s3x

On Mar 26, 2:20*am, Chalo wrote:
Vance wrote:

Don't get your panties in a twist because people do
different things or think differently than you. It's funny how some of
the bike crowd get when you don't have/do/think/want/ EXACTLY what
they do. It's also sad how they sneer at other people who have their
own ideas.

This is deeply, deeply ironic coming from someone who rides a fixed
gear in 2010.

I work in a service-oriented central city bike shop. *I see all kinds
of riders of all kinds of bikes. *Some of them are pathological
conformists. *Guess what kind of bike those folks ride these days?

I've ridden fixed almost exclusively for years (way before it became
the latest hip thing to do for a couple months). I know what it is and
I like the simplicity and the purity also. 3 speed coaster brake hubs
don't do what this does, though. They freewheel. And they brake when
you back-pedal. You know that. What makes you say that's the same
thing as a 3 speed fixed hub?

I didn't say it was the same. *I said it did everything a 3-speed
fixed hub does, but better. *That's why the coaster brake was invented
over 100 years ago and, along with other freewheeling mechanisms,
quickly displaced the fixed gear from everywhere outside of the
velodrome and the stage (where fixed gears are used by acrobats and
clowns). *Until, like hip hugger jeans and Tootsie glasses, fixed
gears were brought back from oblivion as a sort of self-conscious
fashion item.

I built one in 2000, when most cyclists had to have the concept of
fixed gearing explained to them. *After riding it occasionally over
the span of a few years, I had consigned my fixie to the role of dog-
walking bike. *(Because it didn't coast, it lent itself to riding at
doggie speed. *With a real bike, It's too easy to outrun the dog
without trying.) *Eventually I fitted a seven-speed gearhub to that
bike.

Why stop with a fixed gear? *There's a whole world of simplicity and
purity out there. *High wheelers are simpler and more pure than fixed
gears-- why be chained to your wheel when you can command it
directly? *Draisines are even simpler and purer yet. *Toes on earth,
man. *Elemental.

And when you can get attuned to that kind of subtlety, you'll
eventually come to understand that even the wheels are interfering
with your appreciation of fundamental things. *Then maybe you'll put
on some self-adhesive sandals and mosey on down the road.
Unenhanced. *Perfect.

Chalo

Wow. I guess you don't like fixed gear bikes or fixed gear bike
riders. What are your views on sail boats and such?