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Freewheeling (not) south on a fixed gear Friday - in search of fun and opportunity. Ah, to be young and free ...
JUST LIKE the headquarters of Adventure Cycling, we get quite a few long distance cycle tourists passing through the Bike Friday factory, many on Bike Fridays: David Seidman from Philadelphia, who's riding coast to coast to raise money for Amanda (see his superbly illustrated blog www.ridingforamanda.com), Greg Sanders, former ESL professional and fluent Japanese speaker, who's heading from Seattle to Phoenix and starting his new unmarried life (ladies, take note), Heinz Stucke, the most Traveled Man in History who came empty-toe-clipped and left on a Bike Friday, and now young Joel Young from Pittsburgh, riding from Seattle to 'somewhere' on his - wait for it - fixed gear Friday.
What makes Joel interesting is twofold: he's 24, and yes, this ... this fixed gear Bike Friday Pocket Rocket.
At 24 Joel is one of the tiny but steadily increasing number of Bike Friday owners who are under our statistical average of 48 years old. In addition, not many 'angry young men' let alone women will deign to be seen on a small wheeled bike and still feel they can order a beer at the same bar as their buddies.
"I knew when I quit my job, put my stuff in storage and decided to head off on a bike, I'd be hooking up with some friends to do some car tripping as well, so I'd need to go multi-modal," he said, dropping that tell-tale phrase that marks him as a true "bicycle-way-of-lifer".
Why a Bike Friday?
"I did a Google search on 'fixed gear folding bike' and came up with Fred, the Bike Friday Parakeet, squawking about salesguy Walter Lapchynski's fixed gear Friday."
"The fixed gear mentality is one of rigging things together - tall bikes, unusual bikes, choppers - Bike Friday was not such a leap for me. I paid $1500 for a used Litespeed cross bike so I consider my Bike Friday good value."
You can check out Joel's touring kit here, on his website skizzy.biz
Joel stayed around the factory for a few days, getting to know the people that helped put his little wheels in motion. He cleverly stayed long enough for Walter to weaken and take him to Sweet Life, the local nirvana of chocolate, cake and triple bypasses, depending on your point of view.
So, where will that long and unwinding road (at the same gear inch) lead him?
"I'm looking for a bigger city (where I can work as a web designer), that has good biking and a good nightlife," he said.
Aren't we all. Sounds like he might end up not very far from here - in San Francisco, home of the very active Bike Friday Club of SF Bay.
We waved adios to one of our youngest - and fittest - young ambassadors ever to turn a single sprocket on a Friday ...
For more information, follow this link http://www.bikefriday.com/main.cfm?fuseaction=news.article&ID=275&Category=Shop.