REVIEWS DEALS BIKESHOPS TRAILS

burning man bike?

4384 Views 54 Replies 25 Participants Last post by Mr Cabletwitch, Jul 29, 2010

bsieb

Discussion Starter · Jul 22, 2010

Dug out my burning man bike yesterday, got to fab a seatpost for my new purple velvet banana seat. Not exactly the usual bike passion but I wonder... anyone else attending this year?

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DJGoo

· #2 · Jul 23, 2010

Nice dude!
How does that thing ride?

BM is something I've wanted to attend for some time now and this year would be perfect for it (lowly job, no school, no local ties) but there's other things on my calender (two weeks on the road).

When is it anyway? I always forget.

:headphones:
DJ

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 23, 2010

It rides like an adventure, a lot of fun on the playa, which is flat as a pancake. Nothing special but everyone wants to try it out. Fun. Feels like Peter Fonda.

BM is the first week in Sept, ends on Labor day. There is no other visual experience to compare, if you are an artist it is home in many ways. The playa at night, several square miles of art installations in a zen setting, no scammers, hippies, or dummies, strange bikes are de rigueur. Creative battery charger for sure.

lidarman

· #4 · Jul 23, 2010

I thought the only mountain biking at Burning man was getting around the the sex-drugs and-techno....naked.

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 23, 2010

lidarman said:
I thought the only mountain biking at Burning man was getting around the the sex-drugs and-techno....naked.

Yeah, the evening news reporters have to sensationalize something, but BM is larger than any news cycle pigeon hole, it's the real thing. Not sure how to describe that thing, but it's about radical self reliance and expression, and the timid, survival wise, need not apply. If you can stew in your own juices for a week without distress whilst partying with strange but interesting folk you may qualify. If you can do that in an aesthetically pleasing way you will thrive, and be shocked upon entering "normal" reality when you emerge. It's life blood for creatives of all types. :thumbsup:

DJGoo

· #6 · Jul 23, 2010

Does that mean I can dance with glowsticks for a week without people shaking their head?

:headphones:
DJ

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 23, 2010

DJGoo said:
Does that mean I can dance with glowsticks for a week without people shaking their head?

:headphones:
DJ

Oh, they'll be shaking their heads, but to a techno beat and with a big smile. Amongst my neighbors last time were: a Hebrew rapper who gave me a book he wrote about the Mayan calendar. We let him use our motorhome generator to charge his notebook so he could edit his beats for the next evening performance. His nudist girlfriend who came over to drink margaritas and shoot the breeze during the afternoon lull. A globe trotting pro photog who was tickled $hltless about leaving his camera behind for a few days. The meat inspection station offering free mojitos on the way in, the impromptu gatherings of lit up mutant vehicles and bicycles on the playa at night while folks danced to a band on a stage attached to the front of a huge animated lotus blossom based on a tropical island mutant construction lift that reached 50' into the air. Or the chrome whale that disguised an articulated city bus with a party on the roof. A sculpture on the playa that consisted of a guyed off ladder that reached 100' into the air and you could climb it as high as you dared. You don't see that kind of stuff everyday, you know.

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DJGoo

· #8 · Jul 23, 2010

No but Daniel Pinchbeck talks about it a lot.

//Thread successfully hijacked...

:headphones:
DJ

lidarman

· #9 · Jul 23, 2010

Suddenly is seems appropriate to post the rainbow video...again.

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jul 23, 2010

DJGoo- Rock on bro. You can't afford it.

icegeek

· #11 · Jul 23, 2010

lidarman said:
Suddenly is seems appropriate to post the rainbow video...again.
...

I wonder about you, sometimes...

davidarnott

· #12 · Jul 23, 2010

The smell of us around you?

lidarman said:
Suddenly is seems appropriate to post the rainbow video...again.

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3

Ridnparadise

· #13 · Jul 23, 2010

Sounds like an interesting festival. So, meat is banned, but extravagant structures are cool. The human demographic must be interesting. Any chance this will expand to take over entire cities one day?

EBasil

· #14 · Jul 23, 2010

Meat is banned? What about my bacon bike?

davidbeinct

· #15 · Jul 23, 2010

Bucket list addition: smuggle steaks into burning man, burn and eat them.

David B.

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jul 23, 2010

Ridnparadise said:
Sounds like an interesting festival. So, meat is banned, but extravagant structures are cool. The human demographic must be interesting. Any chance this will expand to take over entire cities one day?

BM is not a festival, meat is not banned. The event is bigger than any individual's take on it, and more than one person can observe in a week.

The demographic is mostly artists so of course it's interesting. While it is a bicycle event by necessity, it is not a gathering of bicyclists, and it is not a spectator event. The price of admission and the cost and logistics of getting out there keep it pretty pure, although it's not like the early days. Never the less, when you get 35,000 artists partying in the middle of nowhere it is a hell of an event, and if you are an artist you bring home a lot of fresh enthusiasm. I most appreciate not having to view any commercial graphics or media, it's the most visually pure place I've been in that respect, all art all the time, delightfully ingenious solutions, many large steel pieces, another passion of mine.

I don't think there is a chance of taking over any cities, there are not that many enlightened people around.

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[email protected]

· #17 · Jul 23, 2010

bsieb said:
BM is not a festival, meat is not banned.

The demographic is mostly artists so of course it's interesting. While it is a bicycle event by necessity, it is not a gathering of bicyclists, and it is not a spectator event. The price of admission and the cost and logistics of getting out there keep it pretty pure, although it's not like the early days. Never the less, when you get 35,000 artists partying in the middle of nowhere it is a hell of an event, and if you are an artist you bring home a lot of fresh enthusiasm. I most appreciate not having to view any commercial graphics or media, it's the most visually pure place I've been in that respect, all art all the time, delightfully ingenious solutions, many large steel pieces, another passion of mine.

I don't think there is a chance of taking over any cities, there are not that many enlightened people around.

I am going, and it will be my second year. Part of the goal is the process of planning, building and tearing down of an entire city withou leaving a trace. I believe Black Rock City is around 50,000 people last year and this year.

Personally, I don't throw words like "enlightened" around. That is debatable.

bsieb

Discussion Starter · #18 · Jul 23, 2010

[email protected] said:
I am going, and it will be my second year. Part of the goal is the process of planning, building and tearing down of an entire city withou leaving a trace. I believe Black Rock City is around 50,000 people last year and this year.

Personally, I don't throw words like "enlightened" around. That is debatable.

Of course, perception being reality. The ingredients for enlightenment are certainly there, but it's what we make of it that matters. For me, I gain a lot of spiritual and intellectual insight from the experience, which is how I define enlightenment.

I agree that the City, which arises and then completely disappears in the course of a week, is magical from start to finish.

Do you keep a special bike for the event?

[email protected]

· #19 · Jul 23, 2010

bsieb said:
Do you keep a special bike for the event?

Nothing fancy. I purchased a beater Madwagon from a pawn shop on the way out of town to BM last year. I wrapped it in ELwire, and It held up fine. I havent ridden it since. I intend to tear it down, clean, paint, and reassemble it in the next couple of weeks.

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bsieb

Discussion Starter · #20 · Jul 23, 2010

[email protected] said:
Nothing fancy. I purchased a beater Madwagon from a pawn shop on the way out of town to BM last year. I wrapped it in ELwire, and It held up fine. I havent ridden it since. I intend to tear it down, clean, paint, and reassemble it in the next couple of weeks.

I have been thinking of putting some EL wire on the bike too, by welding little thimbles on the inside of the main triangle tubes and the front of the fork legs so it's visible from both sides. I used micro holiday lights wrapped on with inner tube strips last time, which had a look, but the EL wire is so much brighter and offers cleaner colors. How durable is the EL wire?

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