Ayla Brakes - Fixed Gear Braking
Portland, Ore.--
Ayla Holland, a professional bike messenger and fixed-gear (aka - fixie) enthusiast was recently cited and convicted for riding a bicycle without a brake. On behalf of herself and fixie riders in Oregon she is appealing the decision. Here she demonstrates how she can be safe and abide by the law in this video exclusive for CrankMyChain!
Click here to watch higher resolution quicktime video!
OR watch You Tube Version below.
Ayla Holland, a professional bike messenger and fixed-gear (aka - fixie) enthusiast was recently cited and convicted for riding a bicycle without a brake. On behalf of herself and fixie riders in Oregon she is appealing the decision. Here she demonstrates how she can be safe and abide by the law in this video exclusive for CrankMyChain!
Click here to watch higher resolution quicktime video!
OR watch You Tube Version below.
6 Comments:
Cool! I can't wait to see more episodes of Crank My Chain. Keep up the good work, and tell Ayla to keep fighting.
Here is a thread I pulled between me and someone from youtube.
opesoulja (23 hours ago)
it's not like they want you to attach a cinder block to you bike...it's a brake...no one says you have to use it...babies
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pdxktv (14 hours ago)
Ayla would have to get a new front fork and the components to make it happen for something she doesn't want and has demonstrated she doesn't need.
The fact is, Ayla is using her energy to fight against a bogus ruling that benefits other riders who want the same freedom as her. That's not being a baby in my book. It's noble.
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opesoulja (13 hours ago)
lol...noble...that's rich
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opesoulja (13 hours ago)
i just watched a documentary on you tube last night about bike messengers in NYC and even they were saying that with out breaks they can't stop quickly and they have to blow through intersections...the vids on this site show how crazy bike messengers are...cutting off peds and clipping cars...yeah real noble
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pdxktv (13 seconds ago)
Bike messengers take great personal risk in order to speed important (sometimes vital) documents and packages to their clients. They do this with out causing traffic congestion or air pollution. As far as I know, no one has ever been killed by a bike messenger.
In no small way bike messengers are countering the senselessness of our automobile-dominated culture, which has been subsidized by taxes, corruption, and blood.
So, yeah, I call that noble. But I don't expect you to understand.
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Arrest me! Arrest me! Ayla can stop way quicker than I can on my coaster brake-equipped singlespeed bike. Can't wait until I get pulled over by the cop who doesn't know the difference, and who maybe lets me off because I have this legal, albeit mostly totally unsafe, "device."
Anyway, thanks Dan. Valuable video. Was video like this used in the first trial? If not, it seems it should in the appeals court.
Thanks for the comments!
Ayla is going to keep on fighting this. Her attorney did not have video last time but will show an edited version of this video at the appeal.
Dan, your discourse with opesoulja is like so many other fruitless internet debates: someone being polite enough to explain an opinion to someone else who showed up exclusively to mock it.
I don't own, and have never been on a fixie. However, I understand their appeal and make no personal judgements against those who chose them. As a matter of fact, I had the occasional glory of buying a brand new bike yesterday, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't gaze longingly at the Bianchi Pista before walking away with my touring bike.
The thing which baffles me more than anything else about this debate is the venom it stirs up from an anti- fixed gear group I heretofore never knew existed. I'm flabberghasted by the number of people who are making themselves red-faced with the jumping up and down, screaming, and decrying of a bike some had never even heard of until now, let alone ridden. Do these people even ride bikes at all?
Here's a suggestion and a book recommendation all rolled into one: to anyone who is just learning about what bike messengers do and how they do it (and who does not immediately poo-poo the idea), read Travis Culley's The Immortal Class. Everything else aside, it's a beautifully written book, and a rare glimpse into a world some of us only get to see fly past us on the daily commute.
Thanks for the tip. I just checked out at the Library they have three and two were availavble
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