TOPSTONE BIKE CHECK AND TRACK BIKES WITH BRAKES

 

Having the high end full custom topstone carbon now for sale, it was time to do a bike check video before it's too late!

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Track bikes with brakes is one of the things, you should never do as a respectable cyclist. Like so many other things... putting your sunglasses under your helmet straps instead of over the straps, wearing short socks in clipless shoes or even worse, having MTB pedals on a road bike. I mean... come on... it's only bicycles... do whatever you want as long as your having fun!

But track bikes with brakes? Never!

Here are a couple of snapshots I did take over the winter, where I went completely crazy and bought every frame that I could get...

Mash AC-3

The parallax charcoal.

more parallax...

wrenching in the kitchen is a vibe.

riding to a job interview in style.

23s with more then enough clearance.

When you see people that ride a bike with a fixed gear on the streets, then it's, at least in most cases, NOT a track bike. Cause you know what? Track bikes are ridden on a track. And only on a track. So the moment, you're taking this bike to the streets, it's not a track bike anymore.

You know what this means?? Right! You're now allowed to put brakes on this bike!

I'm not talking about safety here. Riding on the road, especially in the city streets has got nothing to do with safety, no matter what bike you're on. I'm talking about simply riding a bicycle and having fun. Sure it's a lot of fun when riding brakeless. You're forced to stay in the flow of the bicycle and your surroundings, that's a beautiful feeling. But when you're into going fast on a bicycle, it's the brake that will make it possible! The better the brake, the more time you have going fast, it's that simple.

The longest time I was into brakeless only. It's like a religion or a cult. Fixed gear has to be brakeless, otherwise it's not even counting. It was until I left that cult and did put a brake on my fixed gear bike...

In the last couple of years I did go back and furth with brakes and brakeless. The last time I did put brakes on a fixed gear bicycle it came out like this:

I'm now starting my own cult.

xoxo,

Alex