Respect Authority

If you live in a city, there’s no doubt you’ve noticed the invasion of fixed gear bikes over the past couple years. It’s like Pogs, they’re everywhere right now and everyone’s trying to get the best slammer. The trouble is, the insane trendiness of the activity has diluted the fact that when taken more seriously and not treated simply as a fashion accessory for your perfect hipster uniform, fixed gear biking can be just as thrilling and aggressive a “sport” as skateboarding.

The die-hards will still be there in five years when all the kids in Brooklyn have moved on to vintage rollerskates or, hopefully, arsenic sandwiches, and this trailer for Ride/Relax Production’s NYC-centric fixed gear documentary, Empire, helps to highlight the true potential for this activity when you treat it like a lifestyle and not just as a means of looking chic while riding to the bar and back.

Personally, I think most of the tricks should probably be left for those of us rolling on four wheels, as “grinding” with a track bike seems like a really easy way to look like a fucking huge geek, just like “grinding” with Soap shoes is retarded and “grinding” in the club isn’t nearly as fun as getting slowly plastered in the corner.

Rather, it’s the furious street riding that really illustrates the intensity and urgency of this remarkably dangerous (when done right) emerging subset of the biking community. There’s no denying the fixed gear culture is here; now the question is what parts of it are legitimate and what’s trendwhoring. We must be vigilant in our skimming of the fat, but in maintaining a critical eye we can be left with a fantastically exciting new adrenaline rush which is… actually… much more expensive a hobby than simply buying some good drugs.