Monday, January 30, 2012

The Quinquennial of Aloha Fixed.

Aloha Fixed wants to be your friend.

“Aloha Fixed duplicated SF Fixed in the sense that it was message board to get people riding fixed-gear together,” explains Ryan Lau. Having spent the previous years in San Francisco - where the ridership of fixed-gears was burgeoning - Ryan conceived Aloha Fixed in late 2007. Because of the immediate popularity of a convenient online meeting place, Honolulu fixed-gear bicyclists flocked towards the brand.

It was Franz Bruggemeier that helped Ryan find his first bicycle in San Francisco, “a Eddy Merckx Windsor with full Campy components for four hundred dollars.” An avid skateboarder, Ryan found bicycling as a way to commute around town. In those early days Ryan would befriend other San Francisco skateboarders turned fixed-gear bicyclists in the form of MASH SF.

Much like MASH SF, Ryan hopes to broaden the spectrum of Aloha Fixed. Currently Aloha Fixed functions primarily as a message board - the message board is heavily utilized by HNL Bike Polo players - with occasional blogs documenting fixed-gear bicycling in Honolulu and the culture that surrounds it. According to Ryan, “Aloha Fixed is here to support what is going on with bikes (in Hawaii).”

Aloha Fixed plans to move forward with more video documentation, rider meet-ups, and partnerships with bicycle-related organizations. As this is the fifth year of Aloha Fixed, there will be more emphasis on new products and sponsorship of riders. More events are also slated for the year including Aloha Sunday - the event that gathers fixed-gear enthusiasts from around the state and afar.

Through it all, Aloha Fixed is about encouraging people to ride bicycles. Ryan recalls how there was “so much mystery behind fixed-gears back then.” Nowadays the one-gear bicycles are difficult to miss on Honolulu streets. In the past Ryan has stated, “Come out and ride...people who ride fixed in Hawaii are friendly about riding. If you like bikes, they’ll like you.” Five years later, Aloha Fixed still wants to be your friend.


Aloha Fixed | Fixing Aloha since 2007 | www.alohafixed.com

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