For 24 years it's been brewing. Since the Olympic Games in Los Angeles when Nelson Vails flexed his gams to medal for the US Track Cycling Team. For most Americans, the word velodrome simply wasn't in their vocabulary, but as Vails spun his way around the massive oval course in Dominguez Hills, California atop a brakeless, fixed gear bicycle there were those who suggested the sport might catch with America's youth.Well, it took a good decade, but eventually the sport of cycling did take off and today thanks to Lance Armstrong and others, the sport is huge. Track cycling, however, because of the required equipment ( a track bike) , need to be near a velodrome, and well... lack of brakes, is still a relatively small segment of the cycling-as-sport community. Actually, that point is debatable. Have you looked around lately? Seems like every other bike on the street s a "fixie", a fixed gear single speed bike with no brakes. In the spirit of the NY messengers who sprint across the city on their stripped-down two wheelers, the popularity of the fixie has exploded into what really must be called a major trend, a movement even! Part fashion, part sport, part eco-activism, the fixed-gear community is worldwide and unstoppable. That is, unless you master the "skid-stop"-- No brakes, remember? Isn't that illegal, to ride a bike in the city with no brakes? Yes, but the dedicated don't care about things like laws and pop wheelies right in front of cops. This is a revolution! Is it any surprise that something so audacious should make its way to the world of cinema? No says, FIXEDGEAR FILMS, the scene's popular front which goes into production this summer in Minneapolis. The goal... A narrative feature film featuring a group of fixed-gear riders whose reductive rides are are as individual as they are. The bikes become extensions of their riders. The line between man, bike, earth and spirit blur. Hmm... I'd check it out. From the videos I've seen on YouTube, these guys all look like... grips!!!
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