Fixies in Aliso

[ryandood]

There seems to be a decent number of students riding around my campus on fixed gear bikes. Some of em look pretty cool. Today I saw this one guy trying to balance while juggling.... Random but he had a cool bike, except for his bars were just the normal drop bars but upsidedown. I've seen this on a bunch of road bikes before and can understand it if you do it for the upright riding position, otherwise it just looks odd. Anyways fixed looks pretty fun, I'll have to give it a go sometime.

[OffRoadie]

Upside down drop handlebars are an abomination.

[Rascal]

I don't know, I'm pretty convinced it's more of a fashion statement/trend then anything else - at least in my area.

I've been occasionally riding my single speed for years and only lately (past year or so) have I been getting the odd looks from these guys.

I have a late 70's Pogliaghi, which looks like a regular bike (normal colors) and I wear standard roadie kit (plain jersey and lycra shorts). Whenever these kids see me, I get a disapproving, confused look. Kinda like they are thinking 'what's he doing?'.

It seems like someone put out a memo that said you have to have Velocity wheels, and color match everything to be part of the club.

There was some kid with a new Bianchi SS in the food court, smoking and looking depressed. I rolled up on mine and asked a couple of questions about where he rides, how he likes the bike, just typical friendly talk. After a few mumbled responses, he comments that my bike isn't really a 'Fixie'.

Well true, it isn't fixed, it's a SS, but that wasn't what he meant, it was a general term he used. I laughed and walked away as my bike is one of the most desired old school manufacturers in the SS/trackbike world.