“Track bikes are the skateboards of the new millennium” -Brad Baker of Trackstar

@##=#<5,L>@##=# What started as a cult among bike messengers has caught on among Willamsburg hipsters and emo kids all over the city. Bike messengers originally began riding fixies because people were less likely to steal them (not any more, of course), and it fostered a devil may care ethic of riding brakeless in traffic that made NYC messengers world famous. The bikes themselves are simple elegant expressions of pure efficiency, the lowest common denominator of ‘bike’. If you don’t already have one you probably want one, even if you have no interest in racing track. This new cachet coupled with the restoration of the Kissena velodrome have created a lot of excitement for track racing. Don’t forget that the velodrome was second only to baseball in American sports until WWII, and Madison Square Garden was originally built to host bike races, hence the eponymous ‘Madison’ track race.

Trackstar is the city’s first and only exclusively fixed gear bike shop. It’s a great place to get hard to find parts (especially vintage ones), check out the ever changing inventory of new and classic bikes, and have your ride serviced. It also offers the perfect antidote to the Starbuckization of corporate bike shop chains like Metro or Helen’s in Los Angeles. It’s obvious this shop was started with a passion for bikes and you can see it reflected in everything they do. We checked in to chat and bask in their reflected old school trackie hipness.

Trackstar is on 34 East First Street in between First and Second Avenue, open seven days a week from 12-9 trackstarnyc.com.

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NYVC: How did you become involved with track bikes?

Brad Baker: I raced mountain bikes as a kid and then started riding single speed road bikes years ago so it was a natural progression after I moved to the city.

NYVC: What do you think is responsible for the huge interest in riding fixed gear bikes in the city?

BB: It has become very trendy–honestly I cant tell you why–when we first started we didnt foresee this much growth. It’s the chic thing for people in their late 20’s but also road riders are getting into. It’s also great for commuting. People are just getting on their bikes ’cause it’s trendy then they realize it’s fun. Everyone wants to ride a track bike now.

NYVC: Who are your customers? Are they messengers, hipsters, racers?

BB: I’d say its half experienced, typically older road racers, in their 40’s and 50’s, and half kids getting into it.

NYVC: How many of your clients race?

BB: A large percentage of our clients race, they race Kissena, ride to Nyack on the weekends on their track bikes and do messenger races. Of course a lot just like to putz around and that’s fine too, but we do a lot to encourage racing. We sponsor a lot of races from Kissena to alley cat races. We have a racing team and we do anything we can possibly do to promote racing.

NYVC: Tell us about the alley cat races.

BB: There is a renegade appeal to racing at night with traffic in an unsanctioned race against traffic with 100 other people. It’s living on the edge that’s the appeal. You can ride any bike you want. Riding with traffic and dealing with any other obstacles you would encounter on a city street is part of the race. A lot of older riders come (to both alley cat and track races) because they are getting bored of crits. The track condenses all of the most intense parts of the road, and the social component and the comradery is much better .

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NYVC: Someone wrote something to the effect that all the interest in cycling is great but in the meantime Marty Nothstein could walk down the street in Willamsburg and no one would take notice, presumably because they are too busy posing on their track bikes, what do you think?

BB: Well he is retired now so…(laughs) Yeah, it would be nice if the kids on Bedford Ave took notice of an Olympic champion. We are all for creating interest in racing and the momentum is building.

NYVC: So how’s business? Any interest in branding your own line of bikes or doing clothes?

BB: Business is going better than expected–the repairs, the clothes. We rarely sell complete bikes. We thought about doing our own branded bikes, but we didn’t want to take a bike from Korea or Taiwan and put our sticker on it. We already have a line of clothes and it’s doing well.