There’s no doubt that the major players make some fine fixed biked at attractive prices. I am in particular a big fan of the Mongoose Maurice. It rides very nicely, has a killer price and looks fantastic in its new livery.
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| Mongoose Maurice. What’s not to like, apart from the name? |
Problem is that in as much as any bike is an assemblage of two triangles and two hoops we still like to each have something unique. That’s the fickle fixie market for you. We’d rather roll down the street on a vintage Malvern Star than on an immaculately presented version of what the next guy rides. I’m guilty of this myself. I have two bikes in the fixie mold and neither were bought as completes. The frame on one is at least twenty years old.
So what’s a poor major player to do? The answer is, create your own brand. Specialized did this years ago, faltered, then revived the brand in 2009 just in time to cash in on the exploding (but fickle) fixie market. Enter
Globe Bikes.
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| Globe Roll I SE |
So now within the Specialized range you have a fixie that looks like this:
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| Try rolling down the shops for mile on this fella |
And within the Globe brand you have the Roll 1 SE above. (Roll 1 SE is a lot of denominations for a bike that is the only single speeder/fixie in their range. Well…at least as far as the website goes. I saw some Globe bikes that don’t appear on that site, whether last years models or what, who knows…)
On the shop floor there is nothing to indicate that Globe is made by Specialized. You can buy a Globe bike never being aware of the awesome Stumpjumper lineage. Not that Specialized are hiding behind the brand, it’s all over their website. But clearly the Globe brand allows them to reach out to the urban market in a way that appeals to this market (and without confusing the more hard core image of Specialized). It’s probably a sign of things to come. In the same way that Fox launched
Fox Searchlight years back when indie movies seemed to be able to turn a profit, so to as the fixie market grows you should prepare for it to be Globalized.
