Tarck bike

The Tarck Bike is a commonly found variant of the Track bicycle or Fixed-gear bicycle. Unlike true racing bikes used for track cycling races, the Tarck Bike was formed as a collaboration or "collabo" between bicycle messengers, hip-hop fashion designers, fixed-gear enthusiasts, former BMX riders, and members of national and regional cycling-related internet forums. The Tarck Bike gets its name from the common, lolcat-esque misspelling of Track Bike and references this online collaboration.

Aesthetics

One of the key elements of the Tarck bike is the focus on aesthetics by the builder. Aesthetically, tarck bikes usually combine a collection of urban, pop-culture references from BMX, skateboarding, bike messengering, and velodrome racing. Often referred to as "Clown Bikes" the common tarck bike starts with a frame used for track racing, but then extends the build away from traditional track frames and toward an aesthetic pioneered by the BMX and MTB scene of the 1980s and '90s. Complete tarck bikes may include the following:
* Extensive focus on color coordination
* High value fixed-gear hub primarily intended for track use
* Unique high-end racing wheels such as Aerospoke, HED, Trispoke or Spinergy
* Velocity Deep-V wheelsets
* MTB-style riser handlebars on a drop type stem
* BMX-style top tube protectors
* 650c-sized front wheels to facilitate tarck tircks such as barspins

Tarck Tircks
Tarck Tircks is a way of showing off your Tarck bike. Tarck Tircks can be anything from simple track stands to more advanced maneuvers such as wheelies, bunny hops, whirlies, specialty skids and fakie roll outs.

Similar to the culture of videography around skateboarding and BMX, a number of companies and individuals have produced both short films as well as full-length documentaries featuring Tarck Tircks. Several of these films stand out, including Gabe Morford and Mike Martin's film MashSF, and the film Bootleg Sessions. These, as well as short films posted daily on YouTube and Vimeo have helped internationalize the trend by removing the language barrier.

Criticism
Critics of the tarck bike movement claim that it is just a temporary fad. Enthusiasts disagree, claiming that "once you go tarck, you never go barck."

Regional Idiomatic Variants

The term 'Hip Hop Slave Bike' is a UK/London variant of the 'Tarck Bike' idiom. Originally conceived as a parody of the kind of locution employed by overly trend conscious 'style' writers covering a burgeoning cycling subculture they were less than well versed in. It has quickly caught on in UK cycling forums as widely accepted shorthand for the same aesthetic values encapsulated by the term 'Tarck Bike' in the US, perhaps - through its broad use - losing some of its satirical intent.

Original parody newspaper article on www.Londonfgss.com - http://www.londonfgss.com/post122759-123.html

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu