Friday, September 7, 2012

An explosion of color

Neon bike rims

I must confess that I'm not the most observant fish in the sea. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to me that something that I noticed for the first time a couple of weeks ago at a local McDonald's turns out to be a trend that started at least a year ago.

I'm talking about neon-colored rims on bikes. Once I noticed the first one, I started seeing them all over. Neon shades of green, orange, yellow, pink—you name it, they're out there.

When did you start noticing them?

3 comments:

  1. I think they first started for trick bikes. If you spin the wheels around, they look more fun in bright colors. Same with skateboards. Can't remember when though.

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  2. Another quirk of this latest bike trend is that they are "fixed gear" or "fixie" bikes. There is no coasting; if the rear wheel moves, the pedals move.

    Also notice there are no brakes. To slow down, apply backward pressure to the forward moving pedals.

    This configuration was a peculiarity of the velodrome track bikes. How it migrated to become a teenage street trend is unclear, other than without brakes or shifters it is a "clean" work of art!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I had heard the term "fixies", and now I know what it's talking about.

      Delete

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