The Secrets of The Fixed Gear Bike

New York born graffiti-and tattoo artist, Mike Giant became popular in New York's urban culture scene, himself a big lover of the fixed gear bike, came to Amsterdam to promote the bicycle, which is ‘the healthy alternative to the destructive car’. 

People don’t realize how dangerous cars really are. Absolutely. He tried to develop a track-cycling culture in Amsterdam when he lived there. The fixed-gear bicyle is an urban phenomenon. The hip, young people have been riding them for a long time, because messengers have an underground status. 

When you start riding a fixed gear bike, it's really tricky. If it wasn’t fun, people wouldn’t do it. On a track bike you can stand still. 

Amsterdam has such an old bycicle tradition, that he didn’t expect that the Dutch people would really take to the fixed gear. The first generation of what we consider as bicycles now were fixed gears. People will say it’s crazy to ride a track bike, but everybody did it a hundred years ago.

Mike's Bikes opens on Euclid!

Colorful bikes were big on campus and friends would bring in older Schwinns for Matt to custom design, color-coordinating seats, tires, handle bars, pedals etc. Matt's theory is that if you build your bike and love it, you'll ride it. Single-speed bikes, big in many urban areas, are designed for city riding, where more gears requiring more maintenance are unnecessary.

Mike's Bikes is a full-service repair shop. Weekend rentals are $75. Mike's Bikes carries a great selection of bike gear, with more stock arriving every day. An array of bike helmets is priced at $50 each. The shelf above holds a selection of handle bars, pedals, and bike locks, which range in price from $25 to $40.