21 June 2010

A cool fixie

I saw this bike as I came to work today. I had ridden at home and then walked to the light rail because it was a wet morning so whoever owns this is more hardcore than I am. As a fixie rider he/she is more hardcore anyway: there are no rear brakes, so one brakes and slows down by pressure on the pedals. There is no coasting on this bike, even around corners. The front brake just helps you feel better in emergencies.

There are some really good details on this bike. On a quick look it all seems to be mostly new components and probably a restored frame. I can't really tell what it is, perhaps an old Cervello (my brother would have been able to from this iPhone pic), but it was probably resprayed before being rebuilt as a fixie.

Maybe it was once a track bike. The narrow handlebars make it ideal for squeezing between a bus and a road train travelling in adjacent lanes. And they are set really low with the red head set spacers helping to keep it so low above the straight forks.
(I use extra spacers to lift my handlebars up.) It would be a very agile and responsive bike. I love all the red details including the red rims on the Velocity wheels and the great looking seat post. Maybe a red chain would have been too over-the-top? I don't much like the chain rings and cranks. I don't know what they are, but they are certainly not Campagnolo.

1 comment:

MissSophieMac said...

There's a new cafe on Bourke St Surry Hills that you have to visit. They're bike mad and always hanging out the front talking about their new bits and pieces. A foreign language to me but I love their enthusiasm! You'd know what they're talking about!