Rant: i'm not as cool as you

ok, so there are a lot of whiners on the internet about tricks and fixed gear bikes. some pro and some con. most who are pro seem to have enough skill to try these tricks for themselves. most who are con seem to not have enough skill to try these tricks at all. yes, a broad statement, but in my opinion, seems to be quite true. i am not saying that the con bikers are not skilled cyclists, just not skilled in the art of fixed gear tricks. to be honest, some of the pro camp should go back to basics too. a lot of bmx tricks are working there way into fixed gear riding, in my opinion its hard as hell to pull off some of this stuff on a fixed gear bike and takes tremendous skill to do so. but the haters say why not just ride a bmx bike? because doing something that takes a lot of skill is rewarding, especially if its something not to many other people can pull off....hence the haters. flatlanders back in the day got the same shit from the bmx racers. the same shit happened with skateboarding too. it's come full circle.

lets rewind to 1994, NYC, i had just put my first conversion together. a real beater touring bike no less. when i first saw fixed gear bikes and the people who rode them, i was in awe. i had a lot of respect for these people. i my eyes they were truly skilled to be able to ride around in NYC without brakes. then there was this one guy named "Evel". i don't remember if he was even a messenger, but he rode around this primer gray track bike with a BIG gear on it....like a 52x14.
and always had his cycling bib on with the shoulder straps around his waist it seems. he was always practicing the "no-handed wheelie" in the park. i remember him getting the bike up, but i don't remember him really sticking the rest of the trick (suspending the front wheel off the ground while remaining no-handed and then landing back to normal.) it took me a few months just to get track standing down as well as the controlled long ass skid. but every time i saw Evel almost make it, it made me want to learn the same trick. by the time i was leaving NYC in 1996, i was at the same point Evel was at, get the bike up and loose control and shoot the bike out forward. i got that far from just watching him too. i never had any "jam" sessions or anything like that. i just tried it for myself and figured it out on my own. i still don't know if i do/did it the same way he did. but i do give him all the props for giving me the inspiration and the idea.

i also have to mention James "the general" Moore. he was rocking half the other tricks i do back in the early 1990's. he is another person who inspired me as well as showed me some new tricks to copy.

this whole trick thing started out for me while i was track standing waiting for a red light to turn green. or standing by, waiting for my next delivery. or after work, while the malt liquor and the blunts were taking affect. doing tricks on a bike made for velodrome racing. drop bars, standard seat position and usually a lot of toe overlap. not much room for error and always worried about messing up my workhorse or even worse messing myself up.

so here i am in the picture above, 1996, i just rode my bike across the USA and full of moxy. all i want to do is show off to everyone who has no idea what i'm doing, let alone what a fixed gear is. that poor girl Meagan had to talk over my loud display of track-trickery (is it too late for an apology?) and most people were like "who the hell is this guy and how is he getting the front wheel up without touching the bars?"

so some of you might be asking wtf? where is the rant?

here it is:

i'm sick of all the people out there who jumped on the wagon yesterday and show up with the $2500 full NJS build with riser bars on it. sick of the aerospoke wheel on the front....even worse aerospoke's on conversions. sick to death of the pista "concept" ugh, what a shitty bike for tricks. sick of all the fucking cheap ass "leader's". the fucking large ass bike companies who jumped on the trend and are making shitty bikes with matching color everything (get off my dick or pay some respect). anyone who uses the letters "NJS" as a label instead of a standard should be kicked right off their bike. i'm sick of seeing 24, 26inch or 650c wheels on track bikes not intended for them. just as bad as all the cheap ass riders who spend all their money on deep v's and toshi doubles and ride a shitty conversion. i am sick of all the ass-backward shit that goes on in the fixed gear "scene". people who ride a fixed gear bike and have no clue how to change a flat or tension a chain.......aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!

i do a tricks on my bike, its the same bike i can ride anywhere i want. it will handle the same and perform the same and still do laps at the velodrome if i want. that was the whole point from the beginning. doing tricks on your everyday bike, not modifying it just to do tricks. lame.

i spent a good five years in s.f. doing my thing. then the public caught on. other messengers were already doing tricks. some learned quick and were better than me too. Larry Rowe could ride a no handed wheelie! but the trend caught on. at first it seemed to be everyone was out to impress me with there new bike, part or a trick. i was flattered at first, but if i wasn't as impressed, it was the start of a new faction. all these guys i didn't even know were popping up to show off. most of them were ex-skaters too. then guys like John Dwyer started wearing the trucker hat and tight pants. i think this was the beginning of the "hipster" crowd.

i know a lot of folk nowadays are just "doing there thing" but it hurts to see where it came from to where it ended up. if people would start out small and work there way up the ladder, i would be a lot happier with how things could be. i blame the internet and MASH. thank you's to all of my fans and people who had kind words to say about my part in MASH!

i am in the movie MASH. i got my 3 minutes of fame. i have been told that i am not nearly as cool as Andy, James and/or Massan. if this movie was made 10 years ago, i would have been the only person in it. in the end credits, i gave props and thank you's to all those who inspired my riding style. i had one day of filming with no second chances to go back and "redo" any shots. i was supposed to go out for one more day, but at the time i was a new dad with a 6 month old newborn and that one more day never happened. to boot, i had not ridden a bike the whole time my wife was pregnant up until the day of the filming. you can see how out of shape i was, not very convincing on how long i've been at it or how skilled i was. i chalk it up to bad timing. Mike and Gabe did the best with the footage they had. not having a profile in the book and only one picture kinda bummed me out (even though it was an awesome one picture!). what really bugs me is some of the other guys seem to treat me like a "has-been" and i don't feel i get any respect or props for all the years i put in. i feel like the "odd man out" or the "old guy" but really these guys are rockin half the tricks i made up and i get no credit and no thank you. i'm sure once someone finally reads this they will say i'm full of it, but i feel better getting that off my chest. i came up with most of these tricks during messenger races to "battle" other riders. i won a few prizes back in the day, but none of these guys have a clue where half the stuff they do comes from....or they don't care.

which leads me to a shitload of un-answered questions: when are people going to start caring about the roots of our bike culture? when will people follow through when they ask for advice on a proper bike build? when are people going to learn to crawl before they start running? when will i finally get some credit for all the time i put in? do i have to start shaking my cane at these whippersnappers?

rant
over
and
out

RSD