Each week the Mercury cruises Portland’s streets, leering at bicyclists to find an acceptably sexy PDX bike and bring you a mini-interview with its hot-to-trot rider.
This Week: The Friendly Fixie
Rider: Andrea Phillips
Bike: Sky blue C.ITOH frame with cutoff drop handlebars, pricey aluminum rims and pink toe straps.
Spotted at: Outside The Know, heading as a bike gang toward Skidmore Bluffs
What band is playing at The Know tonight? I don’t know, I just saw that they have a stand up bass and a harp. It seems pretty neat. I’m always impressed by a harp.
I’m always impressed by color coordinated bicycles. Can you tell me about yours? What do you like about it? I like that my sister bought me the wheels for my birthday.
You mean the tires with the stripes on them? No, I bought the tires. The wheels themselves she bought. That’s the most expensive part of the whole bicycle.
I like this pink bobble. Yeah, there were a whole bunch but they hurt my thumbs to put them on.
Where are your favorite rides? I ride it to work, of course, and to Monday Funday Kickball.
How long have you had this bike Um, two and a half months? Yeah, I used to have a ten-speed and it was really heavy… I thought that [the fixed gear] would make me lazier or less fit but really I just go faster with less effort.
Do people treat your fixie differently than your ten-speed? I kinda get some shit and actually strangers on the street are like, “You know what I hate about Portland? I hate fixed gears. That’s what I hate about Portland.” And I felt really bad actually for a second when somebody said that and then I realized how ridiculous it is that they should feel so upset over something that I enjoy that doesn’t harm them in any way.
What’s so upsetting about the fixed gear? Oh crap, I have no idea. That’s not even something I like to think about, having to do with it. I just have fun with it. I think it’s fun to ride, it’s kind of fast and exciting sometimes.
So this bike isn’t meant to stir up controversy? No, no! Why would bikes be controversial? Why would anybody mean for bikes to be controversial? They’re for fun and so I don’t have to pay for gas.
So a fixed gear is about having fun and flying down the road? Well, my bike in general is about that and having a fixed gear is about trying something different and finding what I enjoy about it.
Fixie = piece of pretentious junk unless you’re a velodrome racer.
You can have plenty of fun flying down the road with a standard 3/7 geared bike with BRAKES, especially if you wear a helmet, wear light-colored clothing at night, have lights at night, and obey the traffic laws.
“WAH! my choices in life are far superior to your choices in life. I feel insecure that someone is doing something different than me so I’m going to rip them apart, luckily I have this screen to hide behind.”
It’s funny there is clearly a brake in that picture.
But really, Fixies are fun, I stopped riding mine and converted it to a single speed when my knee started giving me a little pain. Not worth hobbling in my old age, for some fun now. It’s funny I still get crap from random strangers about fixed gears, even while my obnoxiously loud freewheel is humming.
The one thing I’ll never understand is why people take perfectly serviceable drop bars and chop them off instead of getting some true bullhorns, they feel so much better.
LawyerPepper is an idiot.
This fixie has two braking mechanisms. It also has a light in the front. So essentially yeah… Stupid.
I like this bike. Too many people riding tarks have bikes that look like they don’t ever actualyl ride them. This bike looks like it’s been ridden.
And having ridden in towns with actual hills and then moved to PDX… the actual need for gears on a bike while doing city riding doesn’t exist. I ride a single speed free wheel and I’m pretty much the fastest thing when it comes to stop and go traffic. Yeah, a gear set might be nice when going up Mt. Tabor… but how often does that happen on a day-to-day basis?
You guys should get someone who actually knows about bikes to write these things. “pricey aluminum rims” and “I’m always impressed by color coordinated bicycles” just makes me cringe. Why? Because practically any bike has aluminum rims these days (and that alone doesn’t make them expensive). And color-coordinated fixies were cliche (and still ugly) years ago.
If she’s getting hate from passers-by, then maybe she shoudln’t have bought into a lame fad made popular by 19-year olds blowing student loans on candy-colored (ramp up the sarcasm to delfect same) “tarck” bikes?
Nice colors. And a good attitude. I feel like I should add some complementary tones to my bike. Right now I’m all one blue.
It’s too bad that bullhorns like that don’t look so hot (in my opinion). I have regular drop bars, but I never ever use the portion below my brakes. I’d rather just not have that extra weight… and so my search continues for the perfect handlebar.
Hey I know Andrea!
It’s funny that this post about a bike has received way more comments – and passionate ones to boot – than Amy’s post below about the Columbia River Crossing.
Just sayin’.
The standard question for fixie riders who claim their decisions don’t hurt anyone else should be “do you have really good health insurance?”
And the standard response should be a chart showing the crash rates between fixed-gear riders and coasters. Anyone have that?!
this column is embarrassing
at least she has a brake
two breaking mechanisms means i don’t have to break my face! and a light in the front AND back means someone else isn’t likely to drive into me and break my face!
i like my bike very much but i don’t deny the fun and efficiency in free wheel bikes or multiple speed bikes.
“Fixie = piece of pretentious junk unless you’re a velodrome racer”
way to peg people as pretentious based on a method of transportation. no need to be so biased. everyone here is likely a cyclist. you know what that means? we’re in it together!
you should probably go do something fun right now if you’re still reading this.
-the interviewee
p.s. don’t be too proud (or lazy) to wear your safety shit!
Andrea:
honest question: speaking of ‘safety shit’, do you wear a helmet when you ride?
Mercury:
can we mix it up a bit and post a non-fixie sometime soon? if only just to see what kind of comments an 18-speed, one-color, non-customized road bike might stir up?
Andrea, please don’t feed the trolls; it just encourages them. Seriously, having another “pretentious poseurs!” vs. “zen simplicity!” argument on the webs is not really a productive use of anyone’s time.
Hey dudez! Sk8 Bordz are still cool right?
Not only does she have a brake, but the lever is very accessible, and the pads have been replaced with Kool-Stop pads which stop very well. It has a sensible low gear ratio, good for stopping and climbing hills. The bike screams RIDDEN. Andrea isn’t some poseur on a pose-mobile.
“Andrea isn’t some poseur on a pose-mobile.”
unlike those other fixed cyclists… the constant e-drama about a fucking bicycle makes me embarrassed to ride one myself.