London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

Seems like a surprisingly English comment from what is an American scientific journal...

I'm in love with all of them!!! Even the guy on the penny!

http://www.pedalmafia.com/bike_ups_img/127_1.jpg

http://www.pedalmafia.com/bike_ups_img/134_01.jpg

http://www.pedalmafia.com/Images/softride_l.jpg

That red Nagasawa - I want it!

its orrible!

There's no accounting for taste....

shut up!

wtf is that last bike and where can i get one

asm you can make your own virtual one here bike builder

not the coolest nagasawa i've seen but i still love it. the bars have a touch of the yates affect :)

yeah i remember them on pedal id, but what are they actually called is what i mean :)

oi thats my comute bike, leave it alone aidan ha ha ha, dont get me angery again ha ha

it's a softride they still make them in a variant but not with track ends as options now.

anywhere i can get one on the cheap? my budget is 10-15 p.

Zoo York making bikes? I thought skateboards were their bag? Bandwagonesque??

i think they just collaborated on it...

why do people always assume it's bandwagon jumping when a brand or company collabs or makes something outside their usual realm......Rodney from zoo york has been into bikes for longer than a lot of people on here....and he's had some dope bikes too!

ohhh!

wheres the evidence??

In rodneys garage of course!

I'm pretty sure they sponsored a few bmxers as well years ago..

omg ... red bike looks lush!!!

ingredients

The handlebars on that red bike bug me, the drops should be horizontal!!!!!!!!

Zoo York used to be a great independent skate company (I was very proud of my "Brooklyn Bridge" deck back in the day) but now I only ever see non skaters wearing their t-shirts. I'd kinda assumed this was a sign that the brand had gone main stream to sell product - and that this bike was an example of them trying to get their edge back by associating with some other new 'cool' thing, not skating. If the guys who runs Zoo York is into bikes, then good on him. Just didn't expect to see a Zoo York branded bike.

Its sad but Mr. Zoo York is just doing what everyone else is doing in the world - trying to make money. I think its a sign of the all-dominating cynicism that people/companies have when it comes to finance when they exploit "legitimacy" (as in being affiliated with the cool new activity or whatever) as a way of increasing their sales. Or at least increasing their potential consumer base.

That being said I don't see the zoo york bike as a particularly bad example of this, take the langster for example! And even that is probably the most affordable/stable entry into riding fixed. I don't know if it's actually worth boycotting or opposing things like that. Theyre the cynical bastards clinging to any outburst of genuine interest - perhaps we should just ignore their cynicism and concentrate on being cool instead :)

Brands don't pick customers...customers pick brands!
zoo york started as an underground company...their products were bought by the small minority of people that traveled in their circles,then other people see their products,and buy them...the word spreads and before you know it the name is well known and all kinds of people are wearing their gear...but at what point are you guys expecting the company to close its doors??? the guys at zoo york do what they do because they love it...and they're now making good money...but like i said,they don't choose their customers...ask yourself this...if it was your company,would you close it down just because non skaters were also buying your tees? would you tell shops that they could only sell to people carrying a skateboard?...of course you wouldn't...we all buy track bikes but most of them have never been near a track...we buy running shoes to walk in...we buy messenger bags when we're not messengers...we buy these things because we like them and they work for what we need them too...don't be critical of a company just because it has been succesful and grown...underground might please you...but i guarantee it doesn't pay their bills...success pays their bills and allows them to keep doing what they've always done! amen!

totally agree with everuthing scott says. Nothing wrong with earning a decent living and developing what started as an underground company. As long as the product is good. If all cool brands need to remain underground in order to stay cool the world would be dominated only by big and not necesseraly very good brands.

After making....my....way through....all....those dots.... I completely agree as well. There is always a new bespoke, exclusive, small, traditional [insert high brow brand rating] ready to take their place when a brand falls from your favour by diversifying, experimenting or becoming popular anyway.

+1 SnS

getting all exclusive over something is stupid. That is the same attitude that people get upset about when people get called a F**k*ng*r. Nowone owns the skate look e.t.c.

its a bit like when people say shit like
"i dont like banksy anymore!"
"why?"
"because he sold out"
"so you would't sell paintings for thousands of pounds?"
"well yeah but......."

no it aint....banksy is a hypocrite thats why people say they dont like him

im with my brother from another mother aidan on this one!

got your back bro ha ha two aidan make a wright!

its because throughout everything he says is anti consumerist and for a long time he lived up to what he say...as an art student myself i understand the whole would u sell your anyone would but the reason why he was so cool when he was underground was because of what he was saying and he has become a hypicrite, but, on the other hand u gotta hand it to the guy hes done well for himself...

but i don't like him cause im like so totally cool and anti conformist! yeah fuk everything! im gunna go look at my totaly cool myspace page!

peace YA'LL!

haaaaa....

i dont know the ins and outs of what he stood for but it bugs me when
whenever people do well out of things they are labelled as selling out.

hardly anyone will turn down money.

ah i see i didnt know about the whole anti-comsumerist thing!

i would probably change my mind about something if i was going to be making £££££££

I'm down for companies like Zoo York. Yep, they're making money, but why is that such a crime? They've alway supported the skate industry and are a legit company.

Imagine that you have a job that you love and you're earning ten grand. Your boss decides that he really likes what you're doing and offers you a pay rise to thirty grand - do you turn it down because you want to 'keep it real'?

At least Zoo York aren't fucking Quiksilver

i don't think this is about becoming successful. it's more about what a person's message is. there's something inherently wrong about someone showing up to a marxist ralley in their bentley.

Ha!Remindes me of a mate of mines dad commented on his brother, something like, " he is part of the socilist wokers party, but he has never actually worked in his life".

Hovis that was one time

anyway, back to the bike porn



she was mine til someone stole her, the bars and the record caliper from outside a pub in hackers last xmas

People only say banksy sold out because he got more popular, and found a bigger audience and a bigger market for his work. This meant he got rich, and I think his original 'fans' or appreciators or whatever felt exploited. As if he'd used them and now he was famous he'd forgotten them, or 'forgotten his roots'. I think this isn't really true, he seems more remote & less underground only because more people know his name. As people have said, you're not going to turn down more money in a situation like that, because there's no reason not to. Money sort of causes the problem - when large sums of it get involved with stuff like banksy or zoo york, the original fans get upset and feel suddenly cold and just one of many, and its not the fault of the company or artist.

no what pissed me off with banksy was his exhibition in LA where some well known singers and actors including Christina Aguilera (who happens to be on sony BMG record label) bought his work......if Sony isnt a corparation then i dont know what is.in my opinion that goes against banksy anti-establishment views.and he worked for puma!

the sad thing about art these days is that its all caught up in hedge funds, i dont know the details cause it's all complicated, hovis tried explaining it once at college but basically alot of art these days are owned by banks because they're seen as an investment and banks hold alot of money really so they buy it all up...is that close enough hovis? im sure its much much much more complicated so feel free to step in, explain it much more simplily and make me look like a bell end :)

I expect what they do is find up and comming artist and do thing like sell short on them (sell stuff they don't yet own) or people sell them options on peoples art just like they do with any other comodity and stuff like that.

indeed its a fucked up system that i decided i wanted nothing more to do with

it's a bit more complicated than that, but buying certain types of art are good investments. certain kind art doesn't devalue like precious metals or currency, so investment firms can sell it on to raise capital quite quickly. art as commodity isn't interesting to me. art as catalyst for discourse is. once it becomes commodity, it ceases to be art for me -- it becomes more like a vase or a lump of gold.

i hear ya, im totally hanging with the discursive massive, are you a fan of node.london mr hovis

The problem with Banksy, and all underground anti-establishment stuff when if gets big is not a problem of them making money for art or whatever. Clearly there isn't a problem with making money from art, or pretty much anything you do as long as it's not exploitative, hurtful to anyone or illegal.

Their problem is that it exposes the naivety and general weakness of an anarchist/anti-establishment/anti-capitalist/anti-market ethos. It's all very well to be anti one or all of these things, but you generally have to accept that you are against, and therefore exempting yourself from, the normal mode of modern society. In the west, and indeed most of the world, we live in market based economies, with democratic governments and the rule of law. If you are anti-government or anti-establishment you are generally saying you are against these systems. While there may be grave problems with our democratic systems, or policing, the generally "anti" anarchist stance is kind of weak.

Banksy et al. get a lot of popularity and success from tapping into the general feelings of antipathy towards large corporations, the rich and those in power. Most people feel a little resentful towards those with more power than them, and find it easy to wholesale blame a system that allows them to be. Whether or not they would do any better, or whether we can actually live without some people being more powerful is rarely thought through. With true anarchism we would probably just end up with other forms of government in the end, and communism had a good go in the 20th century at making everyone as poor (er, economically equal) as everyone else. The communist experiment can largely be said to have failed in the gulag, or the starving peasantry of China.

So Banksy is not wrong to be earning money, whether it be a commission from Puma, the selling of his works or the large amounts he charges charities. He is also not in the wrong for being popular, nothing wrong with that. But he does fit the charge of hypocrite. Having accepted market economics by selling his work for the going price he has put into doubt a lot of the things fans held him as standing for. People will generally not like you one way or another if they think that you're no longer one of "them". Now a lot of his former fans are simply left wondering what he actually stands for. Just as I wonder what half of them and their anti establishment movement actually stand for.

I just thought he was funny.