Comments on: Unclear on the Concept

By: henry

henry — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:45:23 +0000

I didn’t see the part about it costing only €200. Maybe if one already had almost all of the parts in their bins… but I immediately spy several hundred euri worth of old parts even if one is hunting them down on ebay or the likes.

But sure I’ll second that such a bike is no more useless to the average rider than a €2500 Big Dummy, €4000 custom “townie”, or a €7000 unobtanium racing bike. All bikes that sit unridden are useless so they might as well at least be cheap and/or decorative.

By: brad in bklyn

brad in bklyn — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:22:43 +0000

Okay, gotta say it looked ridiculous, but knowing it was done for fun and 200 Euros, I’ve switched my vote to it being kinda cool. A 200E fixie is more of a normal person’s bike than a $2500 big dummy…

By: justin

justin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:06:11 +0000

Hmm…would have been better in a Gucci print

By: Ken I

Ken I — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:20:11 +0000

Snobbie also noticed this:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/07/bsnyc-fridan-fun-quiz.html

See “Special Bicycle Curatorial Bonus Question” at bottom.

By: Apalone.F

Apalone.F — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:28:03 +0000

Hello guys

Here is the project, from a french forum contest with less money : http://www.pignonfixe.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=7207&page=1#Item_0

It was just for fun ^_-, but the result looks good…

Be cool, it’s just bike (^_^)
++

By: henry

henry — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:04:14 +0000

Florida,
I think a couple people are misinterpreting my ridiculing of decorative “porteurs” as a general dislike of bikes with a front rack added. That’s not at all the case. Of course a front carrier is an incredibly handy addition to a utility bike, for example an old “ten speed” dug out of the dust of a suburban basement for a new life.

And there isn’t even anything wrong with building a new one. I just laugh at many of the overly fussy and fragile deco-porteurs being shown off.

But even calling them “porteurs” smacks of pretentiousness since they’re being styled after an exceedingly esoteric archetype: the bikes of the midcentury French veloporteur competitions. These were basically just one-off acing bikes with front carriers, handmade in tiny quantities. Simultaneously many thousands of normal delivery boys throughout Holland, Belgium, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden etc did their daily rounds on far more practical and less sexy machines.

By: Anon of Florida

Anon of Florida — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:07:28 +0000

This bike is ridiculous. But what I don’t understand is the generalized hate against porteur restyling of bicycles. The porteur extension from the fixed gear scene is subject to its internal flaws, however this is not the only source of interest for porteur stylings. I posit that porteur stylings is an attempt at approaching transportfietsen in the Americas from the seedstock of 10 speeds from the 70s and 80s. Yes, the urge comes from in part of the fetish among the hipsters of the bicycle messenger, but shouldn’t we glad that it is changing over to the more practical as part and parcel of the porteur style is the rack that leads to the fenders which leads to handlebars level and higher than the seat (compared to the yards of seatpost and handlebars by the front axles of the previous style de jour) a practicalization of the bicycle that is needed to be present in the collective mindset before Workcycles, Gazelle, Batavus, the zillion Chinese imitators can get through to them and sell their bicycles of choice. Now a lovely idea for the vintagier hipsters would be to dredge up the canals of Amsterdam and send the bicycles found theirn wholesale to Williamsburg to see what hipsterized horror of the dutch bicycle emerges.

By: henry

henry — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:59:59 +0000

Dottie,
…or get on the rider’s bottom staining some one-off piece of merino woolen velocouture, or discolor that fine leather. But maybe they should just go ahead and wrap the fenders in leather too since nobody’s going to ride this thing anyway.

By: henry

henry — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:48:08 +0000

Louis,
Hey, I’m just being my sarcastic, cantankerous old curmudgeon self. For glowing reviews, gushing prose about the earth saving values of bicycling and star filtered photos of gleaming transposeur bikes in front of the setting sun you’ll just have to read any of a dozen other sites.

Sure I recognize that the skinny jeaned, esoteric band listening hipster fixie rider will meet the tattooed and pierced, embroidered courier bag wearing hipster chick of his dreams. Sometime after we’ll find her considerably less skinny and carrying a baby, and him working hard to pay expenses and considering more practical transport amongst other less fashionable choices. Yes, said formerly hipster family might very well want to keep riding bikes and I’ll wager they’ll be much more likely to go for the simplicity and style of a Dutch bike, longtail or bakfiets than some horrid aluminium hybrid with suspension fork plus add-on plastic fenders, nasty racks and battery lights clamped on without grace.

I’m also looking forward to the enormous stock of formerly known as hip fixie components that will be available when the fixie market implodes. I’d happily lace a checkerboard deep V rim into the front wheel of my city bike…

By: louis

louis — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:24:44 +0000

Oh hey now.. I think you’re being a little bit unfair to NAHBS cargo bikes. I’ve been a couple times and while some of the bikes have some bizarre decorative aspects, the vast majority (that I’ve seen) are also quite functional. When it comes to my own money, I’m with you and prefer a not too glamorous powder coated frame and a box I don’t mind drilling holes in as needed, but I wouldn’t dismiss NAHBS bikes so readily.

I’m also a little bit cranky about people getting cranky at fashionable young people with silly bikes. Sure they’re silly…they’re young and fashionable. They’ll turn 35 or 40 and get bakfietsen or Big Dummies, or whatever… I much prefer seeing them on any sort of bike rather than behind the wheel of an SUV (fortunately becoming less fashionable).