Fixed Gear Bikes article in Sunday NY Times
Thread started by
Sir Terrence Tuppins at 04.29.07 - 7:22 am
Folks,
Here's an interesting article about fixed gear bikes in this Sunday's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/nyregion/thecity/29gear.html?_r=1&ref=thecity&oref=slogin
Enjoy.
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Man, that's bad writin'.
PC04.29.07 - 8:24 pm
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"But the question arises: Especially in this city, isn’t it insane to ride a bike that you can’t easily stop? By riding a bike that’s meant to be raced around a special track on the chaotic streets of New York, aren’t you risking life and limb?
It doesn’t make sense. But that may be the appeal, and has been ever since the bikes appeared on the scene more than a century ago."
...
Is it stupid for a journalist to ask a question and then answer the question themselves instead of actually getting an opinion from an informed person?
I'm not a journalist or a fixed gear rider ... but i'll say "yes".
trickmilla04.29.07 - 11:04 pm
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the problem with the statement above is the assumption that brakeless fixies don't stop well.
There have been experiments taken (i could find the video) where a person compared a fixed to a coaster brake bike, the fixed had pretty much the same, if not slightly less, stopping distance than the coaster brake bike for the same amount of speed, and considering the amount of coaster brake bikes out there, which you never seem to see complained about, this statement is a bit misleading.
FuzzBeast04.30.07 - 6:43 pm
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Here's basically the same post I wrote on the LAFixed forums about this article:
things written by people not directly inside of something they're writing about will have some mistakes and such.. but I thought overall the article was fine.. and combined with the multi media piece, it was way more comprehensive than anything mainstream I've read/seen about track bikes in the last few years and it has a wide range of opinions from newbie to old school to straight OG, BLBC to messenger to trackstar (and I don't just mean the store).. they spoke to a lot of good peeps that I know personally.. Johnny Coast is awesome and I'm glad they mentioned Fast Eddie's gallery, Rat Patrol and CHUNK 666, King Kog, John Campo etc... those people are dope.
my only big beef with it is this quote from the newbie u.o. designer kid at the end: “You take the blame if you get hit,” that's the dumbest thing ever because it takes responsibility away from drivers, which they do enough of on their own anyways.. who the hell is he to make a comment like that?
If he's taking the blame for being hit, then it's clear that he's not a good enough rider to be out on the streets in the first place.. I hate anything that makes it seem that drivers have to take no responsibility when they hit, injure, or kill cyclists.
As much as I love people getting on bikes - whatever kind of bikes they are, and for whatever reason - that guy is exactly the kind of people who need to just walk to the gym for exercise and find a different 'latest and greatest' to plug into.. For his own safety and every other cyclists as well..
but the multi-media thing really was cool.. made me miss people in NY..
redridinghood05.1.07 - 1:33 am
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