Portland’s fixed gear bicycle riders were feeling deflated this week after a Multnomah County traffic court judge ruled against them en masse at a hearing on Monday, November 6.
Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg was not happy that Judge Gregg Lowe’s verdict that fixie bikes—bikes with a single, fixed gear—are unsafe without a separate hand brake (riders typically use their own leg muscle power to stop the gear’s rotation, which stops the bike). Lowe’s verdict is a repeat of his earlier decision against fixie rider Ayla Holland, on July 28.
Meanwhile, another Multnomah County judge, Christopher Larsen, is thought to believe fixies are safe without additional brakes. Larsen was due to try two of yesterday’s cases, but a traffic cop asked that he be replaced before the hearings started. “All this tells us is that two judges in Portland disagree over fixies,” Ginsberg says.
Ginsberg was visibly disappointed when Judge Lowe emerged from the doorway behind the bench to hear his four clients’ fixie cases (plus three other cases involving cyclists). Outside the courthouse, other bikers offered free doughnuts and coffee to passing cyclists in support of their friends—two bicycle cops passing on the sidewalk turned them down.
“It was pretty unfortunate we got [Lowe],” says one defendant, a bike messenger who goes by the name Nerf. “Because he had his mind set the whole way through. Mark had an excellent defense going but the judge didn’t want to hear any of it.”
Nerf has vowed never to attach a brake to his bike, despite being given $516 in fines on Monday. “It’s just not necessary to attach a brake,” he says. “It’s like jogging—when you’re going down a hill, you’re not going to go faster than you know you can stop.”
Another fixie rider, Arienne McCabe, says he feels two motorcycle cops—Officer William Balzer and his traffic division partner, Officer Bret Barnum—have been victimizing bike messengers. The officers would not talk to the Mercury on Monday.
“Officer Balzer, who was headed west on the Hawthorne Bridge, drove all the way across the bridge and back to cite me for riding without brakes,” says McCabe. “We’re like fish in the barrel to them, but I don’t think this is why we pay taxes.”
Put brakes on your bike you fucking retard.
I’ll never remove the brake from my fixie because i acknowledge that it at least might be safer at times. If your ego is so out of control that you can’t at least concede that, then may the soccer mom on her cell phone that runs you over feel a little less guilty for ending your life.
If your chain pops, you’re not stopping. Just put a little brake on there and get over yourself.
If your chain pops, you’re not stopping. Just put a little brake on there and get over yourself.
Good. It’s always nice to see someone stand on the side of pragmatism over fashion.
I could concievably shift down and stop a car without brakes by lugging the engine and then sticking my foot out but I don’t think we want a bunch of cars on the roads without them.
Although, there is a case for Darwinism to simply take it’s course here…
*shrugs* i don’t know what jurisdiction the judge has over you as a bicyclist, unless you grant it to him by walking into his court, entering into a contract with him, and accepting his sentence.
i refused jaywalking tickets on similar bullshit grounds. i gave the cop no authority over me, wrote a letter to the judge saying so when i returned the ticket, and they were thrown out. don’t give them jurisdiction over you; they don’t have it by right or by law, and you don’t have to grant it to them.
why do you care so much about what other people do? if fixed gear bikers they are a danger it is only to themselves.
internerd haters please do the world a flavor and enjoy your bowl of dick in silence, you’re dribbling stupid thoughts all over the rug.
I’d agree that a fixie fulfulls the legal requirement for a brake, so this ruling is bogus. But who cares? Put a frickin’ handbrake on your bikes, you mindless, bandwagon-hopping fashion victims!
Talk about a stupid place to draw a line and protest. Put a brake on. Why do I care? I don’t want your piece of crap bike scratching up the hood of my car when I T bone you because you couldnt stop at the stop sign. I also don’t want to pay for your damned hospital bill. It’s the same reason we make motorcyclists wear helmets. Don’t be a moron.
So… by an extension of your logic, we would also need to start requiring brakes on skateboards. No? Are you saying that any wheeled travel should require a brake? Unicycles? Wheelchairs? And if self controlled braking is itself the problem, then a speed limit on jogging and running is certainly in order, as well as shoe inspection for traction. I’d like to compare the costs created by brakeless fixies to those of patrolling, citing, and trying the cases, and then weigh those against the costs of auto accidents in which speeding or poor maintenance prevented adequate braking… Or am I missing the point of attempting to regulate those damned hipsters and their youthful folly?
I understand that being a driver on roads where there are bicyclists can be stressful, especially downtown where riders feel confident enough to weave through traffic. But I know, as a bicyclist, that as long as traffic keeps moving predictably and I keep alert, that I’ll be okay, and as a driver, I just keep reminding myself of that. Because I’m also a bicyclist, I know to hug the center line and keep a steady speed, to look before turning or opening my door. Perhaps, if it freaks you out so much that there are bicycles on the road, you could try taking a month or so to be a bicyclist and find out where the true dangers are in cycling, rather than releasing all this pent up stress on the internet, threatening, cursing and demeaning people over a topic that, really, effects a small population that knows their shit way better than you think.
“fixies”
“bike lawyers”
“a bike messenger named Nerf”
This town is gay.
TO ALL FIXED GEAR CYCLISTS
i think we can all agree that every bike needs a brake. sure your trust fund can buy you new tires when you wear through them extraordinarily fast, but whos gonna sell you their knees? i mean thats assuming you live long enough to see old age, and arent plowed cause you couldnt stop in time.
im sure your parents would be happy to through in the cash for you to get a 300 dollar front brake setup; your new fuji probably cost them 3 grand out of the box. driving easier though, right bro?
Seriously, is a brake this big of a deal? Put a brake on your bike and stop whining.
Oh and while you are shopping for a brake, buy some lights and a helmet tough guy.
First they came for the fixies, but I wasn’t a fixie …
Since when do fixie riders actually stop at stop signs anyways? And they are a danger to other people. The fixie rider that hit me, as he blew a stop sign, broke my back. The stopping technique without a brake is not quick enough. Grow up and put a brake on your bike!
but i wanted to be cool
Yeah, it’s only because it was a fixie that he ran the stopsign. Other types of bikes always obey. Please.
I’d trust my legs over a brake attached to my front wheel anyday for making me more aware of how fast I’m going and how to safely stop. Not that I don’t enjoy careening over the handlebars after squeezing the brake because some car just took a blind right turn.
I have a brake on my fixie… I just NEVER need it… Actually… right now, the handle is missing a bolt so, although I APPEAR to have brakes, they are totally non-functional . And if my bad ass chain ever did break… old school BMX style, throw that foot behind the front fork. I may crunch a foot, but the bike stops.
Stop trying to legislate every detail our lives and concentrate on stopping violence!!
Every time I look out the window I see some jackass blowing through the stop sign in front of my house, but thankfully he’s driving a car that supposedly has brakes, otherwise it would have been a panties-bunching issue.
I appreciate the concern which is been rose. The things need to be sorted out because it is about the individual but it can be with everyone.
Fixed Rate ISA
********
Steve