What doesn’t make sense though is buying a $450 candy bar of a bike as one’s introduction to fixed gear riding. I ride a beat up, scrambled together, piece of shit fixed gear because I know that I will crash it while I’m learning how to better avoid crashing it.

To be honest you can actually get a good fixed gear bike for around the same price, at a much better quality, from sites like bikedirect. It’s not the price that people are pissed about, it’s the fact that there is such a low quality product that’s being pased off as something it’s not.

And as for the walmart box store bikes, there’s a reason they cost next to nothing compared to these bikes. It’s because they are a POS Chinese copy that uses totally subpar materials and methods in it’s construction, not to mention that they are assembled under fairly lax standards.

Great example of this is when I first started college I was using a walmart bike (paid maybe $70) that I had gotten late in high school, after putting maybe 400 miles on it the crank arm actually sheared off, making it unusable. As that was all I knew at the time, I just picked up another walmart bike for $80 and it lasted about just as long when everything on it just about fell apart. After that I got smart and picked up a trek mountain bike for $450, which I’ve put 1000miles on, and is still in almost mint condition. I also recently picked up a fixed gear by IRO bikes, a reputable bike seller based in PA, I paid about $1000 for the bike and wheelset, and after putting close to 2000 miles on it in the period of about 6 months, I can definitely say it rides like it does the day I got it in the mail and assembled it, and can see it continuing to ride fine for many more 1000s of miles. So it comes down to this, put down a hundred or so for some box-store bike that’ll break down every few months, or shell out a little more dough, and get a bike that’ll last for years with routine maintenance. Buy nice or buy twice.

the urban hipsters are very possessive over their style
and well
seeing fashion purchased in a store puts a bad taste in my mouth

what scares me…

well… flat pedals on a fixed gear is one problem
and
having a bicycle assembled by a non-mechanic is another

purchasing a bicycle from a bicycle shop gets a bike assembled and adjusted by an actual mechanic
not the employee who got tired of stocking shelves and folding shirts
then… a bicycle shop also gives free service for a year after purchase

that certainly has to count for something

I am sure it is a fine bike for not much money

there are those that link their coolness to the camera that do not feel so good about the cameras being sold at Urban Outfitters

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?popId=APARTMENT&navAction=poppushpush&isSortBy=true&navCount=3&pushId=APARTMENT_MEDIA&id=A_MEDIA_CAMERAS

me…
I am too old to have a dog in this fight

survival of the fittest.