It's a Craze and growing

Fixie's are everywhere! Racers ride them in the off season for winter training. Non-racers ride them to commute or as a winter bike. Youths ride them because they are the current craze, they are cool, and because their friends ride them. It's almost a Cult following. What is a fixie and what is the attraction?

A fixie or track bike has a single gear that is directly linked to the pedal motion. In other words, there is no coasting. Pedal forwards and the bike goes forwards. Pedal backwards and the bike goes backwards(if you are skilled enough). The key is to choose the appropriate gear combination that suites your riding level and terrain. Choose too easy of a gear and you will have too high a cadence. Choose to hard of a gear and starting and slight hills will be difficult. Experiment and find a happy medium for your type of riding.

The attraction is multi-faceted. For starters, a fixie is really the most simple and basic form of a bicycle. No gears, no shifters, no derailleurs, shear simplicity and cleanliness. Because the function is basic and simple more attention is usually paid to the form. Style and looks are the emphasis. Most fixies are highly personalized.

A fixie is also a great training bike, working on base miles (no coasting) and one's cadence. It requires a lot more focus to ride mainly because you have to resist the temptation to stop pedaling, particularly when you are going faster downhill. Stops need to be anticipated. That brings us to brakes. The purists have none and rely on their pedaling motion to slow them down and stop. This adds to the simplicity and danger. The non-purists and novices have at least one brake, usually the front. Some have both brakes (recommended when riding in traffic).

Everyone that likes to ride bicycles should experience a fixie at least once. It is like no other bike that you have ever ridden. I requires more attentive riding but rewards you with a better workout in a shorter period of time. The analogy would be rollers versus a wind trainer.

It's great to see the youth riding fixies because their next bike will most likely be a geared road bike. The other application is to convert the fixie to an internal hub bike when the craze fades.

Always on Two Wheels

It's really about stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something to aid the environment, the community and yourself. As a bike shop owner, it's almost expected that I set a good example. For me however, it's really about the love of two wheels. Pictured are my two commute vehicles. There's nothing like being exposed to the elements, the sunshine, the rain, the sounds, and above all, the smells. It doesn't hurt that I minimize my carbon footprint in the process. The scooter on steroids (Vader) gets 60+ mpg and will do 100mph. With the windscreen and heated grips it's a fantastic commute alternative. I've been scootering for over four years now, the first three on a downsized classic Vespa without all the current accoutrement's. Similar to cycling, you have to try it, it's addicting. It now feels awkward to drive a car, which I have to do on occasion when I have a bike to transport or just to keep the car battery charged.

My other commute vehicle is a Specialized S-Works Tricross which doubles as my recreational ride for both road and off-road. What a Great bike, and I don't say that lightly. Due to time constaints, I only get to commute on it about twice a week, but that gets me 80 commute miles weekly. Not a record but a darn good average.

Let's not have short memories about $4.00/gallon gas prices, just because they are currently artificially low. They will be back and it is time we changed our lifestyle to do something good for Planet Earth and ourselves.

It's the State of the Union

Had an interesting and disturbing bicycle lock experience this week. A good customer had locked his bike to a bike rack in front of a popular restaurant in downtown Menlo Park and when it came time to unlock the combo cable, it did not work. The lock somehow reset itself. I was asked to check it out the following day. Rode a bike over to the locked bike and tried to open the lock unsuccessfully. There I was on a busy downtown street corner cutting through a 12mm cable lock. At least 20 people walked right by without saying a word. Even the Menlo Park meter/parking patrol drove by without comment. Cut through the lock in less than 10 seconds ( very disturbing since I was using a minimalistic tool which won't be mentioned ). On the way back to the shop, I was walking the two bikes and I passed the same meter/parking control officer writing a citation for an illegally parked vehicle. Again, I was of no concern. I returned to the shop in a state of dismay. Not only was I able to cut through this substantial lock in no time at all but no one was even the least bit curious as to what I was doing. I now understand why bicycle theft is a billion $ business in the United States. It's the State of the Union.

You have to Start Somewhere

Welcome! Here we are in Menlo Park, Ca. A full service bike shop, emphasis on Service. Specializing in Road and Commuter bikes but we carry Cyclecross, Mountain, and Kid's bikes as well. We carry the full line of Specialized bikes, Roubaix's, Tarmac's, Globe's, Tricross's and Childrens Hotrocks. We are the largest Breezer dealer in the country. We are especially fond of our Masi line. Steel is real. Fixie's are simplicity at it's best. Surly is our other passion. Long Haul Truckers and Crosschecks.

We service all manufacturers. If you want your bike cared for like you would care for it if you had the time, bring it to us. We service them like they are our own.

We also rent Road, Hybrid, and Mountain. Included are the Specialized Demo bikes, Roubaix's, Tarmac's and Women's Ruby's. Apply the cost of the rental to the purchase, Wow.

All the details are on our Website, http://www.menlovelobicycles.com/, so enough of that.

We are also the proud shop sponsor of the Stanford University Cycling Team, (National Champions 2007). What a great group of kids! We love supporting them. We also carry the official Stanford team kits, jersey's and shorts. We can ship them anywhere in the country.

While we are on the subject of sponsorship we also sponsor the Menlo Park Police bike patrol.

We love seeing the Police on bikes in our community.

There's only three of us serving the community. Rainer, the owner with a passion for bikes. Rich, the mechanic extraordinaire. An old school mechanic that can fix things that mere mortals would put in the landfill. Christian, a new hire, that shares our passion and has a history in the Stanford bike community.

That's us in a nutshell. I'll add more later along with pictures. Remember our philosophy: The Bitterness of Poor Quality remains long after the Sweetness of low price is forgotten