Dima Kukhtey: why fixed gear "dies" and how to revive it

Guests

Useful from the issue

1. It's easier to arrange a ride than it seems

   We need a route, a time and a starting point. Publish an announcement and come: even if there are three people for the first time, then there will be more people.

2. The community needs a person with a date

   The movement is based not on the number of fixers, but on who will assign a specific day and time. Without it, it all comes down to chat conversations.

3. The perfect event is in the details

   Think over the logistics, the pace of the program, the photographers and the place for the afterparty. Even mosquitoes in a beautiful park can disrupt the award.

4. Spread dates with neighbors

   Ural communities set season openings on different weekends to visit each other. For guests, it's worth compiling a simple checklist: how to get there by train and where to stay.

5. Sponsors can be found even for a beginner

   For his first race in Yekaterinburg, Dima, having almost no acquaintances in the city, gathered twelve sponsors and announced the start through someone else's Telegram channel.

6. Mix formats

   Sports classics, fan races for creativity and regular meetings like "tea Tuesday" close various requests and keep people in the community.

The skater on the fix

Dima was involved in speed skating, and for summer training, his coach told him to buy a road bike. His father bought him a fixed-gear bike — the coach confiscated it at the training camp and provided a road bike. But after the camp, Dima learned about the fixed-gear movement and won his first open circuit race in Perm at the age of 14, not knowing anyone there.

Since then, he has participated in almost all Perm races and found, according to him, the heyday of the local scene. Together with a friend, he held his first sports race — a few laps around a large park — and realized that it was not so difficult to organize a race. Athletes without a bicycle category, Dima believes, should not be banned from fixed races: street racers often make them a real competition, and this inspires others.

Moving from scratch in a strange city

At the age of 18, Dima moved to study in Yekaterinburg and graduated from professional sports. He didn't have a single friend in the city, so the first thing he did was find fixers. It turned out that many people ride, but there are few races: the movement was experiencing a lull, and no one took over the organization.

A year later, he made his race: he found twelve sponsors, drew a poster himself, asked for access to the Telegram channel and published an announcement. A lot of people came. In three years, there have been eight events — five to six races, as well as film evenings and offline marketplace. Now his friends are helping him.

Why "fixed gear is dead"

Dima describes the fix community as a mixture of very different people from 15 to 40 years old - waiters, programmers, couriers, doctors, jewelers, tram drivers. They are united by a bicycle, but the main thing here is communication and joint movement.

The meme about the death of fixed gear, in his opinion, was invented by old-timers who are nostalgic for the past. In fact, no one stops riding: communities just live in cycles. Everything is based on one or two people with energy who have been racing for two or three years, then get tired or leave - and there is a lull until the next such person appears. Most people want to participate, but until someone says "June 15th at 10 am through", everyone is just discussing that there are no races.

The perfect event and the Ural stage

To come up with something fundamentally new, Dima believes, is almost impossible - but you can make a classic perfectly. He divides events into sports (classic races without tasks), fan events (where creativity decides, not speed) and regular rides. The ideal event for him is when everyone got high: not a long program, thoughtful logistics, photographers, prizes, a good after-party. Trifles decide: once the award ceremony in a beautiful park was disrupted by mosquitoes.

The Ural scene has its own way. Perm, Yekaterinburg, and Chelyabinsk are about five hours apart, so communities agree to spread openings over different dates, visit each other, and accommodate guests. About 130 people came to the opening in Yekaterinburg, including those from Perm, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen. Dima's dream is to negotiate with the city about closing the roads and hold a large criterium.

Track, social media, and online contest

Recently, Dima rode a wooden bike track for the first time and advises everyone who has the opportunity. They promise to build a track near Yekaterinburg, but he saw similar news a few years ago.

Masha Dragina says that the community took up Instagram, and the reels began to gain coverage. Her idea is an all—Russian online contest for fixers about how the season went: the content is filmed for the whole next season. Another idea for the opening is comic bicycle rights with categories by types of bicycles. Dima, a programmer by profession, talks about his Telegram bot, which jokingly spoils video mugs, and assures that the bot does not store anything.

Don't wait — do it

Dima's main advice: don't be afraid to do events yourself. For a regular ride, it's enough to come up with a route, a start and finish point and call people — three will arrive for the first time, six for the second. In his community there are bicycle environments and "tea Tuesday", when everyone just goes to drink tea in nature, including in winter.

Do not lock yourself into one fix: you can ride it to touring, try gravel racing, combine the fix with other activities. Development, according to him, is when instead of complaining that everything is dead, you just do it.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Acquaintance with Dima Kukhtey
2. 00:48How the skater moved to the fix
3. 02:26The first own race in Perm
4. 03:16Transfer to Yekaterinburg
5. 05:39Athletes at fixed races
6. 07:19Why fix is popular
7. 09:47Where does the meme "fixed gear is dead" come from
8. 11:22Community life cycle
9. 14:37Marginal movement?
10. 17:02New formats or perfect classics
11. 18:44Theory of the perfect event
12. 21:57Ural fixed gear
13. 25:13Plans for a big race
14. 27:41Gravel in Yekaterinburg and a bike track
15. 30:03Masha Dragina and the online contest
16. 34:57Fixed chats
17. 36:36Tip: just do

Mentioned in this episode

Outfix · Red Bull · Instagram