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출처: 비피 / 바이크피플(자전거와 사람) 원문보기 글쓴이: 장수
The Rat Patrol Sweethearts are a division of the Rat Patrol that's all about girl stuff. Like welding and chopping bikes. Here are pictures from their first build day.
photos by kelly bryan
We met Melvin the Whacky Wheeler at the Chicago South Side St. Patrick's Day Parade. He invited us to come up to Madison WI, former home of SCAB, to ride in their annual Art Bike Parade.
Despite the rain there was an impressive turnout. Most of them were bikes that folks had gussied up for the event. Even with the arrival of a lone tallbiker, we could find no trace of SCAB or any of its members.
The Whacky Wheeler uses an industrial wire spool from Delaney's Scrapyard and basically just rides on it, runs inside it or on top of it, and does all sorts of tricks. It's a terrifying motivation of way too much steel in a crowded, toddler-filled area.
Then we rode around town for a bit. We visited Dr. Evermor's Dreamkeepers. The feathers are rejected shear blades. In between the wings are snow machine fans that turn in the wind.
This collection of bicycles was purchased by the group of folks who have put on the Madison WI Art Bike ride for the last half-dozen years. They have been collecting fun and wacky bikes, mostly manufactured stuff like the Super Trick Cycle, the Giant Cruiser, and the Le Run, and have made a few crazy bikes themselves. They purchased this set of vintage freakbikes from a Shriner's Group.
These bikes are old, apparently made somewhere between 1920 and 1950 for Shriner's parades. There is no welding on any of them. The bodywork is linoleum or some similar material. They've been maintained and ridden all these years, and some newer parts have been used to replace worn out ones, but they seem to have come from a time when pennyfarthing wheels were plentiful and unwanted and welding was expensive or not available.
Most impressive is that the owners aren't interested in museum pieces- they want people to ride these bikes. That means they break sometimes, but so what? It always saddens me to see an old Schwinn in a store display, unridden. These are pieces of our freakbike heritage that I am honored to have seen and ridden. In fact, given the way bicycle manufacturing was widely inventive until the assembly-line standardization of the 1920s, these may well be the first aftermarket mutant bikes ever made.
photos by Pickl∃-Rat
submitted by my sister
Five Rats shipped out to Richmond, home of the Cutthroats, to battle in the trenches and blood-pits of Cycle Slaugterama. These are our pictures, by Stacee Droege and Neck-Rat.
After a brisk 14-hour drive in the back of a cargo van with our bikes, we pulled into Richmond. As with any Bike Club event, the way to find the right folks is to start riding around until you see someone welding on the sidewalk or riding a tallbike. We were also supposed to meet Cooter and deliver him a chopper to found Rat Patrol D.C. So we cruised.
We hit up the local alleys. We found them to be somewhat underdeveloped, but that just added to their rustic charm. The picture below shows a large mural in the alley behind an Italian restaurant. "A little Italian in every bite" it said, showing two young boys in a cooking pot showering themselves with fresh chopped vegetables. Appetizing!
Disaster struck almost instantly, when Stacee and I were goofing off and slammed into each other and flauta-ed her rear wheel. It was beyond re-stomping. But being wise in the Way of the Rat, we knew that a nearby university campus would offer scores of abandoned bikes, and sure enough, a replacement wheel was soon found. While we were fixing it a Cutthroat rode by and welcomed us, giving us directions to the hideout.
After a few hellos and a few beers, it was time to head to Belle Isle for the main event. The route to the river had an odd slope to it; the locals informed us that this was called a 'hill'. Those with experience of the perils of rear steering can imagine the terror of bombing down it on the Green Machine (a vehicle whose commercial incarnation was banned for its tendency to flip like an SUV full of orphans).
Then there was somea this...
Belle Isle was a great location. There were CHUNKs, BLBC, Zoobombers, and a variety of new or made-up gangs like the Rainbow Sprinkles Bike Club. One club (Hoopty something) actually made a bike-boat and rode it through the water to the island. That's Spidey there dressed like Sasquatch. There were also, unfortunately, a lot of expensive fixies around (far more than there were tallbikes and choppers). I guess this was somewhat of a spectator event and not a purely Bike Club gathering. Still, I wish they woulda screened for Presta valves at the door.
We presented Cooter with his chopper.
Being a maggot, we made him participate in all our hazing rituals...
...which he seemed eager to do. We even made him do the Whiplash versus the nefarious Brandy Gump. One dude refused to go against her because she was a girl. Obviously he didn't about Brandy Gump and her all-around ass-kicking abilities.
You know, maybe it was the drunken stupor, but I don't remember anyone noticing who won any of these competitions. Neck-Rat and I did the chickenfight race against CHUNK and he got tossed right off my shoulders onto his tailbone, but got up and finished the race. Stacee and I kicked ass in the chariot race until a diastrous wreck stole our victory right out from under us.
By the time dark rolled around everyone was plum tuckered out.
We didn't even make it to the show. We didn't even make it to the house they'd arranged for us! We made a campfire in Jesse's back yard and slept around it. The next day we visited some presidential graves and climbed around on a pyramid.
St Ratrick's week this year consisted of an epic ride involving grilled rodents, races against kids, TV smashing machines, and tallbike jousting in a postapocalypic wasteland.
Here are pictures from the parade that closed St. Ratrick's Week:
Check out Mratty's movie of the event here:
a selection of photographs by Ryan Bakerrink, covering the daylight portion of the first day: