Fixies

This morning I left the Benotto at home as I'm fasting and took the bus instead. Energy conservation.

At the bus stop I bump into a kid on a fixie and we get to talking. His ride has nice shiny handle bars, the body spray painted white with two spoke cards in the wheels. I comment on the lack of handle bar tape - how that shit must get really cold, it does he says. He shows me the front left side, how it's scraped up due to a recent crash. I wanna tell him to forgo the hipster image and put some freakin' tape on that bitch but offer these words of wisdom instead, "leather gloves go a long way."

On the bus, we talk more bike talk - climbing hills on a fixie, bike polo, alley cat racing, cruisers vs. road bikes, etc. He asks if I have a fixie too to which I reply, hell no, I mean, I can get down w/ the sleek look and the lightness but, you see, it's already challenging enough riding in traffic surrounded by heavy machinery on four wheels...

He gets off the bus a few stops before me - I never get around to asking why he put his bike on it in the first place.