Fixie mania

East London's become the kingdom of fixie heaven - for ones 'in the know', this means fixed wheel racing type bikes. It's always been a trend for bike enthusiasts, but in the last year it seems to have somewhat grown into a fad. Right, so sales of ordinary bikes in London have doubled, if not tripled, in the last couple of years (some say it was related to the tube terror attacks, others argue it's the rise of tube fares and the sheer convenience and freedom of riding a bike in town). No matter what, general awareness and interest in bicycles has hugely grown in London, and supposedly cool hoxtonites and east londoners haven't missed out on that one. Ok, so who am I to comment - being both an east londoner and a newly fixed wheel convert? What I have been witnessing, much to my amusement, a development of what I call 'bike porn'. Like car show offs, bike show offs like exposing, touring their newly purchased 2 wheel drive, flashy, shiny, expensive and of course, fixed. "I'm cool, I can afford to live in a cool part of town, so therefore I adhere to the coolness of owning a fixed wheel bike". Well nearly. Why have they become so popular? Is courier chic the new trend? When is biker chic going to grace the pages of Vogue or Elle? Soon perhaps; sporty is in, so why not? So couriers ooze coolness, confidence, power and freedom - they own the streets, swerve between traffic, avoiding cars, bendy buses and flirting with danger. It's the beauty of relying on nothing else but your legs - and alert mind. Then there's the coolness of being fit, though slightly scruffy - being on the streets all day doesn't help... So yes, many couriers live in east london. Many couriers ride fixies. Many artists and trend following/setting designers also live in the same part of town (it's cheap, arty and of course, cool). So inevitably, fixies have become part of the uniform. In the same way as drinking organic lager at the foundry or doing your vintage shopping down bricklane has. There's nothing wrong with that, but somehow, it seems to have lost - or at least seems to be losing- part of its unique, special charm. As Sheldon Brown's website beautifully describes: "When you ride a fixed gear, you feel a closer communion with your bike and with the road. There is a purity and simplicity to the fixed-gear bicycle that can be quite seductive." So true. wow.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html