Fixpert

Who is Fixpert?

Fixpert is me, Sally. I’m a retired bike messenger. Yep, I used to suffer through every type of weather delivering packages on my bike in New York City, and then in Richmond, Virginia.

I was born on an Army base in Georgia, but these days my family is mostly in Virginia (except for my brother in Tokyo). I currently live in Los Angeles and I ‘rep the South pretty hard out here y’all.

I should also mention that I’m an Interaction Designer, which means it’s my job to make web sites easy to use and enjoyable.

What is Fixpert?

Fixpert is my web site where I write about fixed gear bikes, my adventures as a bike messenger, the woes of the daily bicycle commuter, city planning, cars and gasoline, web design, and my life in general. I also post my drawings and doodles here on this site.

Yeah, but where did the word Fixpert come from?

The word Fixpert refers to Expert Fixed Gear bike riders. Fixed…expert…Fixpert! It’s a word that I made up.

I was messengering in Downtown Richmond and some of my fellow messengers came from BMX backgrounds and were doing all kinds of sick BMX-style tricks on their fixies. There were bunny hopping stair sets, pedal grinding marble benches, doing no-handed backwards circles, etc. So I put Fixpert together in the hopes that I would be able to put some video footage of these guys online. I ended up moving away before I could film them, but I wanted to keep Fixpert, so I just started writing about bikes here.

That’s where the name Fixpert came from, I made it up. Mystery solved!

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Answers to More of Your Questions

Do You Have a Portfolio?

I’ve got an online portfolio of web design and digital illustration work that I created in the Winter of 2005 using a really fun and easy tool called CarbonMade. These examples are starting to show their age, but it will give you a feel for the type of work that I have done in the past.

Where Did You Get Those Super Cute Icons?

The icons you see on Fixpert are a suite of icons called Silk, made by this nice guy named Mark James, a “part-time web developer, part-time student currently living in Birmingham, UK.” Yeah, he’s a student, so go visit his site, tell him how lovely his icons are, then make a donation for his work that he’s sharing with everyone.

Why Don’t You Say Where You Work?

It’s true that I don’t mention the company I work for here on the site. It’s funny, I never write about anything all that controversial on Fixpert, I’d say it’s usually rated PG. However, I like to be able to write without worrying about what I’m saying. Anyway, my job is awesome, did I mention that we have free snacks and foosball?!

Your Site Looks Awesome, Who Made It?

Wow, thanks! Haha, I wrote that question myself. I made this site silly goose. I’m an Interaction Designer, so I hand-code HTML and CSS, and I’m pretty good on the Photoshop and Illustrator if I do say so myself. I designed the logo and everything else that you see here on the site — except the icons, but I already told you about them.