mojo bike fixie follow up

the mojo bike and i have had a month to get acquainted now and it’s time to follow up my initial review with some endlessly rambling comments.

first up i have to say i love the feeling i get on this bike. it’s got a familiar feeling geo that lends itself well to general riding. it’ll weave in and out of traffic with ease and yet has stability for occasional off-road excursions.

when i mention going off-road on my bike people often ask me where off-road. i find it hard to stay on-road sometimes and if you ride around the gold coast then surely you do to. sure, you can ride up and down the beach at peace with yourself and the world but if you’re actually using your bike to get anywhere you must constantly be hitting gravel. sometimes it’s only a nano-second of grass as you weave around those two people who seem mindlessly capable of taking up the entire shared bike/pedestrian path, but it’s nice to know that in that nano-second you’ve got a bike that can get a little sideways in the dirt and then comfortably back onto the path without any moments that might cause your heart to leap into your mouth. i don’t seem to be able to go anywhere at the moment without some gravel. even going to soccer on friday night had me negotiating olsen avenue road works. in this environment a twitchy road bike with drop bars is a pain in the arse. the mojo makes them fun.

non-cyclists have a way of choosing bikes that are totally inappropriate for their needs when they do actually get around to buying a bike. bike sales in australia at the moment far outstrip car sales, and yet you go out on your bike and you hardly see another cyclist. obviously the garages of australia are full of disused bicycles. many people are too fat and lazy to ride so it doesn’t matter what bike they buy but many more people have bikes in the garage that don’t get ridden because they are uniquely inappropriate for any actual riding. the industry helps them by presenting a confusing array of bike-like devices complete with redundant suspension, strange riding position with handlebars that hover around head height and seats with more bounce and padding than a jason recliner. these bikes are suggesting to you that you can enjoy the simple act of riding without ever dedicating yourself to overcoming the initial discomfort. it’s a lie of course. or people buy a racer and adopt a riding position and geo that is totally inappropriate for their incredibly meager level of experience. they get an abundance of gears they have no idea how to use or adjust — and are often so cheap and nasty they’re incapable of being properly adjusted anyway.

if only we could put these people on something as simple as an actual bike, a bike like the mojo, a bike that rides like a bike and lends itself to almost any circumstance. then they might actually enjoy their riding and do more of it. being in control lends confidence and with confidence comes enjoyment.

that’s not to say the mojo bike wouldn’t satisfy the more experienced rider. i’ve been riding non-stop for 30 years and i’ve ridden my share of proper racers, commuter bikes, track bikes, mountain bikes and even sometimes a bike bike (you know, it had one gear but wasn’t a “single speed” — had mudguards and a plastic saddle too…) i like a bike that’s meant to be ridden and i’m finding the mojo is just spot on. with my current set-up the reach to the bars, position of seat etc, is just perfect. the ride is spot on for traffic use. i’m coming off a mountain bike quite often these days and find my racer a little scary when it’s asked to dodge and weave, but i get straight onto the mojo and that baby is just begging to dodge and weave, get a little sideways, hop a curb, and then knock out a 20k commute in comfort. for the job, it’s just about the perfect tool.

the mojo bike is a fun tool to get around on. coming out of musgrave hill park the path veers onto dirt before crossing a little bridge. i don’t want to have to pick my way across this. i want to throw the bike in at speed and lock the back wheel, skid it into place and then release and shoot for the bridge. if i’ve had a few too many beers it’s even more fun. i can see why plenty people lose the “bike thang”, it’s because cycling can be so dull. not on the mojo. i’m loving the mojo and it’s loving me. when a little fun presents the mojo is ready and willing to play.

i’d say one of the best things about the mojo is the price. enjoying a bike means getting out on it and getting out on a bike often means leaving it locked to a sign post or beach rail or wall of the pub. i paid $189 for the mojo bike frame and the full mojo bike fixie is  $499 including delivery. at that price i wonder why everyone doesn’t have one. worst comes to worst and my bike is stolen then i’m out of pocket $500. i can deal with that without tears.

when i rode to the beach yesterday i cycled past a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of vehicles all parked nose to bum on the gold coast highway, sometimes moving as much as a hundred metres at a time. i was damned sure getting to the beach before them and i was damned sure having more fun than they were. that they didn’t have the wits to buy a mojo and enjoy the ride appalls me. surely the ratio of bikes to cars suggests a complete lack of intelligence and get-up-and-go. makes you wonder how we get anything done. i suspect most people work harder at their work than they do at their play.

we do work very hard for out money and  dollars earned are fun tickets in the bank. you can choose to spend them on a car, a bike, a hairdo (fucking emos), or blow jobs. whatever. the car sucks up a massive amount of fun tickets but its utility is extremely high. nothing ever invented will get you from point A to faraway point B with the speed and comfort of a car. problem is every other turd owns one also and on short trips this is actually working against you. witness the people lined up on the GC highway yesterday. for short trips a bike is better and for only 499 fun tickets the mojo bike has an incredibly high fun ticket to utility ratio.

making simple decisions with our fun tickets shouldn’t be hard. if buying a 4 wheel drive increases the utility of those fun tickets by allowing you to go camping or satisfying your innate desire to piss on and despoil our native environment then you should go ahead and spend those fun tickets on a 4WD, get out there and strew the pristine beauty with your VB cans and empty coles sausage packets. if on the other hand you’re using the massive bulk of your family truck for getting about in the suburbs then you’ve made a somewhat addle-brained decision with your fun tickets and you’re not enjoying the full utility of them. you might want  to consider selling the truck and spending the fun tickets on a vacation, fake boobs, or penile enlargement. whatever. or, if you’re really clever, spend 1/120th of the fun tickets a prado would cost and buy a mojo, get more fun per fun ticket than any other vehicle or purchasing  decision will ever reward you with.

get out and enjoy life in your 4WD

riding a mojo, as much fun as it is, will involve some sweating and a little exertion, as compared with driving the family assault vehicle. that is the feeling of you getting stronger and fitter. enjoy it. people who hate sushi — or asian food in general — often tell me that they eat sushi and feel hungry again later on. my response is, that feeling of hunger is the feeling of you losing weight. hunger, discomfort, sweat…these are  difficult concepts for the average fat and placidly comfortable westerner, but if you want to get out in style, and you want to enjoy life, make a little sacrifice to your comfort, a tiny little sacrifice to your fun tickets, then you should buy yourself a mojo. i can’t see you regretting it.