A dude named Chris B sent me this guest blog which he titled “Why Fixed Gears Don’t Suck”. It actually reads more like “here’s why BMX bikes suck just as much as fixed gears”. Most of his points are pretty irrelevant (I don’t think anyone ever broke those Coalition bars) but it’s interesting to take a peak into the fixed gear mind. If you are interested in guest blogging for The Come Up, hit me up and I’m willing to check out anything you write.
Previously: Guest Blog: Why Fixed Gears Suck
There has been a lot of attack on fixed gears and I have taken the liberty to defend them. Let it be known that I, too, am skeptical of this trend but I feel that the arguments against fixed gears is completely lopsided and needs to be defended. I think a lot of the attacks are generalized and narrow mined; in the sense that BMX has its share of (similar) flaws as well. So, here is a defense of general arguments against fixed gears in comparison to the BMX world.
One of the major attacks on fixed gears is the person or type of person who rides these: that being the hipster doofus. The typical accessories being: tight pants, messenger bag, and dirty hair. I think this is being extremely general, you can watch MASH, or really any other fixed gear media and see that it is not just this type of person who rides that type of bike but, like everything else, has a variety of people who partake in the activity. For one thing, BMX has a pretty high population of tight pants fashioners as it is so I don’t know where the hate on that comes from on that topic; but you can also generalize BMX riders. All four-pegged street riders only sport white-tees and baggy basketball shorts and never leave foot high curbs. Generalizations are a dozen. As far as accessories go, go any place BMX riders gather in groups and tell me you do not see a single beanie, fashionably worn only on the back half of the head. What I am trying to get at is that there is already a stereotype and generalization inferred when this subject is broached (and similar generalizations can be made about BMX), and this creates a bias when discussing the subject.
As for the bikes, I think we can see a lot of similarities to BMX. The notions being that fixed gears are flashy and fragile. As for color schemes go, have you seen the ridiculous (and hideous) colors available from almost every company? Odyssey, Sunday, Fly and Profile not only offer heinous colors, but in a multitude of parts so your bike can match your crank bolts to your headset bearings. (Which is possibly the influence of the fixed gear popularity?) One fan favorite (not mine) BMXer refuses to ride anything but a disgusting, gaudy bike; where is the hate on him? And think about, BMX bikes are made to be fucked up; get smashed, scratched and dirty. It makes no sense why you would have a super flashy, matching BMX bike. On the other hand, fixed gears are infinitely more likely not to get smashed and scratched. You can maintain a fixed gear; you can’t a BMX, unless you don’t ride it. You wouldn’t hate on a dude who had a nice paint job on his car with nice rims, so why hate on a dude with a nice paint job on his bike with nice rims? Having a flashy fixed gear compared to having a flashy BMX bike is like having a nice paint job on a regular car compared to having a nice paint job on a demolition derby car: it is way more legitimate to have nice colors on something that wasn’t meant to be beat the shit out of.
People hate and say that fixed gear parts aren’t meant to do tricks on, and they will just break. Yeah, BMX has never had parts that weren’t strong enough to do tricks on. Anyone remember: the grim reaper? Or how about the Coalition bars with the cross bar drilled out? Or how everything is going plastic? These parts may hold up for some tricks and some others for a limited amount of time, but overall they are not meant for serious trashing, JUST like fixed gear parts.
Can we see that fixed gears have issues but BMX is certainly not without many of its own flaws?
It’s fun bombing a big ass hill, right? It’s dangerous (especially without breaks) and fun to go fast as shit. Well, with 700s you can go even faster which would equal slightly more fun, right? And by riding fixed, you keep that same degree of danger by having some ability to stop but certainly far less than a braked bike.
I would always choose to ride BMX over fixed but, it’s infinitely easier to get around on a large bike than a small one, especially after a long day of riding around. And fixed, more than road bikes, keeps of that level of excitement that comes with riding a brakeless BMX bike. My main point being the arguments fixed gears are totally flat when compared to the BMX world and it’s not so big a deal to conjure up so much vehemence, its annoying for sure but just ignore it like every other stupid thing in this world.