Well I’ve done it now; I’ve back flipped off the high board of cycling and landed in the world of the fixie. For so long I’ve ridden mountain bikes with all their cumbersome components making the hills and obstacles insignificant little rolling obstructions. But what do you really need to ride, and I mean just ride.
I’ve looked back at the road bikes I used to hammer the streets on in my quest for more speed and bigger distances. I can’t ignore the feeling that doing 60mph downhill on tiny little over inflated rubber tubes did for me, but now I long for something simple, something pure. Enter the “Fixie”; my honouree brother in Bristol went fixie last year has never looked back. He has repeatedly tried to extol the virtues of fixie riding onto me, but I resisted mentally compartmentalising him as “a bit loose in the marbles area” I mean surely we have moved on since the fixed wheel came out, progress brought us the single speed freewheel. Childhood memories of my first brand new bike a “Raliegh Rebel” single speed with a freewheel. I followed my older brother on his 10 speed racer everywhere (much to his dismay). I used it for everything from epic road rides to hammering in the woods. I probably had more real fun on that bike than any other I have owned since. And so there it was staring me in the face all this time, the simplicity of no gears, bare bones riding, all the fun without the complications.
Unfortunately the real world still has some influence on me and financial pressures of buying a house and supporting a family mean I can’t just go out and buy my dream bike, then the cycling gods did there bit to help and the NHS ran it’s Bikes for Work scheme. So I get to buy a new bike minus all the tax and have it taken directly from my wages over the course of the year so I won’t even miss it, suddenly a new fixie becomes affordable. So I’ve placed my order and now I pace around like an expectant father waiting for the notification to arrive, “your bike is ready for collection”. As my excitement grows and I start to tell friends and colleagues about my new venture I see the blank faces and glazed eyes of people who just can’t get it. “what you mean it’s got no gears at all, how will you get up hills?” my simple reply, ride harder. I can’t help but grin as I say it. It does however make me long for my old riding buddie, Mr Chuck Bodfish now living in the sunnier climate offered by California.
People here (UK) just don’t get it. I’ve not ridden with anyone that really just gets the whole riding thing in all its forms. I guess I miss those long summer days riding the woods, the lanes, the distance, the surreal conversations, sitting enjoying just being there. Boxing Day rides with a cold beer in the middle of nowhere. Andy aka “Chuck” always had a shed full of bikes of all descriptions and a memory for a great ride on each of them. I used to wonder at why one man should need so many different bikes, but now I can see each of them had a place in his life, be it past or present. I guess it’s a bit like a photo album in the way each bike like a picture contains it’s own memories but unlike a photograph, a simple snapshot in time; the bikes purpose remains.
So I’ve ordered my bike, a Specialized Langster 2010. The matte black paintwork and simple graphics match the elegant lines of simple chainline. I hope it lives up to my dream, I have only ridden one very briefly at Certini’s bike shop in Saltash, Cornwall. I now can’t wait to be powering it through the streets of Plymouth nipping in and out of traffic. This is me getting back to basics and loving every minute of it.
Cycling, it’s definitely a way of life not a hobby. Mmm Zen and the art of cycling, (I may start chanting soon). It rained so hard here yesterday but I couldn’t wait to be out on the bike on the way home, when I was completely soaked through I coasted and then took the long way home, just enjoying being out riding. Weather is inconsequential for the most part.
Live to ride, ride to live.. . . .
If you come across any good web sites for fixies or fanzines drop me a link.
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