A state of the union in defense of fixed-gear subculture

PHOTO by RUSS ROCA

When I first started riding fixed gears early last year, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I only agreed to trade in Sweet Marie—the half low-rider chopper and half beach cruiser bastard-child bicycle that I rode around town like a Porsche driver in a big rig—for my boyfriend’s old, unnamed track bike, a half Olympic velodrome reject and half customized transportation device he built himself after attending one of only two bicycle mechanic schools in the country, because I could get around town without the sidewalk limitations of my former clunker.

It didn’t take long for me to love my new bike for other reasons: With its single, fixed gear—if the pedals are moving, the wheel is moving, and vice versa—paying homage to the original bike form (ask anyone older than 60) and its hand-built wheels and mismatched aftermarket parts exemplifying the DIY ethics of urban bike cultures currently flourishing in other cities, my hubby-built bicycle honored the old with the new in a way the city of Long Beach could only hope for (Acres of Books fail).

And although the brakeless, coast-free bikes had been spotted around our fair city for a few years prior, there wasn’t a pretentious bike community to join, no fixed-themed events to attend and not a repair station in the city that wasn’t weighed down with beach cruisers.

Today, however, Long Beach’s fixed-gear scene is burgeoning. While cities like New York, Seattle and San Francisco have been cultivating close-knit (and often close-minded) fixed-gear groups around the bike messenger lifestyle for years, the absence of such courier services has left Southern California slow to the punch.

But as a longtime city center with year-round riding weather and a mostly flat landscape, Long Beach’s bicycle reputation is already better than most. It’s accessible by public transportation, framed by seaside bike paths and at a mere 50 square miles (compared to Los Angeles’ 500, New York City’s 305 and San Francisco’s 232) is prime breeding ground for the infectious track bike disease.

So, when my boyfriend’s mechanic certifications were requested last summer to help open Long Beach’s first specialty bike shop on First Street in downtown, we realized the crucial position such a store would have in a city teeming with brake-free potential. Long Beach Fixed Gear opened last November—to an opening party attended by 500 people—and has been an undeniable catalyst in the exponential growth of fixed gears in the city.

In addition to selling frames for every price range, hand-built wheels, locally made accessories and no less than six different handlebar styles, LBFG has fostered a blossoming community by throwing out all the previous models of bike scene hierarchy and uniting fixed-gear enthusiasts citywide, regardless of age, skill or status.

Far from the elitist bike messengers that define the unmovable norm in other cities’ fixed-gear scenes, ours is developing, growing, learning and creating; drawing on elements of the local BMX and skateboarding cultures—with a hearty dose of velodrome appreciation and a scosh of good, old-fashioned LBC punk rock—to create a subculture within a subculture that is uniquely Long Beach.

And already it is under fire from the fixed-gear community at large. Back in February, a UC Irvine film student decided to make an “investigative video” about Long Beach’s expanding fixed-gear scene. Although not a rider himself, he came to LBFG, conducted interviews, shot b-roll footage of tricksters in Bixby Park and posted a 30-second trailer of his discoveries on Vimeo.com. Within 24 hours, the clip had enraged most of Brooklyn’s ridership, and the redundantly titled BikeSnobNYC blog made a post declaring the end of fixed-gear identity-formation—as if Long Beach has ever given a shit about trends (see every unsold loft downtown).

Yeah, some people see their friends on fixed gears and try to convert their mom’s old Raleigh, when they should probably keep it as is, but just because people don’t always understand what the components mean and often choose form over function doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to ride. We’re all new to this in some way (our scene is still a tween), and call us naïve, but we want to learn and accept anyone willing to join the cause. By putting negative judgment on a scene that thrives so much on the positive seems to oppose the very premise of riding fixed in the first place, because “poseurs” or not, at the very least, the fixed-gear scene is getting more people on bikes (which is the city’s goal anyway).

In many ways, the foundation we’ve built is stronger than that of other cities—and the fact that we even have a community, in itself, makes us different. We’re not a bunch of small-knit groups scattered throughout town that meet up once a month for Critical Mass. With one university and one major community college-worth of riders all congregating at one bike shop—and LBFG sponsoring citywide races like the Bunny on a Stick alley cat, participating in general biking events like April’s Long Beach Bike Festival and hosting its own parties, like for the Death Pedal! premiere two weeks ago—Long Beach is swirling with a new breed of fixed-gear community members that grows with every demonstration/answer to: “So, how do you brake?”

The community that is spilling out of the doors of LBFG is not meant to deface what New York or any other major city is doing with fixed gears—in fact, we are trying to honor the framework they have set down—but Long Beach never did play by the rules (even when everyone thought we were crazy for buying the Queen Mary), and by forming our own identity we are making something greater, something other cities could not.

So, we’ll keep practicing our BMX-inspired tricks in the convention center parking lot, and don’t laugh when we mash down Cherry Hill just for fun, because maybe when the Northwest falls off the face of the Earth and Long Beach becomes “the most bike-friendly urban city in the country,” all the displaced fixie kids will want to move here.

Tags: bikes, cherry hill, critical mass, death pedal, fixies, Long Beach, long beach fixed gear