Brake free

>>Parc Avenue shop applies skateboard
aesthetics to fixed-gear bikes

BOUTIQUE AND HANG-OUT: Sylvestre Calin at Brakeless

by LUCAS WISENTHAL

On a recent Sunday afternoon at Brakeless, a Parc Avenue bicycle boutique, I witnessed an unusual transaction: a guy buying a set of brakes for his ride. I was surprised that Sylvestre Calin, the store’s owner, even stocked brakes, and he laughed that the sale was a “genuine first.”

As its name suggests, Brakeless specializes in fixed-gear bicycles and accessories—bikes that, because their sprocket is fixed to their hub, are unable to coast. Most riders agree that brakes are pretty useless on a bike that stops moving when you stop pedaling. And few would buy them at a store that doesn’t even do repairs.

People “expect to come into a bike shop and see people working on bikes, and it’s not like that here,” says Calin. That’s because Calin had skateboard shop sensibilities in mind when he opened Brakeless, the city’s first shop of its sort, three months ago at 5390 Parc Ave. Just as serious skaters insist on putting their own set-ups together, so too should cyclists, Calin thinks—especially since fixed bikes “are so easy to repair,” he says.

Not that fixed riders are always so receptive to skateboarding’s aesthetic. Calin, a longtime skater himself, says that some two-wheel purists criticized the logo he chose for the store, an appropriation of the “Screaming Hand,” an iconic Santa Cruz Skateboards/Speed Wheels graphic drawn by Jim Phillips. Although Calin’s version of the design depicts the severed blue hand gripping a fixie, some said this nod to ’80s skate culture didn’t mesh with biking.

Where fixed culture can flourish

But it fit Calin’s objective of creating a spot where fixed culture could flourish, just as skating did decades ago, when skate gear was harder to come by. That meant bringing in parts that other stores were reluctant to carry, like Pursuit frames, from Brooklyn, and Aerospoke wheels. And while these items can easily be found online, the ambience of a boutique that turns into a de facto hangout, complete with couch, magazines and the freedom to drink beers before or after a session, cannot.

Nor can a space just to sit around and hook up your bike. “For me, this is an extension of skateboarding, in a good way,” says Calin. “If you have a skateboard, you put some stickers on it and all that shit. With these bikes, you can really go farther than that. You choose the colours, you choose the way you ride it. You choose everything.”

Which could mean assembling a collection of hard-to-find components, or using parts from the Montreal brands that Calin’s adamant about supporting. Some locals may shun homemade stuff like Marioni frames in favour of imported gear, “but outside of Montreal, people respect it,” he says.

Friendly rides and downhill events

When he can, Calin would like to organize a series of friendly rides, along with a downhill event. “Just go down Mount Royal and do some skids,” he says. More than racing, though, he’s interested in showcasing the art that the fixed scene has spawned. That’s “kind of new in Montreal, and we have the potential to do something nice,” he explains.

But racing types needn’t worry—there’s plenty going on this summer.

Starting in May, the Skids in the Hall crew will again run their Street Track nights. They’ll take place once a month, and in addition to the races, skid contests, foot-downs and track-stands, will likely include a bunny-hop event. The crew is also planning to hold “two really big events during the summer and into the fall,” Skidster Dave Greenfield says.

Local riders Danielle Flowers and Danielle Simm kicked off the season by holding Heavy Pedal every Saturday of this month. The finale happens on Saturday, April 26 at 5 p.m. and will include an alley cat race (registration 4 p.m. at Revolution Montreal, 1157 Amherst), followed by a screening of the video “Fast Friday” at le Cagibi (5490 St-Laurent) at 7:30 p.m. Revolution Montreal also has a race planned for early July to mark the shop’s second anniversary.

Greenfield expects this year’s events to draw even more riders than last year’s. “The scene is getting big,” he says. “I can’t help but notice how many fixed-gear bikes I see on my way back and forth from work. I work in Old Montreal, and I live up north on St-Laurent, and it’s ridiculous.”

For more information, check out www.skidsinthehall.com, www.heavypedalmtl.com, www.fixedmtl.com and www.brakeless.ca.