In Seattle, as in many other cities, a fraternity of tight-pantsed, butt-crack showing, truckers-wallet toting fixie riders often gathers to work on fixed-gear bike tricks. These range from the newbie skill of the trackstand (also practical in traffic), to riding backward, to wheelies, to wheelies with handlebar spins, and so on.

Some of it is pretty impressive and fun to watch. If nothing else, the beer-fueled wipeouts can be entertaining. But after seeing the following video (via Wend ), I should now say the tricks

Definitely, Kunst (or Artistic Cycling) is a sport that needs to be more popular over here. You can find hours of videos of folks in these competitions on YouTube, but before you burn out (most of the tricks are standardized and strictly regulated, in the same way that figure skating moves and gymnastics maneuvers are), be sure to check out the international darling of the Artistic Cycling world: Ines Brunn ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiE1Qm7HSd8 ) She does it more for spectacle than competition, and there many videos of her out there, too, including some of her schooling the fixie hipsters in Cali.

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“I had two Internet bikes come in this morning in boxes that needed handlebars mounted. “First it was more of a service for our local customers, allowing them to order in the middle of the night if they wanted and pick up their order in the store the next day,” Anteau said. They wanted to wait while we did the work, but I told them I had 70 people in front of them in the service line so they could pick them up tomorrow.

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