About El Fakijoe

Introduction

I started riding fixed gear in Bordeaux for 2 years where I had the chance to build and ride my own conversions (mainly from old Peugeot frames) but those were really shitty

I then moved to Nice for my studies and continued riding with that old Peugeot, but I was thinking about building a more decent build for daily riding (I didn’t know anything about freestyle). At that time, I knew how to skid and trackstand, just like most of the few fixed gear riders there.
One day, I met @etnn_bmx (BMX flat rider) and @benjamin.messlife (that used to skate) on the Promenade des Anglais, and here started my love for the tricks.
Even if nobody else tricked on a fixed gear in Nice, I was focusing on tricks and didn’t feel bored in anyway as I was riding with friends, although they were riding BMX / skate.

First, the trick I saw on Instagram was the fish’n’chips, which I tried hard for a few days before getting the ultimate gratification to unlock the trick.

Sending it with bullhorn was maybe harder than learning it with a flat bar but I really didn’t care: I just want it to get it whatever bike I was riding! The Peugeot was an old vintage road frame not designed for tricks abuse at all. I finally got the fork bent on stairs while trying to get the nose on it.

Feels like it was high time for a decent build, after all the time and all the will I got for fixed gear freestyle!

Old footage of my very first clumsy fish’n’chips & lil skid

Evolution

Once I understood how to fish’n’chips, I fell like I needed to keep pushing with that dynamic. In parallel, I was working on my fakie as I really wanted to get the keospin. I built by current bike that really got me into the trick scene, which is based on a Leader 722 Heritage Edition, and here is its bike check. Building such a fixed gear was a really necessary for the future tricks to come. Onc

At that time, @etnn_bmx was snake-spinning on his BMX and I was completely astonished by his large battery of rotation tricks. It was so inspiring, along with all the content I was watching on instagram (from prodigies like @guillermogalindo_), that unlocking keospin came to be an evidence.

Leader 722 Heritage Edition