Redlight King - Old Man: Hipster Overload
- Thread starter DrJ
- Start date
VonYinzer
Over 10,000 Posts
You do have that giant tattoo of a mustachioed Unicorn with a raging piss boner, and a huge set of fun bags on your chest Kiley. You know, the one that says "im fucking super sweet" in script lettering under it... Its so ironic, and says, "fuck you dad, can I have the keys to the Volvo, theres a slam poetry show under a bridge downtown I have to DJ". Youre a closet hipster if Ive ever met one.
You're right, I am. I love my unicorn tattoo dammit! And if I can't express myself under a bridge at the poetry contest, I feel like my dad is wasting his money on my Xanax. Life can be unbearable.
Sorry about all of the negativity I'm bringing in here. I hate it when starbucks is crowded....It distracts my juju when I'm trying to blog about how to effectively drive up prices at the thrift store and make them less fun for the broke kids who used to like it.
Hang on....
Sorry, had to adjust my slip-on keds sneakers. They were chafing my new ankle ink. It's plaid.
Oh yeah, and Mike wears skinny jeans in public.
Sorry about all of the negativity I'm bringing in here. I hate it when starbucks is crowded....It distracts my juju when I'm trying to blog about how to effectively drive up prices at the thrift store and make them less fun for the broke kids who used to like it.
Hang on....
Sorry, had to adjust my slip-on keds sneakers. They were chafing my new ankle ink. It's plaid.
Oh yeah, and Mike wears skinny jeans in public.
VonYinzer
Over 10,000 Posts
Of course I wear them in public. If I didnt nobody would know that I understand the plight of African villagers (thats still the "in" thing to care about right?). I mean, Id totally donate money to help them, but than I wouldnt have any for coke and overpriced bicycle parts. I mean, its all about priorities man.
IndieSol
"This one goes to eleven." -Nigel Tufnel
I'm not going to talk about whether I look like a hipster or not. Anyone whose seen me knows I have no fashion sense at all.
It's true I'm still a relative rookie when it comes to working on bikes. What I know, I've learned from manuals, experience, and a bit of help from forums like this. Aside from two friends that came over while I was doing my engine swap on my GS, I'm the only person who has touched either of my motorcycles since I got them. I'm pretty proud of that, really, considering the level of knowledge I had when I bought my 360. I didn't pick them up to be cool, or fit in, but because I missed riding and couldn't afford to go out and buy a new bike. Old bikes are simple. Old bikes are cheap. If my willingness to try and get into vintage bikes for those reasons and at this time make me a douchey hipster, so be it. It's better than being an insufferable prick. I've met some pretty cool people at bike nights, events, etc, but I don't judge people by what they're wearing.
I've never even seen anything that disrespectful, Joe. You made a good decision in the long run, but I can't blame you for the open-handed courtesy check.
It's true I'm still a relative rookie when it comes to working on bikes. What I know, I've learned from manuals, experience, and a bit of help from forums like this. Aside from two friends that came over while I was doing my engine swap on my GS, I'm the only person who has touched either of my motorcycles since I got them. I'm pretty proud of that, really, considering the level of knowledge I had when I bought my 360. I didn't pick them up to be cool, or fit in, but because I missed riding and couldn't afford to go out and buy a new bike. Old bikes are simple. Old bikes are cheap. If my willingness to try and get into vintage bikes for those reasons and at this time make me a douchey hipster, so be it. It's better than being an insufferable prick. I've met some pretty cool people at bike nights, events, etc, but I don't judge people by what they're wearing.
I've never even seen anything that disrespectful, Joe. You made a good decision in the long run, but I can't blame you for the open-handed courtesy check.
Cheers to that.
I don't think it's so much about how you dress as it is about the attitude you have. I've been involved with skateboarding since i was 8 years old, i've always worn my jeans on the tight side and i hold a strong sense of nostalgia when it comes to the lumberjacks of yester-year, so i wear plaid too. I'm still probably one of the nicest and most helpful guys you'd run into despite how i look.
This forum has a ton of people who are helpful and nonjudgemental. I think that's what working on vintage bikes is all about. I'd be lost on most my projects if i didn't have the people on this forum, my dad, and my good friends to help me out.
In short - Fuck attitides.
Erch
Been Around the Block
hocbj23 said:
I ride old bikes because I'm broke and I've gotten two for free. Let me tell you I got what I paid for =(
I don't like to think I'm better than other bikers: I'm slower than modern bikes, quieter than Harleys and I break down more and look less cool than most of the cafe/vintage crowd. I ride my rolling death traps (and I don't say that to sound cool. There's nothing cool about chain breaks at 120 km/hr in the middle of nowhere, dead coils or voodoo air mixtures.) because riding is more fun than walking and wrenching is more fun than wondering what else I could squander paychecks on.
biker_reject
Over 1,000 Posts
Fixies look cool, but what is the point? Is it to eliminate cables and just have a clean and uncluttered frame?
bryanjnkns
Been Around the Block
Usually I see them get off and walk. But then again, most of the time I see them walking instead of riding anyway. 
i don't have a fixie, but years and years ago i ripped the deraileurs off the back and front sprockets of my mountain bike and run it as a fixed speed. fewer things to go wrong. that's the only logical reasoning i can see behind riding a fixed gear bike on the streets.
biker_reject
Over 1,000 Posts
Yep, I see them usually walked instead of ridden. I love the look, though. I assumed it was an aesthetic thing.
bryanjnkns
Been Around the Block
the bikes themselves started out as track bikes for the Velodrome. Single fixed cog with no brakes. Then it started catching on with messengers for simplicity. Very little maintenance is needed. Then from messengers it caught on else where.....
I hear they're great for bike polo.
I hear they're great for bike polo.
biker_reject
Over 1,000 Posts
When I was in college and trying out for my fraternity's bike team, I built a track bike out of an old Motobecane Nomad that we found sticking out of a dumpster. When it was finished, it didn't have a fixed gear, but free spooled. That was it, though, no hand brakes, no cables anywhere. Very basic. I kept it for may years and finally donated it to Goodwill.
DrJ
Over 1,000 Posts
bryanjnkns said:
I was a bike courier for a short stint long ago. Yeah some of the other riders used track bikes but I couldn't handle a fixed gear. My main ride was a garbage-picked 10-speed with flat bars and thumbshifters. I see a lot of downtown fixie riders with messenger bags and I know they are not messengers since they're never in a hurry. Another ironic hipster trait, looking working-class without actually doing any work.
pawn
Over 1,000 Posts
i rode a fixed gear bike on a 70 mile ride. It was pretty awesome to see people interested in the cheap bike I was riding as they were pedaling $10k bicycles made of carbon fiber. I averaged a tick under 20mph for the whole ride in part because I paced with my wife for the first 30 miles of it. That was in '08. Since then I've dropped the fixed hub for a freewheel because it's become a commuter bike for me and it's just easier to have brakes and a freewheel for me. But I imagine the simplicity is their biggest pro, and hipsters are it's biggest con.
Fixies (fixed single gear bicycle, no brakes) are great--on the track. In the wrong hands they are dangerous, even deadly. Hipsters have appropriated them as fashion accessories, yet few can ride them as well as athletes or real bicycle messengers. No matter, most walk them to the coffee shop like two-wheeled pets. Why would you want a fixie in heavy traffic or up and down hills?
I like the minimal look and am building a simple single speed freewheel bicycle this summer to ride around my flat river town. This is the only fixie I would consider, a 1930's BSA race track bike:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/bik/2351397333.html
Wood rims, race tires, Brooks saddle and note the BSA cast in to the sprocket.
I like the minimal look and am building a simple single speed freewheel bicycle this summer to ride around my flat river town. This is the only fixie I would consider, a 1930's BSA race track bike:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/bik/2351397333.html
Wood rims, race tires, Brooks saddle and note the BSA cast in to the sprocket.