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Tall bikes take transportation to an extreme
by Andrea Mosher
In a small cafe on 50th Street, I sat and enjoyed my lunch. Undisturbed, I gazed outside at the afternoon traffic, daydreaming between bites of salad. The cars passed in a hypnotic pattern and my mind blurred into a semi-trance. Whoosh. The soothing pattern was suddenly broken. Cruising down the sidewalk went a tower-like structure on a set of wheels and, from what I could see, the bottom half of a person pedaling the thing. Was I still dreaming? No, but what was that thing? The mechanism, and its rider immediately intrigued me,and I realized that other restaurant patrons were also astonished by what had just passed.
Tall bike riders enjoy the attention generated by their unusual mode of transportation. But attention is not the only appeal-there's also fun and thrill in this unusual hobby.
"Imagine cruising through town 10 feet from the ground with nothing but a few pipes and two wheels beneath you," says Brad Graham, a tall bike enthusiast. "In fact, you can barely see the bike, only the road ahead of you for miles." And for those that think 10 feet off the pavement is high enough, some of these bicycles tower more than 13 feet from the ground.
"Tall bikers could be compared to sky-divers and bungee-jumpers.", says Graham. "We are the extreme, and everything must be taken to the very limits."
The cycles themselves are dangerous. Not only are they tall, most are not professionally engineered.
According to Graham, the recipe for making one includes "a welder, a few scrap bikes and a warped imagination." Basically, a tall bike is made of whatever will hold a person up and allows him or her to pedal down the road. Parts are found just about anywhere, from the side of the road to an auto parts store.
And how does a builder know what works? Well, that is where much of the danger comes in. These bikes are made by trial and error. Weld some scrap metal onto an existing bike frame, get an old garage door chain, as found on one bike, make a few alterations, and try it out. Climb up onto the seat and try pedaling to determine if the creation is a successful tall bike.
Once these mechanical Frankensteins have been assembled, one's life is again in jeopardy. The rider must push off to get the bike moving, climb up and mount the seat, and finally pedal- all while keeping good balance. For the novice, mounting the bike from a high fixed position, such as a ladder or even a roof is more efficient.
And what about stopping? There are a few common methods. One has three options: climbing down, in the same way one climbed up, pulling up to a tall stationary object and dismounting, or using the classic jump and crash method.
Building tall bikes is about the challenge of building something spectacular. To some degree, these creations are engineering feats. However, they can also be considered an art form. Either way, they undoubtedly express a sense of individuality.
These bikes are not new creations. The modern styles and forms were modeled after crazy bikes created as early as the 1890s. Today, tall bikes are remarkably popular. Across America, clubs and organizations dedicated to weird bikes hold races, rodeos, parades, and various outings. One group in Massachusetts takes day trips with their mangled-metal friends. Their adventures are not only dangerous, but they are illegal. The Massachusetts law states, "No bike shall be operated upon a way with handlebars so raised that the operator's hands are above his shoulders while gripping them. Any alteration to extend the fork of the bike is prohibited, and the operator can be fined up to 20 dollars." Breaking the law must be an additional thrill. Common to most of these organizations is an enthusiasm for defiance. It is one more challenge to overcome.
You'll probably see some of these bikes tooling around campus when biking season rolls around in 2002. Some tall bike gurus name Minneapolis among the capitals of tall biking. In fact, there is a club right in our neighborhood-The Hard Times Bike Club, formed at the colorful Hard Times cafe on the west bank.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.rebcorp.com/guslucky.htm
www.dclxvi.org/chunk/meet/tall/index.html
