Candy Cranks

Honolulu’s first BIKE PROM was a collaboration event by KVIBE, The ARTS at Marks Garage, The Kickstand, Bike Shorts Hawaii Film Festival, Sau Hsu, Dieter Runge, Ambika, HNL Bike Polo and Malia Harunaga. additional support by Jonathon Lott, Cycle Manoa, Jeremy Pang, Dylan Botelho, Jonathan Lau, and Sergio Garzon. Gratitude to all the bicyclists who allowed for their bicycles to be displayed. all photos are copyrighted by Jonathon Lott, Malia Harunaga, Ilana Nimz, and Michael Keany. For the bike month feature, the art gallery was full of floating bikes from all genres of cycling, had pictures from ladies bike events, and artwork by fellow riders relating to bicycles.

The KVIBE kids provided a bike valet service:

Jade rocked a full-on prom gown (she really biked in it!)

The KVIBE kids made an arch out of bicycle parts!

Assorted cute bike “Prom Pics”

And some pics from the Bikes @ Marks show

early stage of our camp build with the headless unicorn bike

A month ago I did a little post about the bike I was planning to take to Burning Man and the heap of bikes in a dust lot in Reno that I picked it out of. I never did get to ride that red Specialized because the friends who took it up to the event early sent me a text saying that it had a totally busted tire and to just grab another one from the lot. So I did. They gave Big Red away. There’s a lot of gift giving going on at Burning Man. So, I picked out another bike, a beautiful silver cruiser. I didn’t have much luck with bike number two either. It turned out that under Silver Lightning’s sparkly coat was a bright lime green finish, meaning that she was a “yellow bike”, a shared community bike, and I got busted by the crusty yellow bike police. While the loss of this second bike nearly broke my heart, I knew that she had community duties fulfill.

The thing that people say about absolutely NEEDING to have a bike at Burning Man is totally true. Black Rock City, the town that exists for just one week of the year in the Black Rock Desert, is a big place and a bike comes in handy for getting around to all the many things you want to see and do, plus when everyone else has a bike and you don’t it just sucks. It was a great pleasure to just cruise around in the open desert at night all lit up on a bike, avoiding pedestrians, other cyclists, and art cars, and trying not to get lost from my friends. I learned that when going to the massive parties in the club districts at either end of the city, it is imperative that you leave your lights and EL wire on and blinking or you will spend a good chunk of time looking for your ride.

So, on that sad sad morning when Silver Lightning left me, what did I do? After a few moments of feeling sorry for myself, I remembered that Susan, the lovely lady from Reno who had let me pick my first two bikes out of that pile had had the smarts to pack an extra bike in her RV, just in case. At the time back in Reno, I thought she was crazy, but I was blessing her that day out in the desert. I just walked over to her camp and picked up the spare bike and took the opportunity to borrow her kids trailer and hauled some water back to my camp. Bike problem solved and hydration provided! I even inherited some EL wire to light up that last bike, I’ll call her Lucky. So, I rode Lucky through the potholes and fluffy patches of dust for the rest of the week. I cruised around with new friends to the perimeter fence and airport, to various bars, parties, and burns. I checked out art and participated in Critical Tits, the largest group ride at Burning Man with around 5,000 riders, women only, tops off.

Third try's a charm. Me and Lucky hauling some water.

out by the perimeter fence with little planes landing and taking off just behind it

Me and some camp mates all set for Critical Tits with the Man behind us

Dude taking pics of all the tits. Expectedly, still sadly there were many like him.

looks like some sort of Critical Pink is about to happen...I was just passing by in the wrong colour

It was such an amazing week that was filled to overflowing. If you haven’t been to Burning Man and you have friends who have and they don’t stop talking about it, just forgive them a little. There’s just so much going on and it’s tough to describe. I was so into experiencing it that I didn’t take many photos. There were tons of crazy bikes lit up in crazy ways, some super tall, others with antlers, or unicorn heads and ponytails. I did however document the parking lot at the casino hotel I went to after the event. There were cars with crazy dusty bikes all over.

Good ole Lucky served me well and is now is storage in Reno. Hopefully I’ll get to ride her again, perhaps even next year.

Yesterday morning I received the following email from a friend:

Hi,

So we were on our way home after pedaling the new pedal powered parade float through the big gay parade, when the master link on the drive chain from the back three pedalers broke.

So the float is parked in a 24-hour parking garage and we are putting together a new crew to pedal home when Colin replaces the master link today. Pedalers will get a Central Co-op gift card and love, in addition to slack-jawed stares and whoops from astonished passers-by.

BUT! i’m trapped in jury duty right now. i expect to be kicked out once they realize what a crackpot i am but who knows?

Please reply to me if you want to get on board and i will communicate soon.

Sounds like an adventure, right?! So of course I said “I’m IN!” The rest of the day at work was spent excitedly bouncing around the office and grinning, waiting for the adventure to begin. I’d seen some of Colin’s creations at various other events like the Dead Baby Downhill, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from the pedal-powered float.

After getting a cup of my favorite mango tea at Trabant, I set off for the parking garage at 3rd & Stewart. Upon arrival, I sighted the pedal-powered float on the 2nd story of the parking garage, but I couldn’t figure out how to gain egress without encountering a lot of very mindless drivers streaming up and down the narrow corkscrew ramps of the garage. Thankfully, the attendant gave me directions to the elevator around the corner, and my puzzle was solved.

My co-pedalers and I hung around, laughing and talking while waiting for Haulin Colin to arrive with a new Master Link to replace the broken one. He brought three, “just in case!” Finally, the broken link was replaced and we were ready to roll.

We loaded up our bikes on the back and secured them, tucked bags in, set up the cd player on full volume, and took our places. As the shortest pedalers, Kashina and I took the outer two front seats, and our co-pedalers filled in around us. Colin at the wheel: “It’s just like driving a regular manual transmission, but only 3 speeds, and the clutch is a little different.” I laughed hardest at this–I’ve never had a driver’s license, and I find myself very clumsy at the task of steering anything remotely car-like!

Each seat on the float is nicely set-up with toe clips/straps, a water bottle holder (or two!) and within an arms reach of a nice loud bell. Joe and I rang ours with impunity at first, then only when we were changing lanes, or to catch the attention of pedestrians, or just to celebrate…okay, we rang the bell a lot, it was fun!

After coasting down the corkscrew ramp, we paid the parking garage attendant and we were off. Pedestrians stopped in the middle of crosswalks to take pictures, giggle, and point. Other cyclists passed us, shouting encouragement and laughing. As we made our way up the hill, people were walking faster than we were inching along, so some folks would walk a few blocks up the hill in order to get a better picture.

One cyclist couldn’t believe his eyes, I thought he was going to crash as he looked over his shoulder at us again and again. Finally, he pulled off and took a picture without plowing his pretty grey and orange SS commuter into a line of parked cars.

I expected to get a lot of angry honks from cars, but people mostly just gave us waves and smiles and shouted nice things out their windows: “You’re awesome! You can do it! You’re almost there!” and gave us a wide berth, despite the fact that we were crawling through downtown/Capitol Hill at rush hour.

We passed two police officers and Web explained that we were just taking a Pride parade float home from downtown. They just waved us on, which was good–Seattle PD has been under fire recently for their use of unnecessary force, as well as overt racism, but I digress.

After getting over I-5, we started to get hot and tired, but we were only a third of the way there. We started imploring passersby, “bring us beer! cupcakes! ice cream! custard!” whatever we passed. Finally, someone heard our cry and brought us refreshment as we pedaled thru the tree-filled triangle park at Pike & Madison, nearly to the crest of the hill.

Coasting down the hill to the Union Street Farm we hit top speed, >30 MPH–that’s ~50 kilometres an hour! Colin deftly maneuvered us to landing without bumping into anything, and our exhausted and sweaty arrival was met with applause and shouts of congratulations.

All in all, an exhilarating and fun way to spend a Monday evening, and I giggled the whole exhausted ride home–tho Cheasty Boulevard has never seemed quite so long or steep. Much thanks to Web and Colin for the opportunity to wheel their amazing collaborative contraption! I’m already looking forwards to future pedal-float events. Sadly, my camera was at home charging its constantly-drained battery, but Byron over at Bikehugger was kind enough to upload a video. Maybe some other Seattle cyclists caught some pics? I’ll add them to the post if you leave a link in the comments!

Keep the rubber side down,

Nova*

Name: Esther Meroño

Nickname: Esther Bear (my first name is pronounced Estair… long story)

Star sign/Blood type: Aquarius

Birthday: February 16

Current city: Salt Lake City

What’s the bike scene like in Salt Lake City for females?
We’ve got a decent group of gals that ride and we hope it keeps growing!

What’s your favourite ride right now? Solo night rides.

Where’s your favourite place to ride? Downtown at night or in heavy traffic.

Favourite riding outfit: Leggings or skinny jeans, baggy t-shirt, worn-in Vans and my Velo City backpack.

Favourite food: Veggie curry, pizza, sour punch straws, and tangelos

Favourite movie: I love so many movies… The Goonies, Singin’ in the Rain, Robin Hood Men in Tights… the list goes on.

Favourite book: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Last Lunar Baedeker by Mina Loy

What makes you laugh? 30 Rock and Mel Brooks.

What makes you angry? Inefficiency and ignorant zealots.

What are you listening to on your I-pod? This Will Destroy You on night rides and I’m always listening to Thrice.

Do you have any pets? A mini-schnauzer named Lemon (yep, after Liz Lemon).

Catch Esther on:
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Another awesome all girl bike crew with a twist based out of Portland – Irondelles.

If you’ve ever ridden a tall bike, you can understand the attraction: Finally, for the first time in your bike-riding life, you’re not just traffic, you’re above traffic.

There’s something exciting and fun about pedaling at such heights. Do it with a few friends and it’s even better. That was the basic inspiration that led southeast Portlander Skye Blue to create Portland’s newest bike gang, The Irondelles.

Blue fondly remembers her time riding around NE Alberta Street with friends from the (now defunct) Alberta Street Clown House and she wanted to share that experience with other ladies. But The Irondelles are more than just riding partners, Blue has offered up her shop (she’s a seamstress by day) and driveway as a dedicated workshop.

The goal? Teach women how to build their own tall-bikes, without the usual, male-ego-laden testosterone flare-ups that can sometimes creep into other bike-building sessions she’s been around.

Blue describes The Irondelles as, “A tall-bike gang and a group of women who empower each other and have fun riding tall bikes.” They meet once a week to teach each other bike building and welding skills.

So far there are eight members. Blue says five of them just recently learned how to ride. “We taught them one-by-one, in a parking lot. It took a while, but now that they’ve all got the bug they want to build their own bike.” Blue says building their own bike is “stage two” in the process of becoming an Irondelle.

According to member Emily O’Connor, The name Irondelles comes from the French word, Hirondelle. The inspiration comes from France-native and friend Carole Giraud-Sevigny (who happens to be married to one of Portland’s veteran and highly-decorated tall-bike jousters, Corey Sevigny). Hirondelle means “swallow” in English and it’s the name of a rare type of bicycle used at the turn of the 20th century.

Interview from bikeportland.org

Photos Kevin Wagoner flickr