riding chopper bicycles, tallbikes, and the like

March 1, 2007 8:52 PM

"We, due to our experience in riding chopper bicycles, tallbikes, and the like, will finally find ourselves at the top of the food chain, and it is we who will lead humanity out of the rubble Welcome to the world of mutant and freak bikes. While just fun for many some folks see the freak bike movement as something political but as often happens politics can bring controversy. It's a worldwide phenomina with roots going back to the 19th century. Mutant and freak bikes at flickr. A previous related post.
posted by arse_hat (11 comments total)

Our science is weak.

That said, I like bikes.
posted by hototogisu at 8:59 PM on March 1, 2007

They pick through dumpsters for communal vegan meals.

Kids, this is what happens when your trust fund runs out. Don't be these guys...
posted by wfrgms at 9:00 PM on March 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yeah - don't be these guys -

When I used to live in the Ukranian Village neighborhood in Chicago, these guys had a nasty habit of being drunk when they combed the alleys and garbages for parts ... then they noisily built the bikes up when finding a new part on the spot .. and got drunk some more ... when it was 3 a.m. ... and then would ride the streets erratically.

I'm all for sharing the road with bicycles (street legal?), but five years ago with these guys and gals bobbing and weaving like jerks, like they owned the road, it was just hard not to wanna slap 'em.

They look like they have a lot of fun - so good on them - I just hope they're more respectful of their neighborhood.
posted by mctsonic at 9:46 PM on March 1, 2007

Neverending war abroad provides neverending excuses to act retarded in the streets. No, YOU calm down.

What? Oh...and...that communal vegan meal I left in the dumpster was cooked with butter. No, YOU calm down. I just clicked on a link expecting to find a way to fly over Hoth in my very own X-Wing and instead got a YouTube link on a day very far away from Tuesday.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:37 PM on March 1, 2007

I saw a guy riding a freak bike the other day and I liked it. He'd welded a second bike frame on top of another frame and built all the components to work from up there.

I have no idea how he got on it or stopped.

Bikes are cool.
Acting like a douchebag on a bike is not cool.

I just wish I lived in a town where bikers weren't treated like rolling targets.
posted by fenriq at 10:44 PM on March 1, 2007

jimmythefish, YouTube is the video equivalent of eating out of a dumpster.
posted by arse_hat at 10:47 PM on March 1, 2007

It's punk rock baby, it's revolution (within a specific, narrow, context (!) that is).

I remember in Quebec in the 70's there was always some hippy on a tall bike riding around.

Then I saw him re-incarnated as a bikepunk in east Williamsburg twenty-five odd years later...

If riding a bicycle is a political act (and arguably in suburban America it could very well be), then Europe is a hot bed of raving, fanatical extremism. I know some families that Don't Even Have Cars!
posted by From Bklyn at 12:10 AM on March 2, 2007

Everyone else is dealt with summarily. Normal bikers are allowed to continue on their way, so long as they aren't wearing spandex. "Mountain" bikers on yuppie bikes are knocked into the ditch. Pedestrians are ignored. Rollerbladers... well, rollerbladers have learned not to cross our path.

lols.
posted by anticlock at 12:40 AM on March 2, 2007

post also needs a link to SCUL (and, of course, a quasi double though the current post is better). The SCUL pilots are generally nice guys, and don't operate under delusions of political grandeur. They're pretty open about how the paramilitary jargon with ships, missions and callsigns are all just a cover for drinking beer and skinny dipping in the Mystic.
posted by bl1nk at 6:04 AM on March 2, 2007

If riding a bicycle is a political act [...] then Europe is a hot bed of raving, fanatical extremism.

So true.

That said, I saw my first tall bike about a fortnight ago and it stood out a mile even in a cycling city like Amsterdam.
posted by different at 8:29 AM on March 2, 2007

You missed the Bicycle Liberation Front.

There are a few freakbike fabricators in Lawrence. They typically don't act too douchebaggish (?) or try to put a political spin on what they're doing. They just like making weird bikes. It seems like the SCUL group is pretty decent, too, but man, the Black Label Bicycle Club sounds like a bunch of pretentious dicks.
posted by cog_nate at 8:39 AM on March 2, 2007