Chrome, the world’s leading manufacturer of bike messenger bags, has just opened its first New York City flagship store, featuring the complete range of Chrome messenger bags, footwear and accessories for urban cyclists. This is the company’s second retail location, having a flagship store in San Francisco as well. Located at 238 Mulberry Street, the store recreates the experience of being in the company’s factory in Northern California with live sewing and an industrial ceiling conveyor belt.

A Grand Opening celebration on Saturday, August 28 from 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. for the general public will feature free food delivered around the neighborhood by roller derby legends The Gotham Girls, DJ Sean S.K.E. spinning records and limited edition Shadi T-shirts with the first 100 purchases. Chrome store hours: Monday-Saturday, 11:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. and Sundays, Noon- 7:p.m. Phone number: 646-792-7835.

They were just loaded on the boat today and should be here in about 3 weeks. We’ll let everybody know when they land. Some of our international distributors have already received their tires so reach out to your local dealer to check stock.

This clip below pretty much sums things up.

Fixed Gear Trackstand Backwards Hop Barspin from Burd Phillips on Vimeo.

To volunteer contact Wendy: wendy@riverwest24.com

Race Time: July 30-31, 2010 | 7pm-7pm

2008 RW24 Trailer

RW24 Trailer from Riverwest 24 on Vimeo.

John Watson of the popular site Prolly is Not Probably will be one the judges as will George the owner of LA Brakeless. Sounds like a great time. More info available at – http://www.summerfixla.com/

More info at – http://strykerlosangeles.com/blog/?cat=15

Check out their Facebook page for more info – http://www.facebook.com/quakecityrumble

Special thanks to the folks over at Chrome for helping us out with this. As much as we’d like to think people entered the contest to win our tires, there were a ton of people begging for the new Chrome Tobruk shoes.

Here is the second and final winner of the Fyxation June Chrome-O. Congratulations to Matt over at Slumworm (http://slumworm.blogspot.com/) for this sick photo. We leaked a few of these photos on our last blog post because we couldn’t help it. This photo doesn’t need much explanation other than to point out that those are out tires. It’s hard to tell from this picture but I think this kid is about to clear those trees. Anyway, nice work Matt! Enjoy your new Chrome shoes and Fyxation Dual Compound tires.

Week 2 Winner

Week 1 Winner

Video available on YouTube as well – http://www.youtube.com/user/FyxationUSA#p/a/u/0/kM6RT2_2ru4

More pictures available at – http://slumworm.blogspot.com/

Dirt Quarterpipe – Black Session 700 Tires

No Pain No Gain

The Fyxation Flickr feed is available on most pages of or site. Look at the lower right of this post for example.

We’re looking forward to seeing more pictures come in. Feel free to email them to info@fyxation.com.

Looks like a solid frame and sounds like they did a lot of research with the right group of riders to bring this one to market.

From Volume’s site –

Fixed Meets BMX – While the Cutter is our benchmark frame for all around commuting/ doing tricks, our new Thrasher is the next step of frames to take any abuse you can bring at it. While we didn’t want to change around the Cutter’s overall geometry, we decided to start from the ground upfor the geometry on the Thrasher. The Thrasher was designed from the input from tricktrack.org users and our team riders. Puckett wanted more tire clearance and mid bb shell, Congo wanted to clear barspins with zero toe overlap and Mosher wanted something easily maneuverable. We think we’ve accomplished all of that and then some.

Remember there is still one more week left in the Fyxation June Chrome-O and one more prize pack left. Click here for contest details and to learn how to enter/win. (Don’t let Andrew’s money video discourage you from entering. We want to see all types of creative entries.)

Video available on YouTube as well – http://www.youtube.com/user/FyxationUSA#p/a/u/0/kM6RT2_2ru4

Oh yeah – bigger Sessions will be out this fall.

WRAHW Welcomes Kareem Shehab from WRAHW on Vimeo.

About Geekhouse – Geekhouse bikes was started out of a long-time love for bicycles and was originally founded in 2002. While our original frames were designed in-house and outsourced for manufacturing, our newest line of frames are now being both designed and hand-crafted by our small staff of builders in Boston, Massachusetts. http://www.geekhousebikes.com/index.html

About Prolly – Prolly is not Probably is a website based in Brooklyn that covers a cross-section of cultural influences. Bikes, Music, Architecture, Media, Fashion, Art, whatever. Feel free to submit things you find interesting or relevant. http://prollyisnotprobably.com/

The Fyxation June Chrome-O is a contest unlike any other. All you have to do to win our contest is convince us why you deserve to win our contest. What are the rules? There are no rules! Humor, wit and style will definitely be rewarded.

The two most deserving entries will win. That’s it! We’ll accept emails, pictures, videos, artwork, poetry, songs – whatever you can come up with! Prove to us why you should be winner of the Fyxation and Chrome booty. Make sure your entries are at least slightly bike related.

Each of the two winners will receive the following from Fyxation and Chrome:

- Chrome Tobruk Slip on Shoes – $70 retail (http://www.chromebagsstore.com)
- 2 Fyxation Dual Compound Session 700 Tires – $100 retail (http://www.fyxation.com)
- Shirts from Fyxation and Chrome – priceless

All you have to do is email your entries to info@fyxation.com. The contest will run from June 1st – 15th. Contest winners will be announced on June 8th and 15th on our blog, Facebook page, Twitter… and if the winning entries are safe enough for public viewing, we’ll put them on display.

From SE’s website –

“DC is proud to introduce the PK Ripper Fixed Gear, the third installment in a series of limited edition bike projects from DC and SE Racing, all designed to embrace the heritage of the brand and the sport. A collector’s item, the PK Ripper Fixed Gear bike production will be limited to only 2,500 bikes worldwide.”

More info on the new DCxSE PK Ripper Fixed Gear is available on SE Bike’s website.

There’s a pretty cool article on page 86 about getting grips to stick. We especially like it because their using the new Fyxation Black BMX grips as a demo.

Click on the link below to download Urban Velo #19.

http://www.urbanvelo.org/issue19/p04-05.html

Here’s what Chrome has to say about the new kicks.

The Tobruk is filled with details that make riding in them easier and the shoe, itself, tougher. Those features include:

• Low profile design to better fit into a toe cage
• 100% vulcanized construction
• Weatherproof 1,000 denier Cordura with back-padding
• Re-enforced nylon/glass fiber shank to support the midsole
• Board lasted sole to eliminate pedal hot spot
• Skid resistant contact rubber on the sole
• Polyurethane contoured crash pad insole
• Durable rubber heel cup with reflective safety hit
• Center gore slip-on design

Shop Cultur – http://www.shopcultur.com/

TrickTrack – http://tricktrack.org/forum/

City Bicycle Works - Sacramento has been jonesin for some Fyxation product and City Bicycle Works heard the buzz on the street. They are bringing in our full line of tires, grips, caps and saddles. They have locations in downtown Sacramento and in Citrus Heights. Check em out – http://citybicycleworks.com/

Apex Cycles and Service – Part way between Sacramento and San Francisco along I-80 sits Davis, California. Davis is home to UC Davis which has a pretty world renowned viticulture and enology program. Translation – you can go to school to learn how to make wine. In addition they have a pretty sweet riding scene and new Fyxation shop Apex Cycles has all the latest Fyxation gear to hook you up. Check them out next time your in the Central Valley cruising up to Tahoe from the Bay Area – http://apex-cycles.com/main.html

I just got finished looking at the new Bicycle Retailer Magazine and when you open er’ up, the first thing you see is what appears to be Weird Al riding an Origin8 frame. Upon closer inspection I realized it was an ad for Duro’s new “fixed gear” specific tires – the FixiePop or Fixie Pop. The tires are available in 9 colors and each color has it’s own unique name. Weird Al’s bike happens to have a set of the Downtown Billy Brown’s on them. The way I could tell is that the name of each tire is plastered on the sidewall. Other names include the Orange Screamcicle, Red Dragon and Lime-O-Rita.

To finish off the ad Duro let’s us know that “In nine Skidalicious flavors, Fixie Pops are a tasty treat your fixed gear riders can’t beat!”.

AWESOME!

Sounds like a good time. Lots of schwag will be won.

Over $9,000 in prizes you could win, just by riding!

* Half a tonne of Knog! lights and schwag
* Masi Soulville and Fixed Special bikes
* Sweet goods from Crumpler
* Dinner for 2 at Mezzo Bar and Grill
* Spot cash preems from Stephen Reed
* Spot massage preems from Scooter at Impact Massage
* A frame respray by Spray Ya Bike!
* A stainless porteur rack made by Gellie Customs
* A Lion of Flanders tattoo by Turbo of Tattoo Connection
* A saddle re-upholstery by Busyman Bicycles.
* Velo accesories from Skin Grows Back
* Session 700 tyres from fyxation
* fyxomatosis gear
* Melburn Roobaix trophy and champagne (Priceless!)

OZOTW BIKE POLO EVENT
Date :2010/05/29 SAT
Time:pm 3:30~pm 9:30

Sponsorship:
FYXATION
COG
MILWAUKEE BEN’S CYCLE
INTEGRAL-03
ADAGIO
COCONUT ISLAND
FAST PACE ZINE
FIXE MAGAZINE
OZOTW FIXEDGEAR

Product specs and some pics are below:

- Durable Alloy Bar End Caps with inside mounts
- Each set ships with 2 different sizes of expandable elastomers (rubber spacers) to fit most bars

http://www.pedalconsumption.com/files/win_a_very_limited_pair_of_dvs_pc_shoes.html

As a reminder, the Dual Compound Session 700′s are built with our hard black compound down the center of the tire. Our black compound has a similar hardness to that of a long wearing touring tire. When you ride a color tire on the street it gets pretty dirty. The point here is to give you a long wearing center strip that’s already black. You get the same vibrant colors but a functional black center strip to add some life to that tire.

Pretty slick how the grips match the aggressive tread of the Sessions. Much softer rubber though in case you were wondering.

If you look real close you can see the Session 700 logo on the tires (on the bike not the Hum V).

http://affinitycycles.com/store/tires.html

Photo credit: Curtis “Corky” Miller www.corkymiller.com/

-All Riders welcome -photos must be entered before April 30th -photo must be exclusive to Fast Pace (please send us a picture that is not posted on Trick Track or any blogs) -1 Grand prize winner will get their photo on the cover of issue 3, and a large prize package from our sponsors -2 runners up will receive a prize package from sponsors and your photo in the “contest” spread.

I remember the many nights spent drinking boots of great German beer at The Essen Haus and stumbling through the doors to The Come Back In for what else? More beer!. Ahh to be in college again!!!

On a total side note, this email reminded me of the time I was mountain biking up in Vermont and tried to stay in Burlington for the night and got skunked on hotel rooms because of the Shriner’s Convention. Sounds funny but if you’ve ever been up to Burlington you’ll know if all the hotels around there are booked you’re pretty hosed.

Click here to pick up a set or you can visit your local Fyxation dealer.

Fyxation BMX Grips

Fyxation Track Grips

]]> http://www.fyxation.com/blog/get-a-grip-fyxation-bmx-and-track-grips/feed 0 http://www.fyxation.com/blog/the-takeover-los-angeles-alleycat http://www.fyxation.com/blog/the-takeover-los-angeles-alleycat#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:13:53 +0000 Fyxation http://www.fyxation.com/?p=535 The guys at TakeOver LA – http://takeoverla.blogspot.com/ are putting on an Alleycat on April 17th called what else? The Takeover. It sounds like a proper Alleycat and will consist of 5 check points all over LA starting at Orange 20 Bikes – http://orange20bikes.com/.

We won’t be there but we’ve donated some tires and our new Track and BMX grips as prizes for the event. Should be fun!

In April – Bicycles are taking over the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon – Come see 100+ companies, including Bianchi, Marin Bikes, Co-Motion Cycles, Kona Bicycles, Kalkhoff Bicycles, Brompton Bicycles, Momentum Magazine, Santana Cycles, Portland Design Works, Queen Bee Creations, Rocky Mountain Bikes, Shimano, Showers Pass, Ruckus Components, Bike Portland, Joe Bike, Rickshaw Bagworks, Nutcase Helmets, Fyxation, Clever Cycles, FRS and United Bicycle Institute. The show floor will be covered with an exciting mix of retailers, fabricators, industry giants and advocacy organizations all under one roof.

More from Jeff on the Continuum –

“The Continuum is available in sizes 48, 50, 54, 56 and 58 cm. The 48 cm was specially designed to meet the needs of smaller riders seeking a track frame with aggressive geometry. It’s designed for 650c wheels and has a standover height of 27.5″.

The bike is super-light and has fast pick-up, like most aluminum frames, but doesn’t feel unforgiving as aluminum often can. It’s paired with a steel fork that has a 33 degree rake. The frame has replaceable dropouts, an imperative for an aluminum bike if you don’t want it ending up a paperweight. The head tube is hourglass shaped and 1″, so though the fork that comes with the frame is threadless, it can be threaded for use with a quill stem. The seat post is 27.2. The bottom bracket is English threaded, size 68.”

Even though we don’t sell the Sessions as a skidding tire the results speak volumes. Check out the image below for the full results (you may have to zoom in to get a closer look).

Next up for Fyxation is a 700x23c Session 700 that will be available in our 11 color options (available in August) and a 700x35c Session 700 for those 700 CMX riders that are going bigger and need a little more cushion. Our own line of Track and BMX Grips will be available in early April 2010.

Anyway, to make a long story short as our product mix has grown so have our distribution channels. The following is a list of where bicycle shops can find Fyxation gear around the world.

USA – Fyxation works directly with Independent Bike Shops here in the US. Click here to become a Fyxation Dealer.

Canada – Orange Sports Supply

UK/Europe – Brick Lane Bikes (BLB Big Mamma distribution)

Switzerland – Indian Summer

Japan – Fun Fancy Co

Australia – Oceania Bicycles

Korea – Huffy Korea

Orange Sports Supply – http://www.orangesportsupply.com/

Oh yeah, we almost forgot to mention the most important part. These Fyxation Saddles are real leather and they are only $65 each! Click here to pick one up…

Great use of the Session’s as well! From Josh’s FGG post “The green is for enviornment as Jakarta is one of the worlds most polluted city’s, and the orange is a tribute to my adopted home who’s theme color is dirty orange.”

Video by Josh Estey

In one of our earlier posts (Bicycle Tires 101)we talked about tire wear, skidding and how color tires by nature are a softer compound than black tires. The dual compound Session 700 gives you the best of both worlds. Great vibrant colors on the sidewall with a hard black center strip for longer wear.

http://www.bikepolo.com.au/nationals/

Brick Lane Bikes – London – www.bricklanebikes.co.uk

Charlie the Bike Monger – Swanage – http://www.charliethebikemonger.com

GBH Cycles – Manchester – http://www.gbhbikes.co.uk/

Cultured – Dublin, Ireland – http://www.cultured.ie/

Oceania Bicycles – Distributor - Lynbrook – http://www.ocbicycles.com.au/

Shifter Bikes - Melbourne – http://www.shifterbikes.com/

Gear Brisbane – Brisbane – http://www.gearbrisbane.com/catelogue/index.html

Ideal Cycles – Perth – http://www.idealcycles.bikeit.com.au/bikes/list_store/

gnarcotix trailer 2 welcome to the bayyyyyy from Gnarcotixsf on Vimeo.

Our leather saddles are built with quality in mind, from the leather skin to Chrome plated Cr-Mo rails. There is also an anatomical cut-out on the underside to insure a comfortable ride.

Our whitewall version of the Session 700 is built with all the features of the rest of the Session family–including Kevlar rolling protection, 120 TPI casing and pinch-flat protection–but with a classic look.

Fyxation Classic Saddles

Fyxation Classic Saddles

Session 700 Brown Whitewall

Session 700 Black Whitewall

DESIGN
Bicycle tires come in two basic designs, tubular (or sew-ups) and clinchers. Tubular tires do not contain a bead and are sewn together to make a complete tube. They do not hook on to your rim, but are mounted by adhesive to rims specifically designed for tubular tires. They are typically lighter than clinchers are used primarily for racing applications.

The bulk of tires ridden today are clinchers. Clinchers have a bead that runs the diameter of the outside edges of your tire and hooks under a lip on the inside of your rim. Typically an inner tube is used; however, tubeless clincher tire/rim combinations are available.

CLINCHER CONSTRUCTION
Clinchers are made of three main components; the bead, the carcass, and the outermost rubber skin.

TIRE BEAD
The tire’s bead is the most important part of your tire. It is what holds your tire securely to the rim. Beads can be made from wire or poly-aramid fibers. The primary advantage of a poly-aramid bead is lighter weight, but an additional benefit is that the tires can be easily folded. This is why these tires are often referred to as foldable tires. The Session 700 are foldable tires.

CARCASS
The carcass is made up of fabric layers, or piles, that wrap from bead to bead. These layers form the foundation of your tire. The size of the fabric’s threads can vary in size and the density of the weave is called out in threads-per-inch, or TPI. Today’s tires have TPI can range from 30 to 300 or more. Typically, the greater the TPI of the carcass, the lighter the weight can be. The Session 700 is 120 TPI.

RUBBER
Rubber is the final layer and is placed on the carcass of the tire. This layer protects the carcass from damage and is responsible for the traction and wear characteristics of the tire. The rubber is formulated with special additives to change the performance, hardness and wear resistance of the tire. The primary constituent affecting hardness is carbon black. By varying the amount of carbon black, manufacturers can control the hardness—thereby balancing wear and traction—around the tire. Hardness is measured in Durometer (or Duro) and bicycle tires typically range in hardness from 50-65 Duro. The black rubber we use in our all Black Session 700 and our new Dual Compound tires has a Durometer similar to that of a long wearing wearing touring tire (Dual Compound Sessions). That is why people give our tires rave reviews as a long lasting tire and some people even use them as a skidding tire.

COLORED RUBBER
Colored tires are not new, but have been growing in popularity. Because colored tires do not contain carbon black, they are softer than black tires and therefore wear faster and can offer greater traction. Currently the Session 700 is made in black, white, green, pink and orange so you can pick your own flavor. However, because the colored versions of the Session 700 do not contain carbon black and are by nature a softer tire it is not recommended to use them as a skidding tire. For a longer lasting color tire we recommend the Dual Compound Sessions.

WHAT ABOUT SKIDDING?
Skidding wears tires and can cause uneven or premature wear. By the way, the black line left on the ground after any skid, that’s your tire. Because color tires are softer, full-color tires will wear faster than high-durometer black tires. So for those fixed gear riders out there who can’t resist the occasional skid, stick to black tires made from higher Duro rubber in the rear. As mentioned earlier, the black Session 700 is designed with high hardness and is a great long wearing or rear tire.

TREAD PATTERN
Tread patterns and theory are as varied as riders. On a flat surface, a slick tire theoretically has the greatest traction. But the road is less than perfect, so tire tread are tuned not only for traction, but also for particular styles of riding. With a tread more closely resembling a 20” flatland tire, rather than a slick, the Session 700 is the first tire to offer performance tuned for fixed gear and urban riders for all urban conditions.

PUNCTURE PROTECTION
High-end tires may contain an additional layer of rubber or Kevlar to resist puncture from road debris. Our Session 700 contains a Kevlar belt wrapped around the center of the tire to keep road debris at bay. Thick rubber strips can also be used, but Kevlar helps control the weight and provides excellent puncture resistance.

PINCH FLAT PROTECTION
Have you ever hopped a curb or hit a pothole only to have your tire start to hiss. Pinch flats occur when your tire compresses to your rim and pinches the tube. This typically leaves two distinct elongated holes that look reminiscent of the bite mark of a snake; giving way to the term snake bite. To fight off snake bite, the Session 700 uses a specially designed sidewall to lessen the likelihood of these types of flats.

PRICE
We wanted to add this here to remind people that the price of a product is not a feature or a benefit. There are cheap/inexpensive tires on the market and the Session 700 is not one of them. We could have come out with a $20 tire and sold them by the tens of thousands but that is not our goal. Here at Fyxation we aim to manufacture products that we as riders would embrace. Products that are well designed and constructed, durable and offer a unique mix of style and performance. If you’re looking for that $20 tire from Fyxation we’re sorry, but it’s not going to happen.

Brick Lane Bikes – London – http://bricklanebikes.co.uk
Tokyo Fixed Gear – London – http://www.tokyofixedgear.com/
Singlespeed - The Netherlands – http://www.singlespeed.nl/
Rotterdam Fixed Gear – The Netherlands – http://www.rotterdamfixedgear.com/site/
Geheimrad – Germany – http://089-bikes.de/
Tandem Stockholm – Sweden – http://tandem-stockholm.blogspot.com/
Velorama – France – http://www.velorama.fr/

“those tires are THE SHIT!!! bombed curbs which sketched me out a tad on the scrawny kendas. High speed skids, emergency-style, swivel skids and shit.fast.grippy. Took some pedal strike corners and they held awesome. I think im in love.”

http://www.1lesscar.com/reviews/fyx.html

Sorry for the wait but the remainder of the colors – pink, white, orange and green – will be available later in July.

Keep checking out our site for updates.

Our friend John is living in Taiwan and putting on a proper Alley Cat. If you happen to be on the ROC, check it out…

www.binlanhustle.blogspot.com/

Keep an eye out for our upcoming ad in COG issue 6! The Session 700 fixed gear bicycle tire is coming, Schools In!

-NRG, founder Fyxation Inc.