Fixed Up

Overview

Not every cyclist dreams of climbing L’Alpe d’Huez with Lance and Cadel. Many spend their time daydreaming of weaving through traffic, the veritable wind rushing through their hair — more often than not they are not wearing a helmet. A few years ago a skid might have been something found in the dirty laundry basket, now it is an oft-encountered manoeuvre on suburban streets the world over. One that has thankfully resulted in more than one innocent pedestrian avoiding a broken leg.

I hesitate to draw a comparison between skateboarding and riding a track bike, but it is difficult to disguise the similarities; one being the close link with art. Legions of young riders have extended their two-wheel hobby to photography, graffiti, and filmmaking.
Fixed Up is an exhibition detailing the burgeoning fixed-gear scene in Sydney. One exponent seems to be the Sydney Sunday Sessions group whose attendances have flourished from 20 to over 200 riders at their weekly get-togethers. Sydney probably isn’t the best city in the world for riding a bike that has no gears, but heck, why not? Fixed geared bikes are hella fun, and they are proving to be a great tool to bring people together.

The exhibition catalogues the main protagonists in the Sydney fixie scene; how they got started and even what is so unique about their machines, whose dangling presence represents the major visual element of the exhibition. A window display at the Men's Incu store contains two Jim Bundy rigs and some old photos of his handmade bikes in action on the velodrome track where fixed gear bikes have continued their existence from the first bikes ever ridden.

But is this exhibition another example of cultural appropriation? After all, despite the word "gallery" appearing in the name of the location, one cannot confuse the fact that this exhibition resides in a shopping mall. The bikes are dangling outside the Freedom store — geez! Perhaps this is another rejection of the norm (that's a defining element of a subculture right?); or perhaps, as another commercial gimmick, fixed geared bikes' gestation period was pronouncedly shorter than that of the skateboard. Either way, the exhibition is free and there are two bikes customised by tattoo-great Mike Giant to be won.