In 1999 Dennis Bean-Larson started the Fixed Gear Gallery, a place where fixed gear enthusiasts could share their rides. It started with a few dozen bikes but by 2005 it held more than 2,000, and was home to a blossoming community of riders, old and new, and so Bean-Larson took the next step and organized the 1st International Fixed Gear Symposium.

People came from around the country to Traverse City, Michigan, to look at bikes, talk about bikes, ride bikes, and enjoy one another’s company. It’s been held just about every year since then. I’ve had the incredible luck to make it up for each one, and it’s always been one of the highlights of my year. It’s amazing how the fixed drivetrain, an ancient (but become new) subset of the biking world, can bring together such a wide variety of uniformly excellent people and give them something in common they can obsess over.

This collection of photos is from the 2009 Symposium, held this past August. It’s hard to both participate in and document what happens, so this is only a limited peek into the Symposium. If you’re curious about the rest of the events, visit the schedule for 2009, and start thinking about next year.