Conceptual bikes
September 4, 2009 7:13 AM   Subscribe

Putting heart and muscle into the term "bespoke," Josh Hadar creates hand-crafted metal sculptures that double as functional bikes. He describes his process in a recent interview with RocketBoom. Intrigued? A bicycle custom built to your whims could run from $12-$35k, or if you live in NYC, you can try your hand at welding and metal sculpting at his Burn Clinic. (via bioephemera)
posted by madamjujujive (14 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Some of these are quite beautiful to bikolatrists like me. I don't know that I'd want to climb the Manayunk wall on one... actually yes I would!
posted by Mister_A at 7:24 AM on September 4, 2009


Those look like dinosaur skeletons. They would probably look even cooler on a half pipe.
posted by Balisong at 7:29 AM on September 4, 2009


...a lot of them look like you'd have to be putting the chain back on rather often if you were to actually use them.
posted by Dysk at 7:43 AM on September 4, 2009


Using these bikes would be a problem.

Not with the bikes themselves, no no no, they're perfect.

No, the problem is you.

I don't care who you are, you care not cool enough to ride this bike. These bikes need to be ridden by Space Teenagers from the Future who spray-paint with aerosolized MDMA and dye their hair Ultraviolet before going out to the Mass Mind-Meld Concert held at the bottom of the sea. You, you Mr. normal human if your clunky body and dorky clothes and lack of light-emitting tattoos and Loftlorien-derived facial structures? Yes you? You would look completely stupid on these bikes.
posted by The Whelk at 7:45 AM on September 4, 2009 [4 favorites]


How to be cool enough to ride bikes like these:

1) When people ask you where you got the bike, look at them and say, "I made it."
2) Be telling the truth when you say that.


The suit and tie with the rosebud tip torch picture is both funny and terrifying because I know how suits tend to react to fire.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:54 AM on September 4, 2009


Only Vincent Gallo could ride one of these with a straight face.
posted by fire&wings at 7:58 AM on September 4, 2009


Bespoke!
posted by fixedgear at 8:01 AM on September 4, 2009


Bespoke?
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 8:03 AM on September 4, 2009


Oh.

I had hoped that these would be bikes I could absolutely adore. But as well-done as they are, as graceful as those arcs are, I can't see them and love them because they look so much like cheap little wire toys I've seen all over the place.

I don't know what to call this -- a pre-tarnished view? -- but it's happened before that something that should be glorious just looks too much like something that is cheap.

I'm sure I'm the only one with this reaction. Carry on.
posted by maudlin at 8:32 AM on September 4, 2009


maudlin, you are not the only one.

I immediately thought "Oh god, this guy's a burner."

His skill and craft are astonishing, but the chosen style is very disagreeable to me.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 9:21 AM on September 4, 2009 [2 favorites]


OH GODS YES

Now I am sad because I will never get to ride one of these bikes.
posted by lekvar at 9:42 AM on September 4, 2009


Want!
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:02 AM on September 4, 2009


"Bespoke" does not mean "handmade".
posted by kenko at 12:41 PM on September 4, 2009


Right, kenko, I don't think anyone is saying that it does mean "handmade."

In the video, Hadar talks about how his bikes are tailored to the buyer. The interviewer asks what the process would be if she wanted one and he said it starts with measuring the rider, fitting the bike to that person's specs similar to the way you'd fit a custom-made suit or a wedding gown.
posted by madamjujujive at 1:04 PM on September 4, 2009


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