From Fixed Gear to Fast Fridays

What is going on here?

The place is NYC, Fall of '07. What you see is a crossover phenomenon that's been in full swing for a couple of years at least: people turning fixed wheel bicycles into trick machines in the style of bmx street-riding. Muscular bikes for muscular tricks.

First it was skids and trackstands and reverse circles. Then one-footed skids with a leg up and over the handlebar with a 180 degree powerslide thrown in for good measure. And now its turned into this madness. Banks and jumps, with barspins close behind no doubt. These young punks are building their track bikes with super-tight riser handlebars, incredibly tight bmx-like geometry and even neon magwheels and platform pedals. I know a kid named Toby whose NYC bike is so small (47cm say) and tight that it feels just like a bmx.

Its no more about racing on a track than freestyle bmx street is. These people are out for style and rip-it-out street trickery. They say it's on the subcultural margins where the innovations occur and I would have to agree. Its starting to feel like a trip to New York for an alley cat race might find no drop bars to be found on a 'track' bike. This past summer I watched an Ottawa courier in town for bike polo produce a hacksaw from nowhere and pare down his riser handlebars to about 10" across in between bike polo games. Or was it even less?

As for me, a track machine built for keiran racing would suit fine. My old steel paulie has fresh tape on the bars and gleaming toeclips on the pedals for the first time. Its good. I took her out to some match-sprints last night under the arch of the Prince's Gate, as the autumn winds howled. Nobody showed except a very baggy camoflaged kid on a weatherbeaten road bike with a traffic safety vest and flat pedals. We waited a couple of minutes and then hit it.

As we left I suggested we might as well do one match sprint to make it official - we were both headed west anyhow. He agreed and I let him charge towards the traffic light/finish line 600m away. I got onto his wheel for a bit, then surged past him. He had no answer and I thought he'd simply turned off at the intersection, but no, he reappeared finally. An easy victory, but somehow they're the best kind these days.