Cafe Racer Bicycles!
- Thread starter hobojon
- Start date
AgentX
Over 1,000 Posts
Well, the funny parallel to cafe racers is that so many bicycles out on the road today are an attempt to imitate vintage track race bikes... "Fixie pixies" are in a way, already the cafe racer scene of the pedal bike world. (And often brakeless, too, like the track bikes after which they're patterned.)
This scene also has its share of riders on unsafe bikes which they don't know how to ride properly...and may not care too, since it can sometimes a case of material fetishism and cultural conformity more than actual, deep-seated enthusiasm which drives someone to ride a bike like that.
Not to say all riders on fixed-gears fall into that category, mind you. Nothing wrong with the bikes, inherently, if properly set up for the street, or anyone who rides them. But as a "scene" grows, dumb things happen.
This scene also has its share of riders on unsafe bikes which they don't know how to ride properly...and may not care too, since it can sometimes a case of material fetishism and cultural conformity more than actual, deep-seated enthusiasm which drives someone to ride a bike like that.
Not to say all riders on fixed-gears fall into that category, mind you. Nothing wrong with the bikes, inherently, if properly set up for the street, or anyone who rides them. But as a "scene" grows, dumb things happen.
That's not a cafe bicycle. It doesn't have rear set pedals. When I was a child my Dad had an ancient fixed wheel. I was too small to ride it properly so I learned to ride it standing on one pedal. Bike canted over slightly and me on one pedal bobbing up and down as I went along. How about land speed racing bicycles? Here's the real deal. Fred (can't remember his last name) being paced by a lakester at Bonneville. The speed was 176 mph. Like I said. the real deal.
Midwestgl500
It's not what you buy it's what you build!
OMG!!! I totally wish I had a pic of my old bike when I was a kid. I took a huffy big tube frame put on a dyno long arm crank with a ten speed sprocket and a set of mongoose forks and of all things a set of mountain bike bars that were almost flat, lol. I to had no brakes and used my foot(countless shoes ruined).I found a seat off an older bike that was metal. My seat bar also was a cut up set of z bars to put the seat back farther. Keep in mind I have been over 6' since I was 13 and to me all bikes were not right. So I customized one to suit me and it is really freaking me out how close it was to that vid. I was a country kid so I used mine literally on the highways to my friends house and coming down a that huge hill to my buddy's house standing on the rear pegs laying on the seat just flying was awesome yet pretty stupid to lol. Me and more than one ditch have been more than friends... Man I loved that bike we only parted ways when it broke in half at the neck jumping a ditch into a yard to keep from plowing a truck. Oh misspent youth those were the days
