After riding a Kona Mtn Bike for the last 13 or so years I finally took the plunge and switched over to a road bike, and since I was making a major change I figured I'd loose the gears too and go single speed. I wrote more about buying the bike over on blogging.la but after the last several months of Ridazz and Ride Arc I've been realizing what I'm using a bike for these days and how I'm using it. Shifting all over hillsides and dirt just isn't happening anymore. Plus the clean lines of the fixies surrounding me has been very seductive. I oped for single speed with breaks because I'm not that much of a bad ass, but so far I'm loving it. Joi also moved over to a fixie and I can't wait to see what he thinks after a few weeks.

I picked up my bike Saturday night and have been doing a good job of taking it all over the place since then. I rode into work in downtown today from my home in Silver Lake via Glendale Blvd which if you live in LA you know includes a fairly steep and rather long climb that I was scared to death of trying with only one gear but I was able to pull it off and now feel like a hundred bucks. When I was at the shop buying the bike someone came in asking about parking on the street near the shop and TJ at Orange 20 responded that the only thing he knows is he gets a ticket every time he turns his car off in LA. I feel the same way about parking, it costs about $10 a day to drive downtown and since I can pull off the commute via bike for free instead, I think I'm going to try to do it more often.

(FYI that photo shows most of the mods - new pedals, flipflop hub with freewheel, front and back brakes, new stem, riser bars replaced with bullhorns and fancy white cabling and tape to match the rims. After that shot I also swapped out the saddle with the one I had on my Kona but will be looking for a better option soon as well)