Steamrollin’

Over the last week I have been ignoring phone calls from friends calling to ask me to go surfing or skateboarding. There is only one reason for this and it has two wheels, one gear and no coasting capability. I ride a bike everyday but until recently it has been strictly for transport. In an effort to make my commute more interesting and challanging, I’ve wanted a fixed-gear for some time. Now I have one, I find myself not only riding for transport for the sheer hell of it. Not since I was nine years old and got my first skateboard have I been so obsessed over a new toy, wanting to spend every minute of the day on it, hopelessly addicted to trying to master it. Cyclists can get very poetic when describing fixed gear riding but none have said it as well as British writer Will Self,

The fixed-wheel cyclist has to be constantly attuned to the myriad, random possibilities of the urban thoroughfare, while at the same time feeling his translation through space as a constant muscular phenomenon. This 1:1 ratio, means that fixed-wheel cycling is the closest you can get to being a robot while still being sentient. The bicycle itself is stripped down to its most basic elements – wheel, frame, chain – while the rider’s mind is empty of all save the marvel of its own inertia.

From the UK’s Independent Newspaper, 27 May 2006

Much thanks to Wend Ed Ian and Andy from Surly.