more williamsburg fixed gear attitude

it happened again today - another encounter with a self-righteous williamsburger ridin' around on a fixed gear. at least this one had a helmet.

coming into brooklyn on the bike path, from the williamsburg bridge, the super steep and narrow side is currently opened and the other side, that i much prefer, is closed. why the city allows us only one side at any given time, i have no idea. there is no work being done on the other side. it's not like it costs the city any money to keep the other side open. although i do remember them closing the bridge once for "homeland security" reasons.

anyway, i'm riding down the super steep bit and there are all sorts of pedestrians and other bikers out. i hear someone whistle over my left shoulder to notify me that they want to pass, but there are too many pedestrians and letting someone pass would be pretty risky to everyone involved. so i decide to ride directly in the middle of the path on the parts where there are no pedestrians, so they don't pull that bullshit move where they try to squeeze past and knock me off my bike. i don't hear anything else out of them and exit the bridge, heading left on bedford, then right on south 5th. i thought i heard the whistling again on south 5th, but wasn't sure, which is really bizarre, as south 5th street is very wide, plenty of room to go around and other people were passing me - i don't ride very fast - i've literally had nightmares about being doored and have no desire to make those dreams a reality.

i head up to south 5th place and make a right on south 4th, go past the roebling stoplight. that part of south 4th is one way, with traffic going against me. the light had just changed and suddenly all of brooklyn is heading straight for me in their escalades and navigators, so i slow down and get as close to the parked cars on the left as possible, because i'm just not interested in dying tonight, when this girl on her fixed gear whistles at me and then starts yelling at me, frustrated because i won't let her past. i didn't even know she was still behind me and she had about 1/4 mile's worth of opportunity to pass me and now she wants me to ride in traffic against the cars to let her by. as she's yelling at me someone else rides past both of us, oblivious of her beef. her tone was that of entitlement and condescension, as if i should just immediately swerve into harms way to let someone pass, as if it's some kind of bicycle riding code or something. i inform her that there is no need for an attitude as we are both riding against traffic on a one way street, clearly breaking some law somewhere and putting both our lives in danger. as she rode off through the stoplight, oblivious to cars and the pedestrians she almost ran over, i saw what the problem was. she was on a fixed gear. it's hard for people on fixed gears to slow down, so they only ride at one speed all the time - full speed. slowing down is a pain in the ass for them.

this idiotic mentality is so entrenched in the fixed gear community. they expect everyone else to take every care to watch out for them, but refuse to return the favor. i've seen so many idiots ride through stoplights, nearly getting their ass tagged that when i finally do see it happen, i don't know whether i will laugh or not.

track bike hipster = instant attitude, just add track bike(or just subtract brakes).

link | rss | share | posted: 2007-09-24 16:30:08