Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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02/02/2011: "Fool on a Hill"
I'm always amused by some folks' constant carping on the "impracticality" of fixed-gear bikes, often with a cry of "what about hills?"Well, what about them? I haven't ridden a multispeed, or even a coaster, for almost five years now, and regular readers know that I'm up on Mulholland Drive and other crestline roads all the time. I'm no super-athlete, either; I'm just a skinny 58-year-old who's never raced and who assiduously avoids the anaerobic threshhold.
Fixies are fine. There's nothing better for wet weather or heavy traffic, they are fine on hills if you're geared sensibly--and they just plain feel good, so you ride more!
They get you around.
Last Friday I took a quick ride up (and up, and up) to the Griffith Observatory and took a few pictures. I like this one in particular for two reasons:
- It shows an area that I love to ride in, and
- It dispels the oft-quoted notion that "LA has no hills." (Note that these are the tiny hills; out of view to the left is a range of 8,000 foot mountains.)
You are looking over the Los Feliz area to the rump of Silverlake and the valley where the Los Angeles River flows towards Downtown. Beyond that, running off at an angle, is another valley where the Arroyo Seco runs down from Pasadena, and where one of my retailers, the delightful Flying Pigeon LA, resides, along with my good friend Harv Woien, and the Bike Oven repair coop associated with both of them. I'm riding in this area at least once a week.
By the way, on this day at least the mist was actual mist, not smog.
Nothing against road bikes--I plan to build up an old Eisentraut frame this year for Sunday riding--but for day-to-day velocipedal pleasure, I do love my fixies. Hills and all!
