London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

Unfortunately I am working in Nassau for 3 weeks... Ok its really just house sitting and yes it is nice. I am sun burned, eating fish caught on the reef just off the beach.

But enough about me, I got talking to a great guy from Trinidad, Patrick who said that when he was a kid they called fixed gear bikes “stationary” bikes. Also he remembered banked grass track racing as well as that his fathers bike was a big rod braked fixed geared Humber that he and his brothers got in trouble for riding it by sticking one leg through the main triangle cause they could not reach over the top tube. Of course they crashed and got caught.

I wonder if any of you have stories from the old country/days??

The P.S. is that Patrick knows, here in Nassau, the brother of a Trinidadian I used to race against in the N.E. US from New York . . . it is a small world.

agleopar, are you a Trini too? I'm not, but I did spend a few years at C.I.C in Port-of-Spain, so I am familiar with living there. Rocksteady on here is a Trini.

EDIT: Talk about a small world; I have many friends in Nassau, that I went to school with also (later in Florida).

I spoke to an old boy from the islands when I first started riding fixed, and he said that they called them OP's 'only pedal' sounded great in his accent!

GA2G, no (US) but had a Bahamian step mom so I spent a lot of time there in the 70's and 80's and it is a small world.

Mobidog, your on to something, a list of names for fixed gear - and I too can hear the lilt in the "only pedal"

Any one else know other names? so far...

1) Fixed gear
2) Stationary bike (Trinidad)
3) Only pedal (Caribbean)

4) Hidiot Bike (as uttered by Jamaican wife or partner of man riding fixed)

VanUden, that is Tripple +1!


1) Fixed gear
2) Stationary bike (Trinidad)
3) Only pedal (Caribbean)
4) Hidiot Bike (as uttered by Jamaican wife or partner of man riding fixed)

My Mum's family are from the Windies, and my uncle lived in Trinidad until he died in 2007.

When he was over a few years ago, already aged 60+ with a head full of grey hair, I'd just got a Condor Pista fixed and when he saw it he smiled, jumped on, and rode it round the street like a natural. All bikes had been like that once upon a time during his childhood in Guyana and Jamaica.

Happy memories indeed!

Interesting thread this one,here's my mate Lee's blog he sometimes posts on here too.
http://messengerofdoom.wordpress.com...-fixed-wheels/

I used to ride a stationery bike, but the ink ran after a while.

Hay Seeds, I think you be smokin what you growin and not ridin enough... but it was funny - sort of.

1972 Loved the image of your uncle on the Condor.

Overdrive, thanks for the blog I like the stories.

In that case, what is a freewheel singlespeed is called?

Freesingle? :P

"Blouse an' skirt!" Classic, I haven't heard that phrase in years!

Just wondering if you heard this somewhere or made it up?

Further conversation with Patrick about "his fathers bike was a big rod braked fixed geared Humber that he and his brothers got in trouble for riding it by sticking one leg through the main triangle cause they could not reach over the top tube", he said every one called this huge old bike a "God Horse". It probably had 28" wheels and weighed 40 pounds (plus).

I made it up. Sorry.

Why be sorry? its great, now have the dilema of does it get added to the list? But who made me God, I was just looking for names of fixed gear bikes from around the world... I guess in english.

my wifes family are from barbados, her uncle called my bike an all pedal

Thanks for that one GB

1) Fixed gear
2) Stationary bike (Trinidad)
3) OP = Only pedal (Caribbean)
4) Hidiot Bike (as uttered by Jamaican wife or partner of man riding fixed)
5) All Pedal (Barbados)

If you've got a stationary bike in London, can you post it to Trinidad?

Sorry, don't have enough stamps.

6) Stationary bike (Venezuela)

my missus' mother rode fixed wheel bicycle back in Venezuela, which explain how that 5'4 eldery jumped on my 57cm bianchi and pedal away as if it a piece of piss.

Cool thread.

So what's the story? Why are people from the Carribean more used to 'fixieskidders' (London) than other places? Is it to do with there being more old-style equipment still in regular use, say, post WW2, than here where freewheels were the norm from that time?

Ben, if you got the first issue of Fixed magazine, they got a great little article about the difference between the 3rd world and the 1st world countries, especially about bicycles.

In the 3rd world, fixed gear are the norms, simply because they're cheap and straightforward, what could possibly go wrong? the same reason why most of us ride it, I'd says that 90% of the bike in says, Vietnam are fixed wheel, and a freewheel is regarded as an expensive luxury, to them a 7 speed internal hubs is a titanium plated roll royce.

From now on I will call my bicycle God Horse!

Enough, already, with the Ben, Fredscoble.

No I never got the first issue. Or 2 or 3 for that matter. No articles about mudguards.

No chance on earth Ed, that it was called "Stationary Bike" in Venezuela. Thats English, and it wouldn't have been used by 99% of the country, who spoke Espanol. I'd take that as a translation, but in Trip's mum's youth, English was hardly spoken then.

You do get points for the translation though. ;)

lots of velodromes in the carib

grass track racing also popular, though I heard the tracks are cut so short and baked so hard that guys run 90GI with no problems!

You just answered your own question!

arima velodrome, trinidad

Rocksteady, Thanks for the images it looks a good track. I know that track racing was/is popular, perhaps less so than in past decades?

RPM - "grass track racing also popular, though I heard the tracks are cut so short and baked so hard that guys run 90GI with no problems!"

That is completely not what I expected about grass tracks and makes perfect sense, but would that be true in Scotland ?!?

I have fantasized about grass tracks for a long time and although I was a roadie and only got on the track a handful of times (once Montreal and twice on Los Angeles as well as 2 other tracks), I loved the feel of track riding. A grass track seemed to be an afordable way to have one in your back yard.

Cycling in Trinidad and the Caribbean is indeed enigmatic. Traffic, potholes, animals, and 9a.m.-5p.m. heat can kill you on the road. So the tracks seem to be a real refuge.

Grass track racing at Guaracara/Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad:



Apart from Arima (photos in post above) other active Trini velodromes are:

Queens Park Oval.. an odd shaped track in the Test cricket stadium:


Skinner Park velodrome:
http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archive...4-24/SA-1.html

Palo Seco Velodrome:
http://wikimapia.org/1495055/Palo-Seco-Velodrome-Erin

Another one (`Olympic class') is supposedly under construction at Toruba but its mired down in `trouble'.

But still, not too shabby for a developing country with 1.5 million people. A track of some sort for every 2 to 300,000 people. Imagine if the UK had that ratio.

---

Cheers! (my Missus is a Trini)

Nielsamd, Thank you for the images - it is so novel not being able to see the whole tire in the grass! I have always imagined what it would be like to ride a grass track and seeing it is great. The oval at Queens Park is very cool, some day I would love to make it to Trinidad and ride one of them.

The world is getting so busy that more tracks make sense.

Any one out there got more names from around the world for fixies?

Nobody got it, did they?

That's because you wrote "stationary", not "stationery". And also because I did the joke upthread and it wasn't funny then, either. :(

I love reading and hearing patois, reminds me of living in Balham/Brixton decades ago and the friends and families i grew up with, nice thread btw.. mi gwaan..

I can haz a late holiday deal in Sept; are there any hire bikes at the Barbados National Velodrome? :P

i'll find out for you

sorry no reply from my people in b'dos, but i think it's unlikely they will have bikes to rent.

Thanks for checking; I couldn't find anything online about it either.