I don't see a motor... there is no derailleur because he is riding a fixed-gear bike. you can also tell from the way the back wheel meets the frame (axle hole has wheel insert from back and is tightened to desired chain tension).

He probably avoids pedaling down fast decents for this very reason. rpm gets so high it no longer helps to pedal. I see people on fixies riding up and down mountains in my area, the real impressive part is how they climb UP the mountain in such a big gear.

Competitive. It's called fixed wheel (or fixie) freestyle. I'm not sure why it's not more popular, it's insane!

@shveddy

Yea I ride a cheap singlespeed (freewheel). I'm in Chicago so a fancy setup is not really required.

Too many kids are riding fixie who don't really know what they are doing and they take the brakes off to 'look' cool. I mean they have custom paint jobs, wheelsets, brooks saddles... not cheap.

@kevingrr

Haha, nothing's wrong with brakes except that the cheap ones don't work in the snow or rain very well. As a delivery biker a couple years back, I found some legitimate reasons to ride a fixie. Basically they're bulletproof and simple, they work no matter what the weather conditions and yes, it's a riding style that is challenging and fun.

But mostly I rode it because it was the most affordable reliability my money could by. Nothing wrong with a fancy set of brakes, derailers and and gearset - they just cost a lot. And the cheaper stuff never stood up to the abuse.

I always had handbrakes on my bikes, but they never really worked very well since I neglected them due to disuse. Make fun of it all you want, but using the pedals is by far the most reliable way to stop a bike if you know what you're doing.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Hipster robot rides a fixie. Just needs an ironic retro tee.

First of all this dude is a pretentious twat. I agree with everything said by bamdrew and then some about his presentation style. Like someone else said, between the lack of citations, and the literature degree, my bullshit meter almost sprayed mercury all over the ceiling. Now moving on to content.

Anyone that has ever been in a serious cycling accident, with or without helmet, will encourage you to wear one. I don't really care what the government does. I'm going to encourage their use to anyone I talk to about cycling. It's irresponsible to suggest you shouldn't. If you want to encourage cycling, get on a bike. It starts with yourself, and believe me, people notice, think about the benefits, and follow your lead. Any concerns people have about safety are likely justified. Cars hit cyclists. In such an event wearing a helmet is unlikely to add to your peril.

Most of municipalities I've lived in have had "mandatory" helmets (with the quotes reflecting the lack of enforcement). Like speed limits, helmets are a suggestion, that can be enforced if you're being a real idiot. However I'd argue that enforcing proper traffic etiquette on a bicycle is more important than enforcing helmets. So often I see people weaving on the wrong side of the road, or hipsters with their brakeless fixies plowing through pedestrians on the sidewalk, or blowing off red lights.

EDIT: My suspicion is that his results come from funny numbers/foolish normalizations. That is, a survey that says, do you wear your helmet when you ride your bike, to a random population. Many (or more likely most) of the people say no. The researcher then counts the number of serious injuries that involved cyclists with and without helmets, and does the division. Presto, helmets aren't any safer. However, they've neglected to take into account the drastically more miles likely biked by the helmet wearing crowd.

Whoever did this obviously knows what's up. Warehouse shows, fixies, no sock loafers... seemed to have forgotten upscale coffee, Starbucks? Come on everyone knows Starbucks is definitely not cool. Anyway, must be a hipster dickhead too; since that would explain why it's hipsterly ironic.

For realz, haha I like how he said he would "slam it to pieces" if he had anything hard in his hands at the moment.
I.E. "I'm to dumb to figure out a glass door, and when forced to realize this by running into it, my stupidity angers me enough to smash what I don't understand with this hard object. Me fixy all with smashy."

You dumb, shole.

>> ^Shepppard:
>> ^shole:
>> ^sme4r:
Clean it up... ass.

um, no.
an unmarked full size glass door -> asking for it.
i'd slam it to pieces if i had anything hard in my hands at that moment.

How about the giant metal bar along the bottom of the pane of glass? Or the fact that the actual door beside it is open?
Clean up the damn window.

This is awesome. Fixie posers. Hahaha!

I still want a fixie though.

fixy
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Nice. These are all fixies too.