I have also been looking at fixie ideas for a project bike and have been noticing that a lot of them have the old bmx nut buster pad on them. Why is this, besides the obvious?
seems to me the handle bars have a habit of turning into the frame. No cables and such to keep things aiming forward. Oh and cool too
Protects the frame/finish from handlebars hitting them. Often times fixies and track bikes don’t have brakes so there are no cables to slow the swing of the bars. You’ll also see bandanas tied to the spot where the bars would contact the frame.
It’s for doing stylie rear wheel drifts. you lock up the rear wheel, jam your body all the way forward, nuts-on-top-tube, and skid to a stop.
Well, that’s why you would need one, anyways… most of the time they’re just poseur accesories…
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A lot of the biggerpads are also used to protect the bike in urban settings where they are locked up to things or use a chain like lock. The messengers and want to be urban hipsters do that alot. Figure the messenger lock their bike to something 10-20 times a day.