More about the Tokyo Fixed Gear

Pay homage to the bicycle with a trip to new Soho cycling boutique Toyko Fixed Gear. Although they divide opinion amongst the cycling community, fixed-gear bikes are all the rage at the moment, a fad followed by bike couriers and fashion-conscious trendies alike. Tokyo Fixed Gear caters for both, with a superb collection of fixed-gear frames (by Keirin, Brooklyn Machien Works and Gorilla Bicycles) in the basement and a range of stylish cycling attire from niche labels such as Outlier Clothing, Aldies and Alexander Lee Cheng above, along with a range of cycling magazines and coffee table books. Located just off the bottom of Berwick Street, the store is more like a fixed-wheel cycle museum than anything else, and well worth a visit if you're in the area. The boutique's launch at the end of 2010 saw fixed-gear aficionados arriving in their droves, with the street outside four deep in the special one-gear bikes while their skinny-jeaned owners drank cans of beer in clusters, comparing checked shirts and foul-mouthing taxi drivers. For many, fixed-gear bikes are a dangerous aberration that give cyclists a bad name - but try saying that to the real users, for whom Fixed Gear Tokyo will become a two-wheeled mecca.