Saturday, January 29, 2011

On the topic of Tall Bikes...

Shortly after I finished my Time Trial Tall, I was riding it around Manhattan like a hoon.


Out in Harlem I would get Hollered at. In Midtown I would get hollered at. .. and on the Lower East Side.... well I got hated on. I was at Neighburrito when a bike dude on Rivington was clearly unimpressed with my feat of engineering. He was pissed because he thought I bought it that way from a store. I don't even know if he had a tall bike or not, but he was a purist.

Sure, you're 'supposed' to make tall bikes from junk. But that doesn't mean you don't have to take pride in your craftsmanship. Who wants to ride a deathtrap that is constantly falling apart?

I think the last couple of years have really shown me what level of stuff people can come up with in their own back yards.

Check out this absolute BEAST from Zoobomb's RandomMayhem:



This probably isn't the BEST example, but here we see a custom Geekhouse tall bike ( I know, he's a bike builder anyways!)


Alan's Minitalls are looking so classy you'd think they would be available on bikesdirect!





..But they're not available online. You actually have to go to Alan's house and BBQ with him in order to get one of your own.

Well folks.. I think we all new the day was coming. Production tall bikes ARE available to the masses, available at the click of a mouse.



ORDER YOURS NOW

And how about this one?



BUY 2 SO YOU AND YOUR GIRL CAN RIDE TOGETHER

I guess there is nothing wrong with these bikes, but they do lack SOMETHING that I cannot pinpoint. (cue bike culture is not for sale jpg)

So what is it?
Am I a purist?
Does it have to be broken before its welded into a tall?
Does it have to be 100% Freegan?
Does it have to be just a little bit scary?

Like most posts on here, I'm now not sure what my point is/was. I sort of feel that its the most fun if you're riding a bike that came from your imagination. I've currently got the itch to build something again, but I don't know what direction to go. For me, a bike has to be rideable, which limits just how 'crazy' I can get with it. I'm sure I'll come up with something though.

No comments: