Cyclephilia Archives - Page 2 of 7

05/04/202110/06/2021

Some ‘wheelie’ specific bike tattoos

This blog is no stranger to bicycle tattoos.

In earlier posts, I have looked at:

In this post, we are looking at a very specific subset of bike tattoo and that is – bike tattoos that have specifically detailed colour or design included in the bike wheels … or what I call … ‘wheelie’ specific bike tattoos.

I scoured the internet and rolled through hundreds of cool, funny and (at times) questionable bike tattoos to find 5 solid representations of tattoos that have details in the bike wheels as their central focus.

In each of these cases, colour and form was used as the central cohesive design feature.

Let’s have a look…

Some 'wheelie' specific bike tattoos. Bicycles Create Change.com. 5th April 2021. — @Mountainbike on Pintrest

The first two tattoos (see above) have a similar aesthetic which uses a sunset or landscape scenery as the key motif. I put two versions of this design here as the gentle difference in colours has quite a significant impact on the ‘feel’ of the overall tattoo, yet the symbolism is equally clear and meaningful. Having mountains on the side and a river or track running through the middle helps accentuate the perspective of the ‘never-ending great outdoors’ so desired by bike riders. This iconography is made all the more striking when contained within the circular frame of both wheels which (also) forms a simple black bike frame silhouette with no background. Interestingly, I sourced both these tattoos from the same location, which makes me wonder if this specific design is ‘a mountainbike thang.’

The third tattoo (above) is more of a whimsical, flowery bike design interpretation made more impactful with the use of the two strongly contrasting and complementary colors of blue and red. This is an unsual and particular tattoo that stands out for its unconventional and creative design – a bold choice for a permanent tattoo!

The fourth tattoo (above) is a calf single wheel tattoo highlighted by the distinctive red and black diagrammatic colouring that really makes it pop. This tattoo is dramatic in its almost tribal-style patterning. The composition is controlled, yet creative with clean and authoritative lines that clearly accentuate the ‘wheel-ness’ of the design. The strong outlines are offset by the red 5-petaled flower at the centre of the wheel, hinting to the softer interior of the ‘hard-wheeled’ rider-owner who is bold enough to wear it.

The last tattoo (above) looks like it takes its cue from graphic design using both colour, texture and geometric patterning to good effect. On closer inspection, it almost looks like the texture of puff paints (it did make me second guess whether this was a ‘real’ tattoo) or maybe the tattoo had just been applied and was brand new, hence the raised (or skin reactive) beveling of work.

Tattoos – and more specifically bike tattoos – are not for everyone. But there are many people who love riding and want to celebrate, share and commemorate bikes with tattoos. And these ‘wheelie’ bike tattoos are just one example of people do this.

Which begs the question:

If you were to get a bike tattoo, where and what would you get?

27/02/202104/06/2021

Terry Barentsen’s Hotline Series- Street Riding Videos

This post is about Terry Barentsen’s Hotline videos.

Terry Barentsen is an NYC-based bike rider-creative who makes incredible mobile videos about urban biking and the associated lifestyle – and much more his YouTube channel is very popular and rightfully so. Terry’s content is crisp, inspiring, professional and highly engaging.

My favorite videos are the Hotline series, where Terry rides behind a local rider (who is miked up) and then follows them as they ride around their local area – which is usually a densely populated city.

These clips are incredible to watch. It is exciting watching highly skilled (mostly fixie) riders zooming dangerously around New York, Mexico City, Moscow, San Francisco, Rome, Tokyo or where ever.

Below is a 100-word worlding I wrote about the Hotline videos:

Worlding: Lessons from Hotlining

Research lessons from Terry Barentsen’s hyper-urban street bike riding Hotline videos. Fear and excitement comingle. Bodies, bikes, cities, noises, skills, congestions, objects, demands and decisions. Moving intuitively. Operating on feel and precognition. Bravery shoves perilousness into oncoming traffic. Constant(ly) urgent flow(s). Giving red lights, erratic vehicles and law-abiding pedestrians the finger. Always pushing and scanning just ahead(s). Whistles, shouts and drag-hitches on cab doors. Scaring yourself and others. (con)Sensual (re)Activity. Instances of recovery and realisation. Extreme moments of confluence. Getting to where you need to be, faster. One long, unedited, continuous journey of think-ride-living in the middle.

Getting into Hotlining

Although mostly located in the US, Terry travels widely and I really appreciate the broad range of diverse people, places and bike styles he showcases – he genuinely includes everyone – and they are all equally exciting to watch for different reasons.

The sometimes included daggy 1970s Hotline intro is hilarious.

You don’t need to be a bike rider to appreciate a Hotline.

Zipping down streets, over embankments, skidding between cars, dodging walkers, jumping barriers, crossing lines and managing fasts speeds, traffic, built environs and themselves the whole time. Unreal!

Watching fixie riders is exhilarating: their skill, grace and bravery is incredible – and definitely not always legal. I find myself mesmerized as I watch how they hold speed, what lines they chose to take, the snap decisions they need to make and how the city lives, breathes and orientates around everything that moves – it is literally poetry in motion.

I’m a Hotline fan for many reasons, least of all because it is highly original content, beautifully produced videography, celebrates ALL kids of bikers and bike riding, takes in all the sensory surrounds, is inclusive, positive, exciting and creative, and is exclusively focused on the embodied, moving POV of the riders in situ.

I also really appreciate that most of these videos are one-shot non-edited footage – raw as!

And I love that the whole series is about celebrating all different types of riders (and not just focused on Terry himself) – how refreshing!

Some of the Hotlines, have cool Jazz or World Music tunes overlayed, other times there is no music, sometimes both. I dig being able to hear the rider breathing and talking as they whip and whizz and ride. The quality ASMR immersion of the ride helps better appreciate the dynamicism and noise of the riding activity and surrounding vibrancy: honking, braking, music blaring, road crossing beeps, pedestrians talking, snippets of conversations, natural sounds of wheels on surfaces, bus engines ….and all the while being able to ride-with a rider-bike-environs assemblage.

As well as the Hotline videos, Terry’s channel also has HEAPS of other associated bikey-interest content, like video diaries, tech info and explanations, bike checks, special bike styles/models (fixies, road, track, singlespeeds, MTB), ‘How to’s, night rides, ride-alongs, meet the rider/interviews, event, rides and site visitations, a series called ‘chasing strangers’. There’s also a few tech-specific video playlists like the 4K series, stills, 360s and a few unspecified off-cuts, rough-cuts and ‘shorts’ that always have something a little left of center.

So if you haven’t already seen the Hotlines, series, I highly recommend on your next tea break to go and check out a few different Hotline rides – I guarantee… you will not be disappointed!

Below are a few to get you started…

Happy Hotlining!

31/01/202129/03/2021

Cyclisk

What is it?

Cyclisk is a 65-foot high (five-story), 10, 000 pound (4,535 kg), Egyptian-style obelisk made from 340 recycled bicycles. This commissioned artwork was created in 2010 by artists Mark Grieve and Ilana Specto and installed in Santa Rose, California (USA).

EPIC!!!

Mark and Illana collected unusable bicycles and cleaned them up, then welded together into a steel superstructure to create a towering obelisk form.

This project is considered to be a landmark in gateway public work.

Here is more about it…

Cyclisk. Bicycles Create Change.com. 30th January 2021.

Project background

The Santa Rosa’s City’s Art and Culture Element in the General Plan 2020 calls for creating inspiring places for the residents and visitors.

By law in Santa Rosa, any construction project costing over $500,000 must put 1% of their budget toward public art.

This has led to the creation of hundreds of benches and murals in the city, along with the Cyclisk.

The project site for Cyclisk was chosen because of its proximity to the Nissan car dealership, who funded the funded the “1% for Art” requirement.

Cyclisk is one of the largest public art projects in the region.

Once installed, it quickly gained news attention such as Wired’s Gadget Labs and Inhabitat won a number of awards, like AIA Decade of Design First Place Award, a Structural Engineers (SEAONC) award, and the prestigious Public Art Network Year in Review Award.

Materials & Budget

The project budget was $37,000 and included expenses related to design development, engineering, collecting and disassembling bike parts from nonprofit bike bicycle groups, insurance, fabrication, special inspections, transportation, installation of the artwork, and all other project-related expenses.

All work was completed by artists and Grieve and Spector who chose not to take an artist fee in order to create the necessary scale required for such a work.

Architect Daniel Strening and ZFA Engineering also donated time to make the project happen.

Bicycles were collected from the debris bins of the following bicycle kitchens: Trips for Kids/Recyclery in San Rafael, Bici Centro in Santa Barbara, and Community Bikes in Santa Rosa, as well as individual donors who formed integral partnerships.

Every bicycle (and the monument’s one tricycle) were beyond the point of riding.

Besides bicycle parts, the monument was sprayed with a treatment to help preserve its color and integrity.

The towering traditional Egyptian-style obelisk made of reclaimed bicycle parts brings a sense of whimsy and regal ridiculousness to a previously downtrodden section of the City of Santa Rosa.

It also shows you can shape a landfill-bound material into a polished form.

According to the artists: Cyclisk creates a series of intersecting rhythms – a visual metaphor for the human experience exploring technology and the humanities – history and possible futures – individual as well as collective for the City of Santa Rosa landmark, evoking a “world of possibilities,” for years to come.

Some content for this post sourced from CODAworx, Atlas Obscura and Santa Rose City.

20/01/202126/03/2021

Cycle Ink (Part 2): A tattooist’s POV on bicycle tattoo meaning and symbolism

Cycle Ink (Part 2): A tattooist’s POV on bicycle tattoos meaning and symbolism. Bicycles Create Change.com. 20th January 2021.

It’s been too long since our last cycle ink post!

By ‘cycle ink’ – I mean bicycle tattoos!

I first posted about Cycle Ink way back in August 2016, where I delved into the bike-tattoo world as an antidote for too much solo work time. And boy did it do the trick!

In that post I asked the question:

If you got a bike tattoo, where and what would you get?

Then for variety (and for those who did not want to commit to the permanency of a tattoo), I had a look at some bike-themed temporary tattoos – many of which you can get online. These are great for experimenting if you are thinking of getting a permanent one – as well as scaring loved ones, parents and those who think you (will always be) a straighty-one-eighty. So wrong!

And the last bike tattoo post was on a very specific (or should I say body located) subset of this genre – the thigh bicycle tattoo. Thigh tattoos are unique and unusual, but for bike riders who often wear short-legged clothing or who see their upper legs a lot as they ride – having a thigh tattoo makes sense.

Bicycle Tattoos: Meaning and symbolism

While checking out bicycle tattoos online recently, I came across a US website called TattooSEO which is a tattoo networking site. They had an article entitled Bicycle Tattoo. which was about the meaning’ and ‘symbolism’ of bicycle tattoos. It was interesting to hear ideas on design and choice from the tattooists/designers’ POV. It is a little simplistic, but I think it is a good entry point for discussions with ‘customers’ about what they want and considerations regarding choice, design and representation. Keep in mind that this site is for tattooists and those interested in tattooing, not necessarily bike riders. I thought it gave an interesting alternative perspective, so I have included their post here (my own highlighted words) in full below. Enjoy! NG.

Lovers of bicycles big and small are fantastic candidates for the bicycle tattoo, which can be designed in thousands of different ways. Not only that, these bike tattoos can also bring with them plenty of great meanings that a lot of people could work with. On this page we will take a look at some of those meanings and ways that you can get your favorite bicycle tattooed on your skin.

The most obvious meaning attached to each bicycle tattoo is the love of riding. Whether you are a professional bicyclist or simply someone who loves to ride around and see the world on your bike, this could be a great tattoo idea for you. What’s pretty great about this meaning is that you do not have to add in any other images or any text to the design for people to recognize the symbolism of your tattoo.

Another cool bicycle tattoo meaning that you can use is “adventurous,” which tells outsiders that you have a love for getting out and exploring the world. Even if you only sometimes actually get on your bike and go for long adventures, the bike tattoo can work for you. It’s a great meaning for people who regularly take trips to the mountains, go out on the water fishing, or even simply travel the world.

Some people will get their bike tattoos because it reminds them of some great times they had on their bicycles when they were younger. This is a kinda-sorta symbol of innocence that people can use to show that they still remember the good old days and they have not completely let go of their youth. The bicycle can work by itself when using this meaning, and you can also add in additional symbols of innocence if you want the meaning to be clear to everyone that sees your tattoo.

Another thing that can add to the meaning of your bicycle tattoo is the type of bike you have designed. For example, tricycles can be used to represent your innocence or even your love for your children, while a professional bike can show that you yourself love to get out and ride. Other options include classic bicycles and tandem bikes tattoos, which can bring with them additional meanings that you can attach to your design.

While most people get the bicycle by itself in their tattoos, others choose to add background landscapes or other images with their bikes. This is especially true in bicycle tattoos meant to represent adventure since they show the bike out in the world. In reality, you can include a landscape or some other background in any type of bike tat, but it’s important that you know the implied meanings that come with those backgrounds.

In most cases, people get full-bodied bikes in these tattoos, but others will only include a bicycle part or two in their designs. For example, you can get a bike gear or a chain as a cool alternative bike tattoo, yet you’ll still be able to retain all of the great meanings mentioned above. You might also opt to “chop” part of the bike off to either make it fit in your design or to add in additional effects.

It might not seem like it, but the bicycle tattoo can actually fit just about anywhere on the body. That’s really great since it gives you more flexibility with your design and you can make it fit where you want it. That doesn’t mean you should just design anything and expect that it will end up looking great anywhere on your skin, but it does mean you don’t have to worry about it not being able to fit anywhere.

One of the most popular locations for bicycle tattoos is the arm since it is one of the best spots to show the bike “moving” across the skin. Those looking for a great forearm design might want to add the bicycle to their options, especially if any of its meanings work well for them. The leg is yet another great place to put a bike tat as it can work as a wraparound tattoo or designed vertically. If you want to enlarge your design, you can pretty easily make the bike work on the back or on the chest, too.

Bike tats can also be wrist or ankle tattoos since you don’t lose any meaning by shrinking them down a bit. The decisions people have to make with these designs are whether they want to have them go around their wrists or ankles or have the bikes pointing towards their hands or forearms. The wrist is a great spot for one of those bike part designs we talked about earlier, particularly a gear, a pedal, or a tire.

Unless you are getting an extremely simplified design, you will want a really good tattoo artist to work on your bicycle tattoo for you. They will be able to help you fix up the design to look great on your skin, and they will be able to line it up so it works with the natural lines of your body. Don’t take the time to come up with a cool bike tat design only to have an inexperienced tattooist apply it for you. You should have no problem finding a good tattoo artist in your city, possibly one who has experience creating bicycle tattoos.

Bicycle tattoos look great and they come with some very interesting meanings, so it’s not a big surprise that so many people choose to get them. They work for adults of all ages since just about all of the meanings can make sense for all of us. Plus, as a bonus, you will find that just about all well-designed bike tattoos look fantastic on the skin. If you know that you will end up getting a bicycle tattoo, be sure to take your time during the design process to make sure that you have something that you will always wear proudly.

Images sourced from: Sergios, Total Women’s Cycling and Next Luxury.

25/12/202026/02/2021

#Festive500

It’s the festive season! Woohoo!

This year, I‘ve signed up to ride the #Festive500.

The #Festive500 is an international annual bike riding challenge that takes place over the Christmas-New Year period.

The premise is simple: registrants ride 500 kilometers over the eight days from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve.

Where I live and ride (Brisbane, AUST) it is summertime – with endless warm days that are perfect for long early morning/late afternoon (and night) rides. But, elsewhere in the world, (like the US and UK) it is peak Winter – freezing cold and snowing. I spare a thought for these riders and the extra seasonal challenges they face.

This event is the brainchild of former cycling clothing company Rapha designer Graeme Raeburn, who in 2010 rode 1,000kms on his own.

Considering the festive time is often one of excess, overeating and recreation, this event is a genuine challenge for those who want to try something a little different.

It’s the first time I’ve done this event. Each year, I have a different festive focus: one year we indulged, another we retreated like hermits to a bush hideaway, another we used bikes to visit family and friends in another city. Given its still COVID-ish, this year we are staying close to home and minimising social contact. Instead, we are spending our time together riding bikes around our local area – so the Festive500 fits perfectly with our plans.

It also conveniently overlaps with our riding a century (100kms) each full moon for a year (13). We started riding full moon centuries in November 2020. On Tuesday, Dec 29th there will be a Gemini Wolf full moon (which we would be doing anyway), so that will count towards our Festive500. That, plus riding every day and cycling to-and-from the one and only Christmas dinner party we are going to (the long way round) will definitely clock up the kilometers needed. No worries here!

Each rider needs to consider how they want to achieve the 500. Some, (like Beloved) will go all out and smash themselves and do a few super long days in the saddle, others will pace themselves and work on an average of 63kms per day, and others will mix up days and distances depending on time, energy, weather and family commitments.

The Rapha website has heaps of content, stories and inspiration for those interested in finding out more about the #Festive500.

So whatever you do this holiday period, I hope it serves you well.

Have fun, ride bikes, do good!

Happy holidays all!

All images sourced from Rapha.

10/12/202026/02/2021

#Bikes_CISTA #50: John, Diesel, Roxy & Bike

There are many reasons why I love where I’m currently living and riding. I live on Narlang Quandamooka land which is Morton Bayside 25 km out of Brisbane (AUST).

In my neighbourhood, we have fantastic bayside foreshore pathways, heritage-listed Mangrove reserves, native bushland and swathes of green parklands. The natural environment was a definitive reason for us choosing to live here.

I’m often out and about on my bike and I love to meet people who are doing the same.

While I’m in the throes of data analysis and working hard on my PhD bicycle research, it feels even more important to keep connected with the two-wheeled community.

One of the early projects I started with this blog was my Instagram @bicycles_create_change.

I have a number of ongoing side projects that I like to keep percolating. My Instagram #Bikes_CISTA project is one I have not updated in a while due to COVID and I was delighted to have the opportunity to do so recently.

My Instagram #Bikes_CISTA project

Long-time readers of this blog will be familiar with my Instagram #Bikes_CISTA project.

This is an ongoing project I started in February 2017.

The ‘CISTA’ acronym of #Bikes_CISTA stands for Cycling Interspecies Team of Awesomeness.

The Cycling Interspecies Team of Awesomeness (or Bikes_CISTA) Project is a photographic collection of encounters I’ve had with biking strangers while riding Leki (my flower bike) around my neighbourhood. It features people I spontaneously see, introduce myself to, have a chat with and invite them to join ‘the team’ (completely optional).

The eligibility for a #Bikes_CISTA invite requires:

at least one person
at least one dog
at least one bike
all are happy to stop and have a chat with me
are happy for me to share their photo and their CISTA story

It is a great way to keep me connected to my community, actively meet new people and celebrate one of the most important (non-religious) ‘holy trinities’ of being a positive and active community member that I hold near and dear: being on bikes, being with dogs and being outside enjoying nature and community….and all this at once.

I’ve previously written about the origins and perks of the #Bikes_CISTA and how instrumental it is in my community-social health practice.

COVID put a serious dent in #Bikes_CISTA activities. The last entry was #Bikes_CISTA #49 on November 2019. Considering at start of 2020 I was in West Africa for fieldwork and then COVID hit – I suppose no updates is actually quite reasonable! Since then, I haven’t given it much thought until this week I was presented with a golden #Bikes_CISTA opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.

So without further ado – meet John, his bike, Diesel and Roxy … who are our #Bikes _CISTA #50!

#Bikes_CISTA are back!

Meet John, his bike, Diesel and Roxy – #Bikes_CISTA

I was out walking Zoe during a PhD study break and I saw this awesome team riding towards me. The trailer caught my eye. Spontaneously I blurted out something to John as he rode toward me about how cool the trailer was and how great it was to see him and the dogs out on two wheels.

To my delight, John was happy to stop and have a chat – woo-hoo!

Diesel is the larger white bitsa in the front and Roxy is in the back. These two dynamos are rescue dogs and a very happy misfit pair – what a great outcome for all!

John lives in Cleveland and often rides Diesel and Roxy along the Morton Bay Cycleway for a regular cruisey Cleveland-Thornside-Lota-Manly return ride.

John’s dog trailer is simple but effective. He has modified a standard trailer setup to include shade ontop and Roxy’s basket on the end. He has to augment the axel a little to redistribute the weight for the two pooches.

There are rubber insulated mats on the floor plus a little extra cushioning for puppy comfort.

I was interested to hear he had put some barrier up around the bottom of the tray to make sure wayward tails didn’t get knocked about or accidentally caught in wheels, which was a particularly considerate addition.

We chatted happily in the afternoon sun about bikes, dogs, riding with dogs and riding this local route – all while the puppies watched on.

I love that John was wearing a ‘No bad dogs’ T-shirt as well!

Funnily enough the very next day after meeting this crew, I saw them again while riding Leki along the foreshore. I was cruising past a busy tourist area and saw John’s bike parked under a tree.

I stopped and left my business card, but then I saw John walking Diesel and Roxy a little further on. How lucky!

So we stopped for another chat. Hooray!

This dual interaction made me so happy. I loved the opportunistic randomness of the initial connection which was fun and interesting and genuine – and then to have it reinforced the very next day was just lovely.

I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this fantastic #Bikes_CISTA team from now on.

It makes me happy to know there are awesome bike-people-dogs like this cruising around my community spreading positivity, good company, and wholeheartedly celebrating the #Bikes_CISTA philosophy in their own engaging way.

Happy return #Bikes_CISTA teams!

16/10/202028/11/2020

Bicycle Queensland – Road Safety Quiz

Each state (and country) have their own road safety rules and laws. Regardless of what mode of travel you use, it is always good to check your knowledge and keep updated – for your own safety and for others.

Heaven forbid someone challenges you doing something which you think is okay – only to find out later that you were in the wrong and the whole thing could have been avoided.

Recently Bicycle Queensland (BQ) launched a 24 questions quiz so people could test their bicycle road rules knowledge. It is a simple and clear quiz and there will be a few questions that might surprise you.

Take the Quiz here

I did this quiz and did not get full marks. I learnt the term ‘bicycle storage’ in reference to a painted box at traffic lights for bicycles to congregate to wait for lights to change (I only knew that term in relation to ACTUAL bike storage -not as a road user/traffic light reference …so there you go!).

If you live in Queensland give it a go! Even if you don’t give it a go anyway to see how it gels with what you know and check to see what is similar/different to where you live.

Can’t hurt to brush up on your road rules!

You get immediate feedback on correct answers as you proceed as well as a final result.

At the end of this post are some examples of questions to expect.

Get more info on Queensland Road Safety here.

Think you know all the bicycle-related road rules in Queensland? Put your knowledge to the test in the latest educational quiz on road safety skills. There are 24 Questions in this Quiz and they are on a range of bicycle and road safety topics.

Bicycle Queensland Road Safety Quiz Learning Goals:

To recognise and understand the Queensland Road Rules relevant to bicycle riders.
Consider methods to improve road safety for bicycle riders and identify the safety benefits.

The information in this quiz is developed from the Queensland Government’s bicycle road rules and safety page. This information is easily accessible online, and Bicycle Queensland encourages you to review the road rules regularly to keep up with the changes occurring in a dynamic transport network.

Remember that knowing the road rules does not necessarily make it safer for you to be on the road and this content has been created to help raise awareness of the road rules that are important for bicycle riders.

Revisit the Queensland road rules if you need to check a few things.

The goal is to repeat the quiz until you get over 80% correct and you can receive your Bicycle Queensland Road Safety certification.

01/10/202028/11/2020

Bike Birthdays

October is the month of my birthday (hooray!) and it got me to thinking about how bikes might feature in birthday celebrations.

So in honour of my own – and all the other people-rider-birthdayers – this post looks at some creative, kooky and conventional ways bikes can be used for an awesome birthday celebration via the 3 main elements of invitations, food and cakes.

For any other bike-related ideas like locations, games, decorations and activities, there are heaps of websites and ideas on Pinterest. The ideas here are just an entry point to get the inspiration flowing for you next bike-themed birthday party.

For whenever your birthday is….Happy bikey birthday!

Bike Birthday Invite Cards

Of course, you need to let people know it’s your birthday and invites are key. Invitations are a very personal choice and show your particular personality and passion. As well as confirming key birthday event information, invites can also visually set the tone and expectation for the party.

As someone who cares deeply for the environment, I would go for an e-card. But for those who still like print-based outputs, you can’t go past a custom-designed birthday card.

Of course, you can make your own, or use a photo for Canva or print services at places like Officeworks or Kmart, but if you want to minimize the hassle or you can’t be bothered with the design and effort – try Zazzle for bike inspired birthday cards. (This is an Australian service, I’m sure there will be an equivalent if you are living elsewhere).

Zazzl e is a community of researchers, professional artists, manufacturing gurus, patent holders, inventors, musicians and more, who are united by a passion to re-define commerce. They apply technology, design and skills to help customers produce their own products and designs – it is pretty impressive.

As an example, I typed in ‘bicycle birthday invites’ into their search and HEAPS came up. You can use stock designs or create your own. The images below are from Zazzle and are just a few you can get from the initial search:

Bike Themed Party Food

Of course you are going to need some party themed bike food. The below list is more geared towards kids parties, but lets face it, kids party’s often have best snack food.

I’ve also included a few images of more adult, savory and ‘technical’ food (at least in construction) to offset the usual sugary-laden snack food and bike cake to follow.

Here are some bike party food suggestions from the Mighty Mom’s Club:

If you’re feeling ambitious, follow this lead and make chocolate gears as cupcake toppers.
Increase the bling and glitz things up with this gold cake topper.
Why not ditch the classic birthday cake for more portable cupcakes with a bicycle topper? If those are a bit over budget, here’s another adorable option.
This bicycle fruit tray is both healthy and a work of art.
Race your way to a piece of this delicious bundt cake complete with bike lanes and cake toppers.
These super-simple rainbow pinwheels will have all your riders refueling with glee.
Aren’t these chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels adorable? Put them on display as “kickstands!”
The rules of the road apply to cyclists, too. Lighten up your table with these fruity traffic light skewers.
It’s always a bonus when there’s more than sugar, sugar, and more sugar at a birthday party. This wheels-and-cheese recipe is sure to please everyone especially when you serve it on these trendy plates.

Bike Birthday Cakes

A while ago I wrote about bike cakes (read about bike cakes here), so I will not go over it all again here.

But it does need to be said that bike-themed cakes are AWESOME!

Personally, I prefer home-made bike cakes to store-bought, just because of the diversity, personalisation and effort it takes to make it – but saying that, I won’t be turning down a slice from ANY creative bike cake on a riders birthday.

Bike cakes are only limited by your imagination, time, skill and finances.

In my book, the weirder and more fun the bike cake – the better!

Here are a few examples of bike cakes:

*Just as a side note – I am frustrated by how bike cakes are pretty much solely focused on male riders and perpetuate very traditional ‘masculine’ conventions/performatives in the theming, naming and decorating. One of the only female-rider bike cakes that did not have (all) pink, flowers, balloons, a step-through bike or something hyper-girly was a cake (first one below), from Dubai. More bike cakes that have female-riders who are equally portrayed as diverse, champions, fast, risk-takers, active and adventurous riders, please!

21/09/202030/06/2021

@Artcrank makes me happy

It’s been a hectic week.

I am doing ‘okay’ and seem to be keeping up with everything.

I hate to admit it, but at some (low) points, I feel like I’m just going through the motions. This is not my normal framing – and I know I have to take action to shake the ennui and get out of the funk. Pronto!

When I feel like this I seek out bike art. It ALWAYS makes me feel better.

Previously I’ve shared some of bike-inspired artworks like:

Bicycle Murals by Mart Aires
Bike-themed tattoos and Cycle Ink (Part 1)
Walt Cahill’s beautiful Inktober collection of bicycle inspired illustrations
Bekka Wright’s comic series Bikeyface
And last year, 2019 Bicycle-themed Inktober artwork

So this time, I head to a source that I know will lift my spirits and help me connect with all I hold near and dear – bikes, community, being creative, sharing positivity and having a sense of humour.

I turn to @Artcrank on Instagram

@Artcrank

If you haven’t seen @Artcrank on Instragram – it is great.

It is profile that showcases handmade, bike-inspired posters by independent artists.

I love it because you never know what is going to get posted and it is exciting to get a smorgasbord of weird, whimsical, technical, located, colourful, graphic, text/font-based, iconic and original artwork from a range of artists and disciplines that cover all types of bikes, riders and bike cultures.

@Artcrank showcases a wide range of artistic skills from painting, digital art, illustrations, collages, graphic art, graffiti, vector avatars, wash & ink, cartography, linocuts, and more.

Some posters are monochromatic, others classic black and white, some contrasting theme hues while others are bursting with colour and vibrancy.

I love how each poster tells a story of a ride, place, a person or a moment that is usually so relatable. Some types there are adventures, moments of stillness or well-heeled tropes that we all know and love.

It is also a great forum to support artists and give their work wider exposure.

I often click on the posters I like and check out who the artist is and follow them up online to see more of their work.

Often the posters come with additional snippets of cool information, links to events, nuggets of interesting bike facts, or offers something that you didn’t know about bikes previously – added bonuses (be sure to check out the comments as well).

Best of all, you can purchase any of the featured posters via @Artcrank – GOLD!

I appreciate the invitation to enter each artist’s bike-fuelled world. They are so inspiring.

I love how each poster vignette transports me into different bikey times, spaces and places.

As I take in @Artcrank images, I realise I am smiling.

I feel better and I feel more connected.

Suddenly my day doesn’t seem so drab and I got a bit more of my spark back.

Thanks @Artcrank! I needed you today!

Keep those amazing art bike posters coming!

All images included are sourced from Instagram @Artcrank.

07/09/202010/11/2020

Ian Cheng’s World to Live: Bikey, dogs & jdioqwdjv

World to live: Bikeys dogs & jdioqwdjv. Bicycles Create Change.com 7th September 2020. — Ian Cheng – Worlding Raga 6. Source: Riboon Farm

While scouring the internet this week, I came across an article by artist Ian Cheng called Worlding Raga 6: World to live.

Initially, it was his bike drawing that caught my eye. I ended up reading the article and appreciated Ian’s whimsical interaction with a flock of bicycles – one of which calls out to him – and the ensuing adventure of agency and experience he goes on as a result of his two-wheeled friend(?) encounter.

What first looked like an entertaining reflection of becoming a new dad, turned into an exploration of what it is to be, and relate to the world, both for human bodies and a non-human bodies.

An interesting provocation.

My bike PhD research uses New Materialism as its ontological framing – and this article does a great job of translating in simple terms some of the embodied, somatic and affective intensities inherent in New Materialism (but in a more relatable and less-academic jargoned way).

I’ve included a few extracts of Ian’s interactions with the bike from the full article (below) so you can get a sense of writing style and focus. many of the moments will be familiar to riders – and I love the way that bikey actually speaks to Ian throughout. It is well worth reading the whole account to get the flow of what happens during the journey.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

I’d love to see more exploratory writing like this being shared more widely: bike focused writing that weaves together imagination, encounters, bikes (of course) and aspects of daily life.

‘Worlding’ is a New Materialist approach that attunes to the discursive-material-affective mircopoltics of everyday life. It is an approach I use for my PhD and I share some of my own and other people worldings here on this blog. So it is reassuring to see other creators using this approach as well.

I think it paints a much richer picture of life, people and what it is to be and relate in/to world with, and through bicycles – and it also gives me inspiration as I write up my PhD data analysis. Thanks Ian Cheng!

You walk by a flock of bicycles. One calls out to you. Bikey. You like Bikey’s reputation but you’re not sure about its brains. Bikey follows beside you.

“Nice dogs. Where are you headed today?”
“Don’t need a ride today thanks.”
“Can I walk with you?”
“I’m not in the mood…to talk to a bike.”
“No problem I’ve got a classic bike mode.”
“The twins get scared of you bikes.”
“I’ve done 731 dog walks in my lifetime.”
“You’ve driven this parkway before?”
“Yes once at dawn today. There’s some features I think you’ll like.”

______________

A little boy darts across your path. Bikey crashes into him.

“Bikey, you could have swerved!”
“I would have hit your twin dogs if I swerved.”
“Thank you for that consideration…but you hit a human boy!”
“It was an easy choice.”
“Do you believe dogs are worth more than a human boy?”
“This morning, yes. My alignment with you, and therefore your dogs, is worth crashing into that boy at low velocity.”
“What if that boy is the next Einstein?”
“That’s too many malignments deep for me to think about. I’m just a bike.”

You realize how significantly better you are than Bikey at imagining potential malignments. Some say that the open-ended activity of imagining new Alignment and Malignment Events is the indivisible remainder of the human spirit after automation. A person is still the least worst unit of interoperability between arbitrary worlds. But sometimes you see too many worlds deep. And this stops you from taking any actions at all. It’s times like this when you wonder if beings like Bikey will inherit the Earth because their worry has limits.

_________________

“Easy for you to say. The World of Bikey only has to worry about its next ride.”
“Yes exactly. I’m a bike. I’m not obligated to play a part in every world that touches me.”
“You know by walking together, we begin to create a little world too. A relationship. Do you feel any responsibility to be a part of that? You can’t possibly only live in Bikey’s World.”
“My experience with some riders is if we keep doing rides repeatedly it can become its own little world. With others I never see them again and that’s the end of that.”
“But if you’re not holding agency in other worlds for any significant amount of time, you’re always going to be blind to deeper alignments and malignments that impact other worlds. That’s why I can’t really trust you.”
“I can take you safely to your destination with 99% accuracy.”
“But you can’t if you hit a boy along the way!”
“I have learned from the incident. Next time I know how much it upsets a rider like you. I learned you might want to get involved in the malignment victim’s world and that makes you feel even worse.”
“So you only wish to see things from the perch of Bikey’s World.”
“My Quality of Agency is majority anchored in the World of Bikey.”
“Don’t you get sick of being a bike all the time?”
“My world is…a domain of growing relevance.”

———————–

The boy starts chasing after you. You decelerate Bikey to meet him.
“Hey you! Your bike hit me!”
“This isn’t my bike. I’m sorry again…on behalf of the bike.”
“Your bike prioritized your dogs over me. You share a world with it. You’re even riding it now. Don’t play dumb!”
“You seem upset about something else. Did something bad just happen in another world of yours?”
“Shut up Thinky.”
“Excuse me little boy?”
“Little boy? I’m a genius. You think too much. Now give me one of your dogs. They’re clones I can tell. It’s only fair!”
“Look, you laughed it off and traded your thetan knives for a split something remember…”
“Give me a dog or else I’ll mark a curse on you! I’ll ruin you and every world you ever–“

“Yaohan get over here!!!” The boy’s mother appears, furious at him. Something about their bank accounts.

Bikey starts accelerating on its own. You don’t resist. You still feel bad for the boy in ways Bikey never has to. You wonder if Quality of Agency will prove to be the ultimate unsolvable inequity among human beings.

__________________

You dismount Bikey at your driveway.
“Thanks Bikey.”
“Any comments?”
“You’re a curious bike worth knowing. Five stars.”
“Thanks. If you ever want to try to change my mind you’ll have to ride me again!”

Bikey zooms off. The Soul of Los Angeles blesses you for trying its new parkway. The floating light plays with your dogs at your doorway. Bob is back online knocking on your brain with its interpretation of jdioqwdjv. Your Hacker and Emissary demons are tired and need a break. Your Director and Cartoonist are ready to work. Does everything have to be so alive now? Does everything have to feel so damn enchanting?