Bike Hackers Get Whimsical With Two-Wheelers
By Sonia Zjawinski
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10.17.07 | 12:00 AM
Bicycles, like cars, are chock-full of parts that can be replaced, but simply switching out silver aluminum rims for hot-pink ones is child's play. Welcome to the world of bike modding, where bicyclists get creative and turn their two-wheelers into rolling works of art and artifice.
From upgrading their bikes' usefulness -- with built-in grocery carts, railway attachments, snowshoes and the like -- to just pimping them out with sound systems and arty add-ons, bicycle tinkerers work to improve the standard two-wheel ride in ways both practical and phantasmagorical.
Left: Built by starving poet Billy Jones of Greensboro, North Carolina, this hybrid ride is powered by both pedal and gasoline. While it can't get airborne -- the bike's propeller is just a ceiling fan -- it can reach 20 mph and gets 100 miles per gallon. "The design was trial and error," says Jones, who built the Wackemall using parts from different junk bikes, a futon and assorted pieces of scrap steel. "Weld it together, take it down the road, and grind off what didn't work before welding something else on."
It took Jones and his brother $700 and three months of nights and weekend labor to finish the Wackemall. Using what they've learned, the pair now sells motorized bike kits, but customers beware: You may have some trouble convincing officials that your ride is legal. The day after he finished his street plane, Jones rode it in his town's annual Independence Day parade. On his way home, he was stopped by the North Carolina Highway Patrol. After 30 minutes of calls to his dispatcher and the local Department of Motor Vehicles, the copper finally let Jones and his barely street-legal chopper go.
Photo: Billy Jones
I'm going to share this link with a friend who was from North Carolina.
