Subject: Contact Form
From: monks

G'day Weasel, how are you going, im a courier from sydney, aus and moving to Vancouver in a week and a little, sounds like you guys have just about the same amount of laughs as we do in syd. just checking out the site, top notch. can you give me an idea of what companies are around and where i can get my hands on a decent second hand fixy?ive been off the bike for over six weeks now and im going insane without my wheels, i even dream about them during the day now..after your drinks and sober time, it'd be greatly appreciated if you could hook us up with some info should be in by the 13th of Aug, ready to roll again...

thanks mate, monks

Website: not that computer literate

G'day back at you. How am I doing? Right now I am feeling a wheee bit sick today after a hard weekend of racing. I was able to snag a 2nd in Tour de Delta category 3/4 criterium, and 5th in the 30 to 34 age class for the gear jammer offroad enduro. The crit hurt but the enduro was nasty as hell. I haven't been on a mountain bike forever (actually last week was the first time in over a year). This combined with the fact the course was comprised entirely of relentless pounding single track (3 hours of single track), I was riding a short travel hardtail, it was like 104 °F (40 °C) and I ran out of water almost 1 hour before the feedzone some friends were manning. I think it all caught up with me as you can put yourself out only so many times in a row. So how sick is sick? I had a dangerously high fever earlier today (i.e. hospital visit high) and slept the entire day. I just got up, and got back from buying myself a booster juice and now I feel like tackling your email.

First up let me wish you a hardy Vancouver welcome (hope you enjoy rain). Okay the thing with Vancouver is the fixie craze has hit pretty damn hard. There are lots of cool hipsters throwing all sorts of cash at any cool old frame they come across so that they can get them selves a hip and happening "oldschool" fixed gear. And if you have taken economics you know price is regulated by availability and demand. The demand is still high, and availability is so so.

Taken together I suspect that when you may have trouble finding a decently priced used fixed gears or even a decent frame to build one up. Caveat aside, here are my recommendations.

1. I suggest looking at building up a frame.
2. Talk to some couriers to get the hoe down and the low down
3. Try the Road and Track Classified section of cycling.bc.ca. It is the BC race organization and a lot of racer ppl sell some awful nice track bikes, especially since track season is coming up.
4. KSH have some rather inexpensive builds that may actually be cheaper than buying used. I believe Mighty Riders carries them.
5. Try Sports Junkies in Port Moody, as it is just outside the hipster sphere.

That all said I have to add a word of caution, I am in my own little world when it comes to a lot of Vancouver's cycling scene (more racer boy) so I may be totally out to lunch. Perhaps too many blown knees have lead to a pelthora of cheap used fixie's just waiting for you to throw a leg over.