikes falling apart, so i took the plunge and saved up for a Surly Steamroller. Brought it approximatley 1.5 years ago and haven’t looked back. That was sold afew months back and I now have two track bikes. I still try to skate here and there, but now bikes take up most of my time and energy.
Skateboard > Roadie > building first fixie (NOW)!! Still got my roadie but after riding my mates capo and misc other fixie’s plus going to skid viscious whilst i was in Melb i am hooked. Schweetest way to get round.
Was a paperboy in year 7 after the ‘thought about getting a job son’ chat from the old man. Cycled to school on and off from Coburg to Parkville on LBS entry level MTBs that eventually got nicked by our local thugz. 1996 GVBR was an eye-opener and volunteered as a root root marshall with le petit tonner in 2004 and rode again 05. Messenger for M&R who were thieves and Cox who were good. Did a bit for All Lies last year and the less said about that the better Fixie tragic since … last year? Still fighting off the messenger envy (don’t really like the expression ‘fakenger’, it’s a mouthful. Prefer ‘Fauxie’) and commute on the chop-n-flop daily. [color=Red]<3[/color] it. Posting in epic thread.
( LOVE RIDIN’ MY BIKE, IT’S FIXED I SWEAR! / WOO-HOO! LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER! )
PS. CraigC your wife looks like she should be riding the ‘dreamcatcher’ fixed from FGG the other week …
Fixie tragic since … last year? Still fighting off the messenger envy (don’t really like the expression ‘fakenger’, it’s a mouthful. Prefer ‘Fauxie’) and commute on the chop-n-flop daily.