Perhaps the biggest boom in the bicycling community since, well, the bike-boom itself, fixed-gear riding continues, inexorably, to pull itself up from the depths of its sub-culture roots. Another rung has now been grasped by Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s COG Magazine, the first serious quarterly to be published in the United States devoted exclusively to the fixed-gear bicycle. The endeavor is a welcomed one. With a serious base of riders throughout the world, fixed-gear riding (or fixed-wheel, as it is known in Europe) is poised to become a healthy and vibrant community. A publication that takes itself and its readership seriously points to a legitimacy long understood by its proponents.

  Included in the first issue is an interesting look at the fixed-gear craze currently sweeping through Japan. Fanatical only begins to describe the Japanese culture, and in a country where professional track racing is an incredibly lucrative sport, it is a wonder fixed-gear riding hasn’t caught on until now.  In honor of the fixed-gear counterparts in the Far East, a number of bicycles inspired by the sport of Keirin, or track racing, found in Japan.   

 These wonderful machines are truly works of art. And we all know you can’t ride a painting down the street.  

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