f.g.g interview - autumn

photo credit: lucas saugen photography


what's your name? fixie chic aka autumn

what's your bikes name? none of my bikes have names, exactly. i have 12 (?) bikes now, so it would never be able to keep track of that many nicknames. my winter fixie is known as the 'derby bike' (because it can be used for bike derby and is also has more than a few roller derby stickers on it) or the 'pink bike' (because although the frame is black, it has pink fenders). my summer fixie is 'the pake' because its...a pake. my single speed touring bike is known as either 'the motobecane' (because it is on - my father's old road bike from the late 70s) or the 'duluth bike' since its the bike i have used tor ride to duluth and back. the majority of my bikes are actually geared (time trial, road, mountain, etc), however 90% of my riding is fixed or single speed.

what is the bike/setup you're riding (what's your gearing at least)? i think my current gearing on my winter fixie, the pink bike, is 40 15, and my summer fixie, the pake, is 46 20.

how long have you been riding fixed? ummmm. a few years now. rode single for a long time prior to going fixed.

how long did you cycle before you "converted" as it were? from the time i was a child, i was riding, but it didn't become my primary transport until my late teens. i am in my 30s now and have never had a drivers license or a car. the bicycle is what i use for 90% of my transportation (the other 10% would be foot, bus, or carpooling). i also ride for fun doing everything from half-ironman distance triathlons, alley cats, double and triple centuries, to 24 hour mountain bike races.

how has cycling changed or defined your life (if it has)? since i've always relied on my bikes or my feet for transportation, i feel i have enjoyed simple things i may have missed otherwise. it is a constant in my life that i need to be able to walk or bike to get what i need.

what's the most damage you've accrued to you or your ride while riding a fixie? while riding a fixie - a very badly bruised, possibly broken, tailbone when i hopped a curb and crashed. it was a pretty stupid crash actually. near financial damage - i almost got a traffic ticket while riding the same bike this summer. most damage riding a bike (geared) would be a broken and dislocated elbow while winter commuting in 98.

what's your most embarrassing fixie moment? ummmm. can't think of one...but in college on a geared bike, i was wearing a dress and the skirt of the dress got caught in the wheel (?) and tore off completely. awesome. i was able to convert it into a wrap around skirt for the rest of the ride, but it was pretty embarrassing. i did do a naked ride on a cold halloween night on my fixie, but that was intended nudity and was more fun (and cold) than embarrassing.

anything else you'd like to say? bike lots.

f.g.g. interview - Sonia Serba

www. myspace.com/sunnyd

*what's your name?
My name is Sonia Serba, better known as Sunny D the photonic emcee.

*what's your bikes name?
I have 2 bikes at the moment: Kierin the Kraptastic Kuwahara, and Ollie the Opus. Kierin's fixed and Ollie's full-gears for long-hauls.

*what is the bike/setup you're riding (what's your gearing at least)?
Kierin's my winter-beater bike, so he's got a front-brake for hairy traffic situations in Canadian winters. He's 44/17 spintastic and he's pretty heavy with triple-butted steel tubing and full-fenders. I find that riding a clunky bike in winter makes for really fun when riding lighter bikes in the summer.

*how long have you been riding fixed?
I've been riding fixed gear for 3 years. I competed in my first alleycat not quite a week after converting to fixed (my 1st Sunday riding fixed gear) and came in 1st girl, 3rd overall. The race started in an alley and I nearly crashed into the adjacent curb straight off the hop!! That's just what happens when your left turns are too wide in a crowd of racers! hahaha...

*how long did you cycle before you "converted" as it were?
I bought a heavy-ass Infinity Telluride piece of crap mountain bike from Costco in 1999 and rode it on occasion, then became a bike courier in 2003, and switched to fixed-gear the last week of October in 2005.

*how has cycling changed or defined your life (if it has)?
My entire life changed after I switched from a car-centric mentality to a bike- & pedestrian-centric mentality. I see the matrix for what it is, clearer than ever. Everything looks different now.

*what's the most damage you've accrued to you or your ride while riding a fixie?
Shoot! I was riding Hayden the Hutsebaut track bike, coming to a red light, riding around some big, beefy motorcyclist who was in my lane: between the streetcar track and row of parked cars. I crossed the track to my left at the correct angle, went around dumb-ass, then crossed back to the right over the track at the correct angle, but when I went to straighten out into my lane, my bike didn't respond because there was a layer of dry but greasy garbage juice on the road. I ran into a parked van at a fairly slow speed but my frame was MUNCHED. The head tube was completely pushed back and the top and down tubes were buckled. I got the frame straightened, but a couple months later I noticed that the top lug was cracked almost all the way around. I cried and hung the frame on my wall as art.

*what's your most embarrassing fixie moment?
See above. The motorcyclist had no sympathy and didn't really get that he was an asshole for not properly driving in his own lane.

*anything else you'd like to say?
Buy my CD! Come meet me for Kyoto Loco and the CMWC in Tokyo in September! Also, look out for my new album Poor Little Bitch Girl dropping next year.
visit Sunny D here.