Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Strange Customs: Art, Bikes, and the Apocalypse

"The customization of all of these bikes and the different people who ride them is fascinating to me." --Aaron Edge, Rain City Fix


Indeed. However, let's be honest. Choosing between vintage Italian and NJS, or between black and pink Deep Vs, or even between track drops and risers, isn't exactly customization. If that's customization then I suppose I customize my feet every morning when I decide which socks to wear. No, real customization is combining disparate components and elements, making them work together, and thus creating something truly unexpected and inspiring. A real custom bike cannot be measured on the Sense-o-meter or the Money-o-meter, because a real custom bike is art, and as such it defies quantification. Therefore, a real custom bike can only be quantified the way art is quantified, in that the true measure of its greatness is the intensity with which it stirs your soul.

Having said that, I bring you this, which was reverently photographed by a reader:


I realize a bike like this isn't for everyone, so if you're looking for a more traditional "dream bike" check out Fat Cyclist's raffle. But to me, this magnificent specimen not only stirs my soul, but it whips it up into a froth, spoons it up, and puts a dollop of it on top of a caffeinated beverage and serves it right back to me like some sort of cosmic barista. Put this in your coffee table book, Mr. Edge! The pie plate alone would be magnificent enough, but in concert with the Spinergy it's sublime, and in the context of the entire bike it's achingly beautiful. Like any true work of art, this bicycle is a window into universal truth, and as such it is open to infinte interpretation. My own is that it's a tragi-comic look at the folly of bicycle upgrading in particular and the futility of materialism in general. Alas, my only quibble is that I personally would have put a carbon fork on there too. But then again, to imply that I could somehow improve this bike is arrogance bordering on hubris. Also, while the carbon fork might help kill road buzz, it might also mute this bike's cosmic hum.

After all, if anything is going to save us from the Apocalypse, it's art. And the Apocalypse is as nigh as ever. (As if Rain City Fix weren't proof enough.) If the fixed-gear phenomenon is a party, then the Apocalypse is still at home primping and trying on different shirts. But rest assured, when it finally does choose a chemise, it will be on its way. In fact, another reader just sent me this:


I'll be damned if that isn't a Fixed Gear Pie Plate. The picture must have been taken in Hell, and clearly it's snowing down there since the dreaded FGPP has finally manifest itself. Of course, I am the type of person who looks the proverbial gift horse in the proverbial mouth (even if that horse is an alpaca and it's breathing fire from its nostrils), so I'm a little disappointed it's not one of those newer, plastic freehub-style pie plates. That to me would be the ultimate. But still, this is not a good sign. Nor is it encouraging that the bicycle has no pedals. That can only imply that the beast who rides it simply puts a claw or talon through the pedal holes in order to turn the cranks.

I wish I could explain this away as a fluke, but I also received this from yet another reader:

Is there a death knell louder than that of the instructional video? This should look great alongside your other videos about how to play the guitar and how to swing a golf club.

Well, actually, maybe there is a louder death knell. It would appear that Time has published an article about the Messenger Mania event at last Sunday's Harlem Criterium:


It's puzzling to me why a magazine as big as Time, if they wanted to run something about a messenger race, would cover this instead of the Cycle Courier World Championship in Toronto which was happening at the same time. (Not that I begrudge local messengers the coverage--far from it--but still.) I suppose maybe the writer had a cutesy idea for a story and didn't want to travel. Also, the writer is probably angling for a Pukelitzer, which is an annual prize awarded to the fluffiest piece of cycling-related journalism published in a mainstream publication. (I don't think she'll win, though. Even with lines like "The pros had slick helmets, fancy bikes and numbers pinned onto the backs of their shirts," she'll still have to compete with The Climb.)

But the most noteworthy thing to me about this article was the following quote, by none other than promoter John Eustice, regarding his inviting the messengers to come race:

"I almost look at them as the artists colonizing the big race," says Eustice, who organized the event. "When you want to make something cool, you bring in the artists."

Indeed you do. Hey, it worked for Williamsburg, why not for road racing? Yep, nothing's cooler than messenger culture. Someone really should put together a coffee table book.

147 comments:

Anonymous said...

Were not worthy of you BSNYC

Anonymous said...

podium

Anonymous said...

where is everybody?

Anonymous said...

loser's podium

Anonymous said...

I appreciate that both the pie plate and derailleur cage are drilled. You know, to add lightness.

Anonymous said...

1. Pie plates are fun, all of them.

Mongo Pusher said...

Lucky 7

Anonymous said...

8

Anonymous said...

Faen, så nær, så nær..

Anonymous said...

I am glad I finally had the chance to see a pie plate on a fixed gear. I know I should look at it as another piece of the pistapocalypse puzzle falling into place, but, somehow, knowing that the beast is real allows me to finally come to grips (or lack thereof) with the situation. The pistapocalypse deniers will now forever be silenced, and I can start to properly plan for the when, rather than the if.

Robert H said...

I can finally die.

Anonymous said...

I have customized my unicycle into a tandem...

Anonymous said...

snobby I thought you would be more excited about the FGPP. I always assumed that when abolition appeared the blog would end. Well its been a good year and a week! See you all in hell, bring your sweaters cause its snowing.

Anonymous said...

That mega pie plate looks like something off of a Peterbilt!



A

Stevious said...

Why why WHY must they try and make cycling cool?

It's about sweating, bad lycra, mud and uncomfortable footwear.

Make them stop.

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain to me just how the hell you can put a freewheel onto a Spinergy?

Anonymous said...

seattle is getting weaker by the hour.

bicycles are not fashion accesories.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:55, I will tell you how I put the pie plate on a Spinergy if you can figure out how I can put spoke reflectors on them.

veloben said...

...to imply that I could somehow improve this bike is arrogance bordering on hubris.

Priceless.

The subject bike is certainly a statement. It's disparate parts commingling in a frenzy of styles and materials so that the whole hums at a pitch to induce blindness.

Nicely done, your best post in 24 hours.

Anonymous said...

my favorite is the saddle height.... was this bike built by a very precocious child? perhaps the Antigear him/herself?

LK said...

Owner of Monstrosity:

Try auto epoxy.

I used to hear about guys putting Porsche engines into VW Bugs.

Nice segue.

Will you make it into a single speed or a fix?

Anonymous said...

but then there's the pastel world champion stripes.... hmmm...

Anonymous said...

anon 1:55 - I'm not so sure about the technical aspects, Mr. Zinn would love to give you the details on that, but on the philosophically/sociological front, it begins with breaking oneself free from the chains of conformity (known as common sense amongst the conforming crowd), followed by developing a complete disregard for inherent function of parts, and finally learning to rate success based on others' perception rather than results. i.e. Man, cyclists are so stupid for not putting old school 5 speed cassettes on fancy carbon wheels. I know that's not what they're designed for, but I can make it work. Wow this looks awesome. I bet everyone is gonna ask me where I got em.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused. So it's OK for a man to ride a girls bike?

Joshua said...

Getting a freewheel onto an older Spinergy is as easy as threading it on. Remember, freehubs weren't always the norm.

I can't explain the dork disc, though.

Unknown said...

Time to go hide my head in the sand, the better to let it be run over by someone in a "slick helmet." Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Heh, they called them "bikers".

Anonymous said...

Well, you wouldn't want to scratch up tht nice CF rear wheel, would you?

Anonymous said...

That bike reminds me of the 80's Cutlass's with super fancy rims that cruise around my neighborhood.

erik k said...

fear the alpacalips

Anonymous said...

Dang-it, someone beat me to the PPFG photo. There's one here in my town as well. I had made it my life's goal to photograph such a rare beast... oh well, on to some other lofty goal... maybe a FG recumbent with spinergy wheels and a pie plate!

Anonymous said...

Dart is three quarters art.

Anonymous said...

the fork on the first bike is perfect. like knees resting on the rail, hands clasped together on the back of the pew. head, on hands, bowed in reverent prayer. (likely for cheese) and the saddle. is that a gel pad on a gel/sprung bad boy? wow!

Anonymous said...

"Yep, nothing's cooler than messenger culture. Someone really should put together a coffee table book."

For those that didn't know, happened 8 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Erik K....

Hahahahaha! Thanks

Anonymous said...

Track bikes & fixed gear conversions with riser bars are poser/poser bikes when they don't even have the clearance to do barspins. A track bike with risers is still a poser bike, but less poser if you can at least spin the bars, but still poser. Now a step through fixed gear conversion is a poser bike thrice removed because there werent any step through track bikes, they dont have the clearance to barspin and risers. BUT, if the step through had riser bars to begin with it's actually just dumb.

Anonymous said...

thx again erik k. beautiful job. and yet i wonder why you insist on hiding the wonderful nipples. even retouching them out on frontals. celebrate the mammeries, i mean avianaries, of our national and righteous pird of prey!

Anonymous said...

pird of prey?

Anonymous said...

The Time article was nowhere as good as the copy written for the special olympics. Which is a shame, b/c they both deal with the same subject matter.
Maybe there is a journalistic maxim that states you should write as though your subject is also your audience.

Anonymous said...

A pie plate fixie is nice, but this appears to be a "custom" single speed freewheel conversion with no brakes (and a pie plate, of course). Is the freewheel welded?!? Too much other good stuff to mention here. Only $400, though.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/bik/718648437.html

Crap. I'm moving out there next week. Is this what I'm going to be able to find on Craigslist?

Anonymous said...

FGPP's...the velo equivalent of the Whistle Tip Tailpipe of a few years ago...We do it for decoration....that's it and that's all.

Anonymous said...

Now that pie plates on fixed gears and Spinergy's has been properly skewered, when will the assault on road/fixed chain ring guards begin?

Anonymous said...

The object photographed in that first pic has been reported to MUFON. J Allen Hynek would've lost his mind.

Anonymous said...

n&rbop, yes

Anonymous said...

Yesterday's JDM is today's NJS. The Japenese are sipping sake, laughing and just waiting to hit the harbor with another sub-culture bomb.

Anonymous said...

Was it in one of yesterday's many comments I read a suggestion that Christopher Guest do a mockumentary on the fixed gear "culture?" Unfortunately, even such a talent as his could not top the over-the-top-ness of that Rain City video. It would have been hilarious even, say, 3 or 4 years ago. But now, though I want to laugh, or at least snicker, I can only just barely watch as my stomach churns.

Irony, sarcasm, spoofing, wit--it's all dead after Rain City Fix. Never mind the Pistadex, the apocalypse is in full swing:

"I gave him a call at like, 2 in the morning and said 'We're doin' a book..."

"For me, it was the magnitude of the project..."

BSNY, you've ridden the wave, ridden it well, but for god's sake stop shooting fish in a barrel and jump the damn shark already, before it's too late.

Anonymous said...

Believe me, he already has.

stream of nothing said...

2 days of genius......the graphical analysis of yesterdays entry suggest that you are an accountant working for a pretty big publishing house.

Anonymous said...

blah blah blah blah blah blah

Strayhorn said...

That second bike looks exactly like the older ('60s) Raleigh Super Course II frameset that Sheldon Brown gave the seal of approval to for fixies/singles. I found one at a yard sale for $10 that I converted to single speed and, man, what a smooth ride.

Yeah, I know, I should be converting Cervelo or BMC frames in order to get my picture on RTMS, but I really do like that old steel.

Daniel said...

A track bike with risers is still a poser bike, but less poser if you can at least spin the bars, but still poser.

I agree completely. Those non-bar-spinning posers make me sick. What's the point of even owning a bike if you can't spin the bars? What good is it? What would you even use it for?

Anonymous said...

I dig the CODA sticker on the Spinergys. Could these wheels have once belonged to a Cannondale factory-sponsored racer? Who the hell else would (or could) get (or want) a CODA wheel sticker?

Anonymous said...

DART is one half CODA.

Anonymous said...

Ugh..why do people only mention events like the one in Toronto AFTER they've happened?

I missed the ferry ride to the island where the championships took place, that would have been the single hippest ferry in history since Brian Ferry.

I don't get why they call those frames girls frames? Girl slips off pedals on a conventional frame, hits top tube... what happens? Nothing. Maybe a first sexual experience.

Guy slips off pedal and the boys whack the top tube, face turns purple, stars/birds encircle head, oneness with Lance Armstrong, etc.

Seems like these should be called guy frames, for real men, with real balls.

Of course, this won't do in 2008 marketing, so we'll call them "inverse sloping geometry". but of course, it's all been done before by Bianchi for the 1994 Paris Roubaix.

Anonymous said...

Unicycles? I have a tricycle with a pie plate on each wheel. Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

The idea of artists as a colonizing force is brilliant. It deflates the myth of the artist-as-outsider and rightfully maligns artists for occupying foreign neighborhoods and displacing the natives. Down with the cultural imperialism of racist graphic designers!

Since the fixed-gear craze seems to be generating so much of what people I don't like call "social capital," maybe some day we'll see the bohemian antics of bike messengers and their ilk traded on Wall Street just like coffee or wheat.

Anonymous said...

Off topics, but I think TonyCruz is having too much fun here.

Anonymous said...

NJS stock is through the roof!

(For those of you that dont know, I was the first Black American to hold a seat on the American Stock Exchange)

Anonymous said...

ASS for tony cruz...

...

Strayhorn said...

Commiecanuk said: Off topics, but I think TonyCruz is having too much fun here.

Gives a new meaning to the trademark BUTT'r.

veloben said...

From the 'taste' about the FGPP...

With any luck I will someday get a grass track to whip around on.

and mix it up with Polo Ponies?

Anonymous said...

bonechilling - spinergies never came with a threaded hub. Consequently, threading on a freehub is impossible.

My guess is that this is not actually a functional bike. You can remove the cassette and simply place the freehub over the axle of the rear wheel - but if you try to pedal, it will go nowhere.

As for adding spoke reflectors - don't use epoxy - you'll weaken the wheels. Try some really good double-sided tape.

Anonymous said...

"You can do anything you want with TONY CRUZ. You can cum on TONY CRUZ, fuck TONY CRUZ in the mouth, fuck TONY CRUZ in the ass, cum on the face of TONY CRUZ, man. TONY CRUZ get your cock so hard he'll make it explode. But no rough stuff, all right?"

Scottie said...

I'm a little disappointed you didn't touch on Campy's defence of 11 speeds today. There's some choice material in there. I mean, it's like Campy is using the Spinal Tap reference to mock itself!

Anonymous said...

Commiecanuk re:girls frame,

In case you really do not know...

the girls frame or step-through was intended to allow women in long skirts to mount a bicycle while maintaining some modesty by not flashng their ankles to any onlookers.

BTW, real man, slips off pedals, doesn't admit to actual pain.

JPB

Anonymous said...

The Spinergies bring a tear to my eye, and the FGPP turns that tear into joyful sobs. My God, it's beautiful. BS, how will you keep writing after witnessing a bike of such beauty?

Anonymous said...

Actually that's a perfect Spinergy Class Action setup . . . with plenty of leg room to bail when those wheels give out going 40 mph downhill.

Anonymous said...

The mixte made me vomit.

Strayhorn said...

Scott said... I'm a little disappointed you didn't touch on Campy's defence of 11 speeds today."

Nigelo Campagnolo: "You see, most blokes will be cruising on 10. You’re on 10, all the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere. What we do, is if we need that extra speed on the descent ... Eleven. One faster."

Phil Liggett: "Why don’t you just make the 10 cog smaller and make 10 be the top number, and make that a little faster?"

Nigelo (after taking a moment to let this sink in): "These go to 11."

Anonymous said...

Truly, I was hoping the Rain City Fix thing would go away quietly. It was mentioned again today with prominence, so it must be addressed. I cannot sit by passively, after all.

Seattle (Rain City, as we lovingly call ourselves) brought forth one, Jimi Hendrix, to the underground art 'community' many years ago. Right about the time of the 1980s, several so-called 'artists' committed multiple atrocities upon music, invoking his name. The city became sad and angry.

Soon, the world came to find the product of this torment with the emergence of the Grunge Music Scene. Hidden in the dark corners of it were the Scenesters, often reviled in The Stranger, and the deceased, Rocket. These urchins crawled from dive bars in Pioneer Square back to their newly-rented apartments on Capitol Hill. Lucky for them, Dr. Martens and torn flannel shirts were readily available at the Nordstrom's along the way.

Now, the children of these Scenesters have risen with a new culture. Rather than emulating the currently hip trend in Seattle, technology-driven interest in alternative-farming lifestyles, they've discovered an enclave of culture in NYC. As happened back with their parents, they, too, have bastardized the 'true culture'.

Indeed, the majority of the Seattle-fixie version ride with GEARS! and FREEWHEELS! and BRAKES! The upcoming coffee table book is merely a marketing ploy to hide the cheap imitation they represent.

Do not buy this book. The New York City Fixed Gear Community is under attack in one of the most insidious ways: tawdry imitation.

ezweave said...

Rain City stuff is painful... there are more interesting/less "hipster" Messenger DVD/Books (Pedal, Mash SF).

I love my fixie (with no brake and risers) and have ridden it up and down high mountain passes and on 50 mile road rides. Of course, I have a road bike and a DH bike too.

I don't mind being mocked for wearing tight jeans, wool jersyes, Vans, playing post-hardcore, or having tattoos and a nerd day job (I can live with being called a hipster douchebag, thanks AV Club: I used to just be a weirdo)... those things were not "cool" to these people ten years ago. So when the apocalypse comes, they can leave the rest of us the hell alone.

All bikes are fun, but those Rain City kids are posers.

I think Jawbreaker said it best:

You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone.
Save your breath, I never was one.

Anonymous said...

JPB,

Thanks, I honestly thought the lower top tube on girl frames was somehow related to the menstrual cycle.

Anonymous said...

Strayhorn,

this must be summer, we're into re-runs already.

(see blog comments a few weeks ago)

Anonymous said...

anonymous 4:26,

Start a blog.

Anonymous said...

Commiecanuk,

Menstrual Cycle?

Feminist Bike Shop?

JPB

Anonymous said...

Menstural cycle? I'll raise a cup to that.

Anonymous said...

No strings attached.

Anonymous said...

Menstrual cycle is one made with fallopian tubes

Anonymous said...

What about a fixed menstrual cycle? Are the follopian tubes tied?

Anonymous said...

great now we are gonna get more comments about tampon string chaffing and those nasty cup-o-blood things. and I already had lunch

... good times

Anonymous said...

Snob - These period comments got me thinking, what about a "worst of BSNYC comments" blog entry. I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but there seems to be no shortage of crappy, or at least easily ridiculed, comments in here.

Anonymous said...

I usually don't feel compelled to post on blogs (even this blog, which I read frequently), but dear god this whole Rain City Fix really gets me seething.

Maybe it’s because it's depressing that young people are WILLINGLY transforming bike culture, as it were, into another materialistic fashion trend. I don’t resent the creative energy that people put into designing interesting, useful, pretty bikes. It’s just a depressing reflection of American mainstream culture that anything creative or cool - be it music, fashion, any subculture - will inevitably be turned into something for people to buy.

When ordinary people who don’t particularly care about looking cool or peacocking around town start taking to bikes en masse, THAT is the rise of true bike culture for me.

Thanks bike snob, you perform a valuable public service.

Anonymous said...

red kite string on the rag bloody cunt egging riding the crimson wave monthly visitor red dawn red wings Aunt Flo and cousin Red came to visit prolly...

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:03 - Don't worry, as long as it's some subculture aspect of cycling they are trying to cheapen/mainstreamize/commercialize. When hipsters decide that waking up at 5am on a saturday, putting on a pair of lycra bibs over a chaffed, underfed ass, and going out with 15 other cancer patient looking dudes to train is when we'll truly have a problem. Until then, I find it flattering when various aspects of our "culture" are incorporated into "coolture".

Anonymous said...

anonymous 5:03,

Start a blog.

tuppercole said...

Scott,
Isn't it a defents of 11 speed?

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:12

maybe you should start a blog about starting blogs?

Anonymous said...

Hello everybody, THIS IS AMERICA, the land of MATERIALISM. It doesnt matter if it's a bike, a shirt, a car, a pair of tight jeans, sunglasses, your art school diploma, your stupid fucking band or your independent film. Everybody wants to shine. That's never going to change. Get over it. Most of the people on this blog are guilty of the same shit they RAG on everyday. Hipsters ragging on hipsters. Fixters ragging on fixters. Who gives a FUCK? ALL the world is a stage, this blog especially. a stage for posers and a stage for cyclists who think they are joined together in some common attack on the fixed gear scene when really they are being duped by what could be a fixter hipster author playwright director or whatever else this self professed cycling mesiah claims to be. Wake the fuck up. This blog is not that witty, not that funny and basically supported by a closed network of losers jacking themselves off while they are subjected to life behind a computer in a cubicle for some corporate giant making them the biggest hypocrites of all.

BikeSnobNYC said...

Your Conscious,

So what did you think about the Spinergy bike?

--RTMS

Anonymous said...

As for the spinergy bike...

"I know him pretty well and he's a solid dude and has been riding bikes for a long, long time for whatever thats worth."

Anonymous said...

Looking at the Times puff piece:

"Although this race used to draw big names like former Olympian Danny Clark and Tour de France workhorse George Hincapie"

Never heard of Danny Clark and who wants Hincapie when you can have team Ballsack. At the end of the day you want a winner like slightly tarnished Tyler Hamilton (Olympic TT gold medalist).

The other priceless part was the messenger comment "I feel like a pro." Shoot you don't ever need the harsh reality of racing for that, just spend a ridiculous amount of money on a Cervelo, get the full CSC team kit and go sit on some poor commuters wheel.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen such in-depth analysis of CHILDREN playing with sports equipment and emulating athletes and other grown-ups, in this case cyclists and fashion photographers. These kids are cyclists in the same sense that a 14-year-old in a pair of Air Jordans is an NBA player. At least cycling gives them some wholesome role models, like Boonen

Anonymous said...

"Get higher baby, get higher baby...and overdose. Thank you, NEXT."

Anonymous said...

meta-blogging? I think at this point, the true harbinger of the end of western civilization may be the energy expended by many incessantly arguing/discussing/defending/criticizing others for the simple, time-honored tradition of acting like other people that they perceive as "cool", and trying to incorporate it into their own identity. This is nothing new. At least they are outside, at least pretending to ride bikes, and helping pay my rent by bringing their bikes into the shop to get work done. SO WHAT? Let the kids have their fun! If even 10% of the people dabbling in this scene stick around, that has to be seen as a net good for everyone who actually DOES ride the bike to ride the bike.
If you personally have it all figured out, why don't you perform a public service and "adopt a scenester"? Show him/her the ropes?
Maybe less energy spent deriding, more energy spent riding?
I'm going to turn the computer off now and go for a bike ride.

Anonymous said...

anonymous,

Slow day at work again?

Anonymous said...

No, actually, I do WORK at work. Day off, thanks for asking.

areUpake? said...

BikeSnobNYC @ 5:39

why don't you start a blog

Anonymous said...

Whatsa fist gear anyway, mane?

BikeSnobNYC said...

Short Hair,

When I'm finally forced to go (further) underground I will still post, but I'll do so in the comments section of a different blog every day.

--RTMS

areUpake? said...

thats gonna make my work production go down even further. because instead of just reading your blog I will have to read hundreds of blogs a day just looking for your comments. Sorry boss lady

Anonymous said...

I used to have this realy cool bike, mane. It had kie this green star rim on the front. It was really hard to ride though. These dudes liked it and offered to buy it from me for like fifty bucks. The bike kinda sucked anyway so i sold that shit holmes. Then the pigs came, mane. Those punks sold me out! Was that a fist gear, eh?

Anonymous said...

"they are being duped by what could be a fixter hipster author playwright director or whatever else this self professed cycling mesiah claims to be. "

BSNYC, did you actually profess to being the messiah? If so, when?


"This blog is not that witty, not that funny "

Just because you don't get it doesn't mean it isn't funny...

BikeSnobNYC said...

omflyer,

No, but I did post a really bad play about David Clinger and Michael Ball awhile back.

--BSNYC

Anonymous said...

Yes, that was a really bad play. Stick to scripting porn films.

Anonymous said...

Hey everyone, I'm kinda new here, but I wanted to introduce myself. Just call me Douche. All of this blogging has got me thinking I want to start my own. As you already know, I'm a douche, but how cool would it be to start a blog where people didnt know I was such a douche? Then I could start making fun of people and calling them "douches!" I could have my other douche friends comment and make it feel like we really weren't douches at all! I'm really excited about this and if you get a chance you are all invited to check it out. I have already started ripping into people so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Here is the link. Thanks again for giving me the strength to stand up to all of those bullies that made fun of me!

Jonathan said...

hey douche,
i see what you did there.
clever AND ironic!

BikeSnobNYC said...

Douche,

So what did you think of the Spinergy bike?

--BSNYC

bikesgonewild said...

...not wishing to offend saint hubbins, "the patron saint of quality footwear" or my sidis for that matter, i spent a fascinating day looking for just the right socks so my feet would have fun...

Anonymous said...

Snob,
Is your name really Douche?
High school must have been hell!

Anonymous said...

As for the spinergy bike...

...I really dont give a shit about that bike. If the owner likes it, so be it. Let's see your bikes. Let's see your face. Let's see your friends, your music and everything else. No, that would be too much. Then you wouldnt have anything to write about because people could rip you to shreds. So until then people can just go on and on about how great you are when they really dont know shit about you either. It's all a front. That's what I thought about the spinergy bike, but I'm just a douche, so what do I know anyway?

Anonymous said...

Wait... I thought we all agreed to change Douchebag to "Manprincess"
or did that not get approved?

Anonymous said...

as for Douche...

"I know him pretty well and he's a solid douche and has been a douche for a long, long time for whatever thats worth."

Daniel said...

...so what do I know anyway?

I know you could benefit from a 100-level logic or critical thinking course. You could take it at night, and it wouldn't be that expensive.

Joshua said...

Reading these comments, it's apparent that an APB went out to the "Rain City Fix" crowd. Someone's feelings where obviously hurt.

veloben said...

000 start argument

010 Douchebag

020 Manprincess

030 no brake

040 goto 010

Anonymous said...

daniel!,

You are one to talk with your law enforcement, rap music, toilet art blog. I wouldnt be surprised if you ride a fixed gear too.

Anonymous said...

In French, "douche "simply means "shower," free from the vaginal connotation.

Anonymous said...

"If its a town where everyone is a wannabe that claims then they dont gotta worry about being hurt but they are still laughed at by others." -irony

Daniel said...

You are one to talk with your law enforcement, rap music, toilet art blog. I wouldnt be surprised if you ride a fixed gear too.

More airtight reasoning. What would surprise you?

Anonymous said...

The town is bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com. You dont have to worry about being called out here. You are still laughed at by others. Good night.

bikesgonewild said...

...dear douche...hidden beneath all this subterfuge & bullshit, you'll find this blog is obviously crafted daily by bsnyc/rtms to appeal to the 'inner rocket scientist' within all of use...

...& it's working as designed when such erudition pours forth from keyboards like yours...you must be reading books on the side to offer such insight...sheesh...

...defending the snob, you say ???...good lord, man...we all just mostly fucking amuse each other here...

...btw...i do hope yours will be called "DOUCHEBLOG"...hey, no, no, really, just consider that a gift...

FBIII said...

bikesgonewild,

If this is your first night, you HAVE to fight!

Anonymous said...

Customization to a fixie is the choice of color of the el cheapo tyre he slips on today because he does not give a fat rats arse about whether it has grip, is puncture resistant or rolling resistance as long as he looks HIP and NOW. Go and stroke your squovals boys and girls. If you want to be on the cutting edge of customization go find a piece of bamboo and have a chat to the high Guru of Weird Mr Calfee.
Custom are my surfboards that I have talked to my shaper about for weeks and months and art is the result of his skill and the pleasure is stroking into a six foot peak. Go and do it , no more talk

Anonymous said...

"You still haven't figured out what riding fixie is all about."

Jonathan said...

techb3:
thanks for another amazing post.

Anonymous said...

Did I REALLY just watch a commercial for a coffee table book?! Now THAT is innovative!

FBIII said...

jonathan,

haha! You beat me to the punch!

Jonathan said...

techb3:
dont worry, theres plenty of punch to go round.

Grump said...

The world is full of wankers. Without them, what would we laugh at?
Oh yeah, we'd have to laugh at people who post replies to blogs.

PS. We need a photo of Rev-X's on a "Bent".

AMR said...

BSNYC,
Thanks for the entertainment, like the read and all the comments that come with it.

Tha Synergy bike? He/she should turn the bars up and add the carbon fork (carve type).

anonymous x,
Planning to get a fixed gear. I don't have a yappy job but I want to improve my pedalling and win road races. That's me!


anonymous z,
Cervelo isn't that expensive as someone wrongly mentioned.

PS. Cervelos and Frank Schleck are fast!

Anonymous said...

interesting that in the vid for the fixie book, all the "custom" bikes are virtually the same, and owned buy virtually the same person. so to speak.

Calvin said...

You don't seem too excited about the FGPP! Perhaps the low-res photo is not convincing enough - we need more substantial evidence.

Anonymous said...

i dunno ... ive changed my mind about the mixte bike. it's actually very sensible because, really, what else ARE spinergy wheels good for?


As a woman, i've always sorta looked down upon mixte frames because they don't seem to offer the solidity of that classic triangle... and here they are paired with Spinergy wheels... it really is poetic genius.

When the Alpacalips come, they will kiss that ironic cyclist and pass by.

Anonymous said...

for the spinergy reflector, try weaving a dreamcatcher with zip-ties and incorporate reflectors alongside the feathers ands beads. or just use reflective tape.

Anonymous said...

andpandy... you keep stroking it buddy!

Anonymous said...

I note that Mr Mackey at Times is upgrading his "old 12-27 Ultegra cassette". I was starting to wonder when this would happen - I mean, it was a freaking TIME BOMB after all those miles!!!!

Some Guy on the Innernets said...

Changing the cassette every few hundred miles will make the chain last longer. Or something like that.

tuppercole said...

amrcyclist-
Frank is pretty damn fast after he falls off something. The Cervelo just sat there, doing nothing though.

Douchblog is already in progress. Hoovis is the man. Check it out.

I suspect that each and every manprincess that asks RTMS for pictures of his bike has been ridiculed here. Oddly manprincess is French for spinergy. Weird, huh?

Anonymous said...

It's pronounced, "doo-shay".

Unknown said...

Don't you love that on the 'fixed gear bike - first step' DVD the contents are on the front, and every one is about arsing about while stationary or more or less stationary, none of them about any of that cranky, old fashioned A to B type going places cycling - cos isn't that what the Prius is for? And cabs?

Anonymous said...

commiecanuck, accent egue?

Anonymous said...

I have an old "My First Fixie" Raleigh conversion sitting in my living room... I have always joked that I would throw a carbon fork and 650c Aerospoke on the front.

You just cannot comprehend the joy I have in my heart now to see my dreams being realized...

Though, of course, this being a BSNY blog, I have to nitpick... had the drivetrain been a single speed freewheel w/a coaster brake, I think fixie nirvana would have been achieved...

In publishing this blog I think you have inadvertently stalled the Apocafixed. Cruisers + $1000 wheels = the new fixie

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:26 & 5:12

"Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy fucking walrus-looking piece of shit! Get the fuck off of my
obstacle!
Get the fuck down off of my obstacle! NOW! MOVE IT! I'm going to rip your balls off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world! I will motivate you, Private Pyle, IF IT SHORT-DICKS EVERY CANNIBAL ON THE CONGO!"

Anonymous said...

this is what I have to say about that spinergy bike and culture in general...

Thank you very much. I'm glad I could help. Any questions?

Anonymous said...

If someone actually rides it for some real purpose everyday, then the Spinergy bike is AWESOME! If somebody built it to vibe hella or score mad chixxxx or just posing for 'cool bike culture' then it's a total piece of shit.

Any bike is a total piece of shit until someone really RIDES it. That means RIDE, not just coasting (o.k., if it's a fixie SPINNING) 2 blocks to the local coffee shop on Sunday.

GO RIDE YOUR BIKES!

Antonious said...

The freewheel on the spinergy is a Suntour 5spd -with an effective 38 tooth large cog -and the correct, compatible Suntour derailleur. Didn't want that to get overlooked.

rockandrollcannibal said...

I'm way behind the time on this post, but I have to chime in and say 'For Pete's sake people! That's not a mixte!' A mixte has two paired tubes running from the head tube to the rear dropout. That's just a 'women's frame', or step-through, which is less sturdy than the tried and true diamond frame. A mixte is a perfectly good, nice and solid design for ladies or gentlemen.