Tallbike Rodeo

The Boston/Cambridge area has a preponderance of artists, engineers, and just plain freaks who build things. What happens if you put ‘em all in a pot and stir ‘em up? I wanted to find out. And a Tallbike Rodeo seemed like a perfect juncture of art, engineering, and daredevil badass-ness.

The idea lounged around in the back of my head for a while. But it became a reality when Lisa Monrose from the Museum of Science took it on as a project. She got people working and even wrangled some grant money and sponsorship.

What we didn’t know was that all the tallbike freaks already knew each other through SCUL. And there was a lot of suspicion among them that we were trying to co-opt their home-grown culture to promote some corporate agenda. Heavens forefend!

Eventually we met with Fleet Admiral Skunk of SCUL who turned out to be an awesome and genuinely sweet guy. He saw that we were just working to promote creativity and ingenuity through bicycle culture. And he could totally get behind that. So we had Skunk to thank for the ten tallbikes and riders who showed up for the big day!

So anyway …. races, obstacles, and a demolition derby — all on tallbikes. What could possibly go wrong? Enjoy the photos. Many were taken by Monica Parker-James.