My purple Gitane is not doing so well, so Adam put together a fixed-gear bike from the frame of the Schwinn road bike I was riding for a good year or so:

(click to enlarge)

Yep, it’s got a pink chain!  A friend pointed out that I’ve now reached “The Williamsburg” level on the evolution of hipster-ness, so apparently the only thing I can aspire to now is becoming a meta-nerd.  I like how my new bike looks almost exactly like the one in the picture.  NOT planned.  Plus, I don’t have any tattoos so I don’t know that I’ll ever reach meta-nerd level.

I’m going to ride the fixie for a while and see how I like it — Adam used a flip-flop hub so if I change my mind I can easily go back to a standard free-wheel single speed like I’ve been riding for about a year.   Two cool things that I’ve noticed about riding fixie so far: it works more/different muscles in my legs, and more importantly, it forces me to be a little more cautious in my riding.  I guess I’ll have to quit zoning out/crying/whistling/doing anything but paying attention to the road while I’m biking…