Hetchins Bicycles

Ric at Exist pointed me in the direction of Hetchins bikes today, they are identifiable by their truly amazing lugwork, or as my girlfriend called it: "poncy" lugwork. These frames are seriously flashy, check it...

...they remind me of cowboy boots, but in a good way not in a Topshop boots and shirt combo way.

Hyman "Harry" Hetchin and Jack Denny started selling their flashy lugged bikes in the early 1930's and as well as the swirly bits they also feature distinctive curved rear stays. These things really do look amazing, I'm gonna be rummaging in skips looking for one until I find one, no matter how long it takes!

Here are a bunch of their fixed gear bikes from the last 70 years or so:




















Did that whet your appetite? If it did then head over to www.hetchins.org where you will find tons of photos of bikes from the 30's up to the present day as well as loads of information about their production methods. There are even some great old action photos dotted around the site like this:


Enjoy! :-)

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Shop - Cyclopaedia, Cardiff

I popped into Cyclopaedia in Cardiff today to get some bar tape for a singlespeed I am building for my lady. I wasn't in there long but it seems like a really nice little shop, it's well stocked with all the usual gear and the staff seemed to be very knowledgeable to me, I don't know why but they just did.

There was a fairly sizeable workshop area out the back and their website says that "Cyclopaedia is run by Cyclists for Cyclists - every member of staff is a Cyclist, some are triathletes as well!" which I can believe and I think we'll all agree that this is essential when looking for any kind of specialist shop. They deal with over 50 different suppliers and stock 200 brands so they should have what you need, if they don't they will try and order it for you.

I haven't been to any other bike shops in Cardiff yet but I'll happily recommend this one for now cause it was well stocked and had the kind of feeling you get when you go to a skater owned skate shop or an independent record store, know what I mean?

Cyclopaedia
116 Crwys Road
Cathays
Cardiff
CF24 4NR

02920 377773
www.cyclopaedia.co.uk
When you pop in there tell them that Fixed Gear Wales sent you, happy riding! :-)

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Free Fixie!

We all love a fixie but we can't all afford a whole bunch of them. Yes it is cheap enough to convert a road bike but you would usually buy a fixed wheel for the back which is at least 60 bucks and often 'need' to buy a new crankset at another 60 quid or so. You also will find that trying to work on a bike without the correct tools is a bloody nightmare so you'd need to buy or try and borrow a tool kit.

Today I found a dude on YouTube that doesn't give a damn about the correct tools, the proper wheel or new cranks cause he's got a hammer, a wrench, a full sleeve and a funny accent. Check out his "Free Fixie" videos below, they are hysterical, especially when he's beating the crap out of things!

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Frame Size

I came across some interesting videos today about frames, they are not fixed specific but they are road bike specific which is plenty good enough, especially if you are converting an old bike. They are by Georgina Terry "The first and last name in women's cycling". In the four videos below she basically works through the names of all the sections of a frame, how everything is measured and in the final two how a designer goes about fine tuning the size. I found the first two to be particularly interesting and the second two will help tall or short people understand how to find a frame that suits them. I am currently on the lookout for a new frame as I think mine is a bit big, I'll be wielding a tape measure everywhere I go from now on!

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Pink Bar Tape, The Manly Choice?

I picked up a set of drops from Re-Cycle to try out today. I started with risers, then cut some drops down to horns so these are the last option to try out. I love the horns for going up hills but they are a bit on the thin side for much else really.

Schmoos are running low on tape so I pretty much had the choice between silver and pink, I'm not sure that I made the right choice...

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Re-Cycle Bike Project and Workshop

Swansea has two very cool things, one of them is me and the other is the Re-Cycle scheme which in the words of Swansea Council is "a project of the Black Environment Network and supported by The Countryside Council for Wales. [It] takes in donations of unwanted bikes which are refurbished, repaired and supplied cheaply to low waged people, asylum seekers and refugees." So if you are making good money and want a fixie then order yourself a Charge Plug or something, if you are strapped for cash and fancy a bit of a project then head on down to Re-Cycle and have a rummage.

They always have a good selection of road bikes which you can strip down, you'll be lucky to find a set of cranks that will do the job but you never know, there are always plenty of spare bars and peddles etc though. You are free to work on your bike in the workshop which always saves the failed attempts at trying to scrub grease out of your living room carpet and every tool you could possibly need is there for you, so no more rushing to Wilkinsons for a spanner before it closes.

Re-Cycle is based in a little alleyway on Catherine Street and only open on Mondays and Tuesdays. Remember that you can donate stuff to them as well as pick up cheap bikes (from as little as a tenner!) and parts so take any old bike bits and bobs you have rusting in your shed down to them. Tell them Fixed Gear Wales sent you.

Located in the alley between 19a and The Mill pub

Turn right at the sign, you can't miss it

You will be greeted by fun guys, guaranteed

A full selection of tools is available

Complete bikes

Complete bikes and tyres

Wheels

Crank sets
Peddles, brakes, seatposts, stems, cables etc

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Review - Monster Track 8

"In the underground world of "alleycat" messenger street racing, one race stands tall among all: New York City's MONSTER TRACK. In the dead of winter each year, the finest city riders from around the world descend upon NYC to battle it out to determine who will be King of the streets in an outlaw bicycle race with one rule: NO BRAKES." Sounds good, right?

Ev pointed me in the direction of this video, the footage on the website was awesome, it was a video we HAD to watch. I got to acquiring it, luckily I acquired it via less than legal methods because if I had actually bought it I would be a very pissed off dude right now cause it sucks. In fact I am still a bit peeved cause it took 3 days to download slowing my connection right down.

Monster Track is an annual alleycat race in New York, riders from all over the world travel to it, it's a big deal. The competition is fierce and would make an awesome film so how could this DVD possibly be so terrible? Well, it turns out that the only race footage is the 12 minutes that is available for free on the bloody website and the rest is some dreadlocked dude just walking around talking crap to people. He just keeps going on and on about this Japanese rider called Shino or "The Fixie King" as he is also called, "do you know The Fixie King is here?", Shino comes FIFTH, HE DOESN'T EVEN WIN! So why the hell does the whole video revolve around him? I'm confused, its just so terrible I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why didn't they just send out 5 riders with headcams to cover the whole race, have someone with a camera at each checkpoint and edit that together into an hour long video of awesome riding through NYC? Why not put all the interview stuff in the extras where you only have to watch it once? Seriously, don't bother buying this if you want to get amped up before a ride but do buy it if you like seeing the same interview footage over and over split into separate sections. Just go and watch the race footage here and be done with it.

If you wanna watch a really decent alleycat video check out "London Calling" by Lucas Brunelle...

Then go and check out all his other amazing videos here.

End Transmission

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