MAD OLD MAN

Honest to god, I'm tired of those videos like this one of guys riding fixed gear bikes, or fixies. I've seen hundreds of them and there are some really cool. I even want to have a fixie bike. But they have a place and a moment to be used, it isn't going downhill or uphill... Also, the hispter thing is kind of annoying, especially what it is doing to the cyclist image...


Prá ser sincero, estou totalmente cansado dessa onda de vídeos de fixed gear bikes, ou fixies. Eu já vi umas centenas deles e alguns são muito legais. Eu até queria ter uma dessas. Mas as fixies tem a hora e o lugar de ser usada. E não é subindo ou descendo ladeiras... Também, essa onda hipster é irritante, especialmente pelo que está fazendo com a imagem dos ciclistas em todo o mundo...






DOWNHILL - First of allI see those guys going downhill as their legs are gonna explode or get ripped of from the body is ridiculous. The fixies were created for velodromes or flat cities like Manhatan, Amsterdam or Paris. Not to the hills of UK or wherever. They look basically like they are hanging for their lifes (you can see by the fixed eyes concentration hahaha) and they are going to crash at any moment. This basically slow them down so much that they can't be enjoying the fun of a good earned downhill...


TIRE RAPE - And the other point of going down and trying to stay alive is that those bikes have no brakes. Apart from the fixed gear that one is able to block the back wheel and slide it to slow down. The opposite of drifting, because you are braking. But the result is the same: tires destroyed left and right. I if you ride too long, probably you will have to come back home pushing the bike... Nonsense.


UPHILL - A "law" of cycling is that after a downhill there is always an uphill. Or vice-versa. So, when they hit the bottom of the hill with the legs in shambles and the hands hurting for so strong a grip in the handlebar, they have to go up. And that is the other part of the thing that annoys me. They are going soo slow in any slight elevation. In a serious climb, they are basically a joke... Gears were invented a couple of decades ago to solve that problem, so why do this?


Don't get me wrong. I love the look of the fixie bikes. No cables running everywhere, nothing dangling out of the frame and clean lines. The handlebar without the brake levers look very nice and very racy. I would love to have one. However, the attitude of those bikers is also making it annoying. They behave as owners of the roads agains cars, pedestrians, etc. Maybe because they can't really control their bikes. And this is creating a reaction on people against cyclists in general. I'm all pro riding a fixie in a flat city, behaving like a normal person and never on hills. This is just like cross-breading cats and dogs. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...