posted by Andrew Kiraly Thursday, Mar. 6, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Remember your little Strawberry Shortcake driveway cruiser with the banana seat and sparkly tassles on the handlegrips? Um, yeah … sorry … personal recollection there.
Anyway, track bikes are nothing like that. By comparison, track bikes are like sleek cyborgs sent from the future to kill your dreams — stripped-down machines with no brakes and no gears. You stop, go and slow down simply by virtue of your muscles. Once the sole province of cultish bike messengers and hardcore bike-archists, track bikes and fixed-gear bikes seem to be catching on with a wider audience. Some Vegas cyclists got the fever, and they’re putting on a street race dubbed “Sprint and Destroy” 7 p.m. March 15 in front of Planet Hollywood. And you’re invited to watch people trying to slow down on bicycles with no brakes!
Here’s a vid of a race last year in L.A. You can practically feel the potassium searing their calves:
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One Response to “No brakes, no gears … just balls”
[...] Fixed gears and Planet Hollywood?  Fake messengers, drunk tourists, no good can come from this. It is only a matter of time before Discovery channel does a show on fixed gears and capri pants. [...]
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