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In
Italy, where cycling has a massive following of active
participants, it may come as no small surprise that the
use of bicycles for urban mobility is basically non-existant.
Also unusual is the fact that in a country with a rich
track heritage of great champions and velodromes - such
as the Vigorelli, in Milan - which were cathedrals of
the sport, the noble art of fixed-gear racing and riding
has all but vanished. Project Velocity provides a banner
under which urban cyclists obsessed with speed and the
building of lean, efficient urban missiles can rally,
and aims to turn back the clock and make Italy once again
a fixed-gear powerhouse.
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Velocity: the race.
Velocity is a no holds barred alley
cat race, an urban flight on two wheels through
the streets of the city at dawn. The race is held
twice a year (in summer and winter) on a course
that consisits of a series of obligatory check-points
and/or small circuits that can be connected in whichever
way the individual participant sees fit. The course
changes every time and in classic alley cat tradition
the only rule is to pass through the checkpoints:
other than that, anything goes
Velocity started in Milan with
the first edition of the race taking place in October
2002, and it is now being staged regularly in Rome
too.
Visit
the Velocity website
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Chaingang Rotafixa S.p.A.
The Velocity Chaingang is a closely
knit group of fast urban cyclists addicted to speed
and to honing the craft of building clean and simple
urban cycling machines. The group naturally gravitated
towards fixed gear bicycles - machines of a rare
beauty simplified to the point where furthur simplification
is impossibile - and so the Chaingang Rotafixa S.p.A.
was born.
The group is currently collaboratively
working on an italian fixed gear resource which
will include a directory of fixie-friendly bike
shops, a detailed technical manual on how to build
and dial in a fixie plus a slew of other useful
essays on how to get the most out of these wonderful
machines.
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The Chaingang Rotafixa S.p.A.is hard at work liberating
glorious track bikes too long forgotten in dusty warehouses
and back rooms of old artisan's workshops, restoring them
to their old glory and racing them in the streets and
on the few available tracks. We will gladly patch foreign
fixed gear warriors into our slowly growing network of
local fixed-gear artisans, so they can access the old
track stuff we are gradually unearthing (collectors need
not apply: we deal only with bike messengers and hardcore
fixed gear riders that are clued-in on how to redline
these beauties and that will bring them back into active
service). We are also very keen on getting in touch with
similar groups of urban track bike affictionados around
the globe, so if you are interested in a bit of fixie
networking please drop us a line at velocity@inventati.org
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