Everybody and their grandmother are riding a “Track Bike” these days. It used to mean something when someone said “I ride Fixed.”. Now the previously exclusive domain of bike messengers has become as much a part of your average hipsters’ wardrobe as a mesh back trucker cap or gas station attendant shirt. Can this boom in fixed popularity keep going, or is it just another passing trend like Africa medallions, Malcolm X hats and recycling? Is the track bike now the equivalent of the thick rimed glasses that revolting hipsters use to distinguish themselves from regular people? Can a trend in both athletic equipment and lets face it, fashion, be sustained when it’s embraced by nerds?
All the first bicycles were what would now be called a track bike, or a fixed. Snappy cycling accessories like brakes and derailleurs had yet to be invented when the Tour De France was first run on the dirt roads of rural France. The first vehicle to circumnavigate Australia by land was a track bike. Even with the invention of hand brakes, all bikes were still fixed gear. Once Tullio Campagnolo invented the derailleur, however, the heyday of fixed gear bikes was over. The fixed gear was relegated to the velodrome (French-Bike Track) and that is how they became to be known as the ‘track bikes’. Velodromes were big business back at the turn of the century; people used to pack into Madison Square Garden to see Major Taylor, a black man from Indianapolis, race in one of the U.S.’s first integrated sports. After the Second World War the public developed a greater interest in car racing and most bike tracks around the country closed up.
Today there are only 16 operating velodromes in the land of the free, most used only by a handful of people. The Kissena Velodrome out in Flushing, Queens is one such place. The newly resurfaced bike track is a valuable resource that most new Yorkers rarely take advantage of. Go out any afternoon in the summertime and you can see what it is all about. Some of the pros can be a little snobby, but the people out there are full of cycling wisdom. There is a race for everybody from pros to novices and kids. If you have a track bike and have not even raced on a velodrome, you might be fakin’ it...
When the messenger boom started in the 80’s the streets were filled with all kinds of different bikes. Messengers, like New Yorkers, come from all over the world and in other countries that are not as developed, people still ride fixed everyday. An unnamed messenger from Trinidad and Tobago said that it was a Trini messengers who were the first to ride track bikes for work. The small island nation has two concrete and four grass velodromes and the sport has always been big there, so there may be reason to believe him. I also heard the same story from a Jamaican, a Venezuelan and a Mexican. The only problem is that there is a picture of a twelve year old Irish kid in a Western Union uniform on a track bike circa 1920 in the book Bike Cult by Dave Perry.
In 1984 the track bike gained a special place in the hearts of all NYC bike messengers when one of their own took a silver medal in the 200meter sprint at the Los Angeles Olympics. It was Nelson Vails who showed the world what one dedicated messenger and his bicycle could do. This caused a whole wave of messenger on track bikers to hit the streets during the ‘gravy days’ of the 80’s trying to emulate the new hometown hero. The impact was so great, that when the timeless messenger classic film “Quicksilver” debuted in 1986, Kevin Bacon runs out and buys a track bike when he drops out of Wall Street to find himself as a bike messenger. When the cycle messenger world championship started twelve years ago, couriers from all around the globe were impressed enough by the New York track riders and their machines that many of them got into fixed. Today there are famous crews of track bikers like the Warsaw Car Killers from Poland in any city of the world worth visiting.
The fixed has been a contentious issue in the messenger community since the early days. Many couriers share the view of regular folks that riding a bike with no hand brakes in New York City traffic is insane, stupid or both. New York messenger king Felipe believes in safety-”I can go faster with brakes.”
Many veteran riders have seen too many young bucks go down and not get up from an accident on a track bike.
“If you want to ride fixed in traffic then you need mad skillz my yut”, said Eddie Williams, author of “New York Messenger Life”, a collection of courier photos from a twenty year career as a messenger and a photographer. Eddie is also a Campagnolo fanatic and has a choice collection of the coveted vintage pista hard ware. Many see the fixed as a badge of honor that sets them apart from other riders.
“Messengers are like soldiers in the war against traffic who know that they could die in combat. Messengers on Track are like Green Berets who want to jump out of a plane behind enemy lines.” says Horeshack. The lightness and mechanical simplicity of the track bike is what draws many couriers. “There are just less things that can break. The bike is cheaper because you don’t have to buy shifters, brakes or levers”
Back in 1999 a Track rider named Snake threw an Alleycat race called “Monster Track”. It was the first of it’s kind; an illegal street race through Manhattan with only one rule. –No Brakes allowed. It was an instant success and spawned similar ‘track bike only” races in cities all over the world. Monster Track 6 was on February 18th and over 200 competitors attended. These were the elite of street track bikers. They all have adopted the strict code. “No Brakes allowed” and ‘Brakes are for pussies,” were two overwhelming opinions. They would laugh at and insult you if you tried to register for the race with brakes. The Track Bike is now a fixture in the microcosm of messenger culture, and this trend is now completely taken into the macro
About three years ago, sometime after someone blew up the world trade center and dirty looking jeans came back into fashion, I started noticing them; hipster punks riding around on old road bikes with a fixed gear and (yuck) a brake or two. Most of them wore distasteful, mess bag like devices that are sold at the Gap and a shiny new kryptonite chain around their waists’. As one well respected courier put it, “I just want to knock one of them off their bike with an elbow to the face and say,”This isn’t for you, you little jerk-off’”. Most didn’t feel as strongly as he did, but many couriers have funny names for these characters like culture-vulture, poser, dick-jocker, tourist hipster scum and fakenger. They don’t have real track bikes, but converted road “wack bikes”. ”its fashion, not function”, says Alex, who opened Bicycle Doctor (133 Grand street,), a Brooklyn bike shop catering to just about everybody that sells a lot of track bikes. “In the last year I have sold more track bikes than in the four previous years combined”. Being in Williamsburg a huge percentage of these bikes must be being sold to poser, hipster douche bag fakenger scum.
The draw of popular culture to track bikes is obvious and sometimes disturbing. Messengers have been a staple of the advertising business for years now. The have us selling watches, sneakers, cold medicine, banks, 401k plans, and even fucking cars. Can you believe that? It’s like, “Buy our car and you can run over these guys.” The NYT Sunday magazine is running ads for a SUV that stole three of my friend’s names and put them in the ad without paying them. Bronx Johnny indeed. The manufacturers of the killers of more Americans than handguns and terrorism combined couldn’t pay three regular cats whose names they stole. Thanks for nothing Lincoln. SUVs and the people who drive them will be viewed by history as war criminals against humanity and the earth. There is a limited supply of oil on this planet and we should be conserving it. Instead, billions of gallons of federally subsidized petrochemical pollutants are wasted every year to power V8 engines driven by lone, bloated lazy drunks ten blocks to the liquor store. We have to fight wars over oil and then people put jingoistic patriotic magnets on the back of their trucks to feel better about themselves. That’s not keeping it real. Ride a bike to the liquor store. Fight Terrorism. A track bike is cheaper than the lease down payment on any SUV and you might live longer with some daily exercise in your life.
Oh yeah, track bikes, sorry, I like to rant.
The allure of these pure machines is not easy to avoid. A classic Atala frame with full Campagnolo Pista Record groupo, Brooks leather saddle, Alfredo Binda double toe straps and Cinelli stem, is a vision most people will never see with their own eyes, let alone ride. Such a machine was made for a champion of the days of old and is the goal of any true track rider to assemble. To accomplish such a task one needs to be resourceful and adept, skilled with tools and blessed with a delicate touch. You must be able to identify the worn markings of constantly changing logos on even the smallest nuts and bolts. A whole new vocabulary must be understood and a mind for geometry is a helpful tool. Otherwise you will swiftly fall victim to the hucksters that work at many bike shops and infest the black market. For example; how do you know if your Bianchi was made in Italy or Taiwan after the shop takes the sticker off? You bet your sweet ass it matters and you should know. Italian beats everything and costs the same as something made in a Chinese sweatshop. Informed consumers are much harder to rip off. A low end rear hub from China will “strip”(the threading on the hub that the lock ring and cog screw on to is sheared off by the force of your attempt to lock up and skid and the cogs attempt to stay screwed on) the first time you lock the rear wheel and become useless. Then you have to walk back to the shop like a rookie, complain, and probably not get your money back, sucker. Real bikers build up their bikes themselves.
A true Fixed Fanatics bike will show not only their wrench skills but their taste. Some go for retro styling, while others want only new high tech parts. Some distinguish their bikes with bright tires and toe straps that match the bikes paint job. That’s rookie shit. If you want to impress me have all the same parts from the same manufacturer from the same year. If Phil Wood hubs still impress you, you might be a rookie. Phil Wood hubs from 84’ would get my attention. Remember if you can just buy something at the store, its not that cool, anybody can get one.
It looks like the mass commercialization of the fixed has begun and it won’t turn off any true fixed fanatics away from their bikes. There will still be velodromes and Monster Tracks after all the hype dies down and college kids get back into rollerblading. If the hype can get big business to not only invest but share some of the bread, maybe Monster Track will be an x-game event in a few years. Knowing corporate America however, they will probably just beat the trend till it’s dead.
By the way, No one is impressed with road bikes with a fixed wheel jammed on the back. It might be a good idea for a beginner to slap together and see if they like riding fixed before they go out and spend a lot of money, but don’t expect anything but snickers from any true disciple. Even if you go to one of the little track bike boutiques that have been popping up and get a real bike, don’t try to race me over the bridge or in traffic, because you ain’t gonna beat me. You might even get yourself killed by an SUV.
