I was going to write a post on the art of the underground bike scene, but these photos tell the story better themselves. So, for your Wednesday-morning consideration: the art, the fire, the fury and the girls of the bike world. Enjoy!

So you know what you’re looking at: the people in these photos have created everything you see with their own hands. They made their own bikes, costumes, hairdos, jackets, flamethrowers, circus rides and just about everything else they could think of. DIY, eat your heart out.

Big love to my friends pictured here, including Hollis, Eliza, Moses, Doyle, Big Daddy, Katy Bell, Cyclecide, Rat Patrol, Black Label, and oh Johnny Payphone do I see a bike or two of yours in there?

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adventure, alternative, art, bicycle, biking, buy nothing, citizen science, community, counterculture, design, diy, fire, freegan, garbage, green living, outsider art, photography, radical, recycling, reuse, robots, starving artists, superhero, transportation

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tallbike by Redskynight

This is a tallbike.

they do get more fancy: Paul and James by doviende

It’s pretty basic, really: you weld one bike frame on top of another, lengthen the chain, climb up and ride. Want to try riding one? You might need to lean the bike against a wall so you can get up. After that, it’s not too hard… oh, but now that you’re up, there’s one more thing: no brakes. And good luck getting down.

Why a tallbike? Because it looks cool. Because you can see over cars when you ride in the street. Because it makes a statement. Because it’s a challenge. Because we can.

In recent years, tallbikes have become synonymous with bike culture—and bike culture has flourished in every city and country from New York to Namibia.

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Read the rest of Change the World, Ride a Bike (1,004 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adventure, alternative, art, bicycle, biking, buy nothing, citizen science, community, counterculture, cycling, environment, featured, featured posts, film, freegan, outsider art, photography, politics, pollution, radical, starving artists, superhero, sustainable, transportation

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Remember when you got your first bike? Was it a Christmas present, or maybe a birthday gift? Remember how much fun you used to have on that bike, how fast you went, how great it felt?

Well, these days, most kids want an Xbox for their birthday; their parents ride around in cars with seatbelts, talking on their phones. Cycling is a thing of the past: a sport, a hobby, but rarely a mode of transportation. But I’m here to tell you: riding your bike is still fun, and still fast, and it’s the cheapest and most socially responsible workout you’ll ever get.

And there are no two ways about it: if you give a kid a bike, that kid will ride.

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Read the rest of Save the World, Ride a Bike (883 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alternative, art, bicycle, biking, buy nothing, citizen science, community, counterculture, dumpster diving, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, education, energy-efficient, environment, free sources, freegan, garbage, green living, how-to, politics, radical, recreation, recycling, reuse, starving artists, sustainable, teaching, transportation, travel, volunteer

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Tuesday I had myself a Bicycle tour of downtown Denver. And I’m convinced: it’s the best way to tour this town!

Cherry Creek cuts through the city in a wide canal with bike trails on both sides. It passes under steel-and-timber rail trestles where it smells like creosote and pigeon, over spillways where muskrats frolic, past banks of multicolored condos to the glamorously named Confluence Park, where it flows into (aka confluences with) the Platte River.

The Platte flows to the Missouri, which joins the Mississippi and eventually floods New Orleans… but here, it’s still a calm brownish-green stream.

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Read the rest of Two-Wheelin in the Mile High City (477 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: art, bicycle, biking, buy nothing, canal, Colorado, cycling, Denver, energy-efficient, environment, outdoors, recreation, river, tourism, touristry, transportation, travel, water, weather

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