What's with the tall bikes?

October 1, 2007 8:25 PM

I can't believe I'm wasting my question on this, but here goes: why do people ride those tall bikes?

I see the tall bikes all over my city, and they drive me up the wall. The riders always seem to be zipping in and out of traffic, and some girl fell off a bridge last year riding one. So, why? What's the attraction? Is it some anti-car-society thing I'm missing? Why not a normal sized bike?

posted by elquien to sports, hobbies, & recreation (15 comments total)

Supposedly its to better see over traffic, although I think there's some gonzo-bike culture element to it too.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:30 PM on October 1, 2007

Do you live in Portland? Because I see those things everywhere here, and they drive me nuts. I admire the engineering, but question the sanity.

But to answer your question (before it gets marked as chatfilter and sent away), I think it's just an extension of the whole DIY thing - "I built a bike, now let's see how far I can push it", that sort of thing.
posted by pdb at 8:30 PM on October 1, 2007

Speaking as a former bicycle commuter, any bike which gets you notice and steered clear of by other traffic is a Very Good Thing. So I think the 'holy sh*t -- wtf is that?' reaction is the one that's hoped for. Once that wears off, the evolutionary advantage is gone.

Also, for the time being, they're cool, if you also thing body piercing and tattoos are cool.

Jousting with these things sounds very fun even to me.
posted by unSane at 8:41 PM on October 1, 2007

Does tall bike = pennyfarthing, or some kind of art bike?
posted by avocet at 8:42 PM on October 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

They are also the bike of choice for bike jousting.
posted by winna at 8:42 PM on October 1, 2007

not a pennyfarthing. definitely an art bike. (see here). you see a few of them kicking around Vancouver. They are more often spotted during bike culture events such as critical mass which lends credence to the 'gonzo-bike culture element' theory.

I met a guy who rides a tall bike everywhere. Apparantly one summer he decided he was going to go to Portland to hang out at Free Geek for a month or so. So he just hops on his tall bike and rides. And rides... and rides... till he gets to the US border, which would have taken him a few hours. They refuse to let him across because he's "too weird". So he turns around and rides home.
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:48 PM on October 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I saw one locked to a pole the other day and thought, "Huh. I bet that's one bike a thief would never bother to steal."
posted by autojack at 9:41 PM on October 1, 2007

Most of them are ridden by people who build their own, so I think a lot of it is due to the creativity involved in building one.

Also, I know someone who had his tall bike stolen at Burning Man this year so (at least in the right setting) they do get stolen.
posted by pombe at 10:19 PM on October 1, 2007

From Nothing Nice to Say;
Start here; ( esp. this one ) go to part V put not the next one if you do not want a NSFW tag.
Then just Last week Mitch picked up the story again. Woo Hoo. Make your own interesting bike.
posted by stuartmm at 10:52 PM on October 1, 2007

"Huh. I bet that's one bike a thief would never bother to steal."

Amazingly, you would be wrong. I'm on a mailing list with lots of tall-bike-makers-and-riders, and there are (every couple of months) emails about "such and such a bike is missing, tell me if you see it being ridden around" or "I saw this tall pink bike so-and-so made in this sketchy neighborhood and I figure it wasn't supposed to be there." Usually, these bikes are recovered. It's a small world.
posted by whatzit at 6:31 AM on October 2, 2007

Huh. I've never seen one of these bikes, and I live in a major cycling town. I can see that you'd get a strong reaction if anyone saw you cycling round on one, and you probably would get noticed by a car driver.

What I'm wondering is how you get on one? Do you have to lean it against a lamppost and climb up, or have a helpful assistant at each end of your journey?
posted by penguinliz at 6:42 AM on October 2, 2007

I grew up in Boston, land of Scul, the chopper bike gang. There is a plethora of tall bikes amongst their ranks. Most of their bikes are custom-made, and thus fusing two bike frames together to make a tall bike is one of the great feats worthy of bragging. Also, riding it around successfully is more proof of your cycling finesse. The tall bikes I have seen are usually mounted by climbing light posts, using convenient statues/public art, and for the dismount, jumping was often employed.
posted by nursegracer at 6:54 AM on October 2, 2007

Some of them are part of the "Rat Patrol". I've seen a lot of them in Nashville, and I've also always wondered how people get on and off of them without looking like utter dorks.
posted by nixxon at 6:56 AM on October 2, 2007

The attraction is that they are awesome. I rode one for ten minutes once about a decade ago and spent six months seeing if I could get one made somewhere.
I don't think the fact that someone died should be a mark against them (how many people die from car accidents?). It's like why do people ride unicycles or hang glide or parachute or ride horses?
posted by history is a weapon at 7:59 AM on October 2, 2007

I saw a guy get on and off a tall bike recently It was remarkably graceful. When he was getting off he sort of let it fall sideways and hopped off once he was close to the ground. Getting on, he ran alongside and once it was moving did a quick hop-climb-swing-the-leg-over motion.
posted by PercussivePaul at 1:19 AM on October 3, 2007