Handmade custom bike rack in Burma

Today's bike rack selection comes from a very special gal, Samantha (Ms. Finke if you're nasty)... she provided a veritable buffet of bike rack from Burma on a recent trip, where the variety is just astonishing. Don't believe me? Just take a look and tell me you're not blown away from the types of bike rack here.

The variety to the left is from the Swhedagon Palace in Rangoon. Very fancy - as bike rack in a palace would be - and intricate.

Slightly fancy. Just a little... 

Next up, some silver bike rack. While this similar to what we'd call the normal bike rack, the lines are horizontal and gussied up with a little bit of decoration. Ever so slightly fancy!

I am definitely saving some of the best for last though.  Feast your eyes upon these beauties (and I'm not just talking about S. Temaat or N. Kaine, either) - handmade. Teak. Custom. Bike rack.

Okay, I hear what you are saying. "But this isn't bike rack. This is barricade. You can't chain your bike to this!! That's breaking a rule!!" Fine, whatever. But it's in the spirit of bike rack, and serving the same purpose. And it's beautiful. So top bitching and check it out!

Ms. Temaat, giving this stuff a hearty thumbs up. I mean, who wouldn't want this at home to partition some stuff off? It'd make a very lovely headboard.

And to finish this post up, Mr. Kaine, giving us his best GQ pose. Nice work, everyone. Who knew the Burmese would really step up their bike rack game??

For showing who is who in the world of bike rack - THREE bicycles out of four, one of each of my dear friends featured in this post. 

Fancy New Orleans Bike Rack

It's been awhile, bike rack lovers.

The bad news: prime advance traveling season is currently over.

The good news: prime advance traveling season is currently over, so I can catch up on the tons of bike rack posts everyone has sent me recently.

If you've sent me a photo, I'm working on the posts as we speak. So keep sending me those photos. And there are some amazing bike rack photos to talk about! Bike rack porn. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.

Ahem. This is a family blog!

Back to the business at hand. The lovely and very talented A. May-Sealey has sent me a photo that I think really captures the grace and flavor of New Orleans that you just won't get anywhere else.

Again, more fancy bike rack. They just keep getting fancier and fancier! What will they think of next? Will they come in solid gold? (Oh wait, that has already happened.)

I love that this is weathered but still very lovely. Which is exactly what New Orleans is - a little weathered, a bit beat down but still able to stand tall, proud and unlike anything you've ever seen before! Poetry in bike rack.

And for that - THREE bicycles out of four. The only way this thing gets better if there's a po' boy attached to it. (Mmm.)

Getting fancier in Chicago

Today's quick bike rack nugget is from N. Cohen, with a side of guest star H. Johnson (well, her foot anyway). She spotted this fancy bike rack in north Chicago, down by the river.

Bike rack, hanging out, by its onesies. Why? What for? Why is it so pretty? Who knows? Who cares!

Bike rack: Getting fancier every day.

For fancy bike rack with, as Nora points out, Democratic-themed Toms on, THREE bicycles out of four. Next time, we want to see Houston in there!

Hot and sweaty bike rack in Virginia Beach

This fancy piece of bike rack on the beach was sent to me from my dear V. Sanders a few weeks ago. I don't think I've ever seen such fancy scroll work on bike rack before, and it's even in a different color! Very lovely.

Even more confusing is why there's fencing that's behind the bike rack, or if the bike rack is protecting the fencing and then the railing behind THAT, but hey, whatever it takes to keep the masses from the beach. Kind of overkill, no?

Anyway, thanks for the fancy rack, Valentine, and as always, keep the photos coming people!

For totally unnecessary gilded and scrolled bike rack - THREE bicycles out of four.

Feelin' fancy free in New Caanan

Continuing with the fancy bike rack theme, this one comes to us via the lovely A. Muglia. She points out that in New Canaan, Connecticut, that bike rack is not only freshly painted but is also somewhat decorative. And a little dainty. Kind of like Alice herself!

I love that this type gracefully swoops up at the corners, as if to bestow a bike-racked smile upon the viewer. Such a gentle way to block off parking.

Anyway, thanks for this delightful installment. I don't think we've had so much hoity-toity bike rack but apparently it's out there.

For fancy smiling bike rack - THREE bicycles out of four.

Covered and costumed bike rack in Ohio and D.C.

While I do enjoy bike rack in all it's bare glory, sometimes a little covering up is in order. Today's bike rack features a little peep show - bike rack in disguise! 

The specimen to the left is from Miss Prentice, sending us a shot from what I believe is the Cleveland Indians's stadium, Progressive Field. Progressive indeed - check out the wheels on the left of the bike rack, enhancing it's portability (and avoiding the "how do you carry covered bike rack" question entirely). 

Proving Ohio is not the only advanced state here is bike rack from the Capitol Lounge in D.C., brought to you by C.Welker. This, friends, is some stylish bike rack - not only is it powdercoated white underneath, but is dressed up in logo-ed, custom-fitting covers suitable for bad weather and warm nights. 

Dressed up bike rack with a little something extra? Yes please! THREE bicycles out of four. 

Artsy and branded bike rack in Rio

To continue with the Brazil bike rack blitz this month, today's veritable feast for the eyes comes from S.Finke (also, a feast for the eyes....rawrrr or some other animal sound inserted here) from her recent jaunt to the party capital of the world. We've got a variety of beautiful pictures capturing both the late-night Rio de Janeiro scene AND bike rack, in tasteful sepia tones. Me likey.

And, we also have a shot of Mr. D.Teater here, doing his best Japanese girl impersonation, complete with peace fingers and head tilt, in front of what looks to be GIANT bike rack. That's not a visual trick, friends, that is just some very, very, very tall bike rack. What a beast it would be to move that. The bike rack, I mean, not Duncan. 

Next up: getting architectural and all fancy in front of what looks to be some government buildings - or at least an old and fancy palace of some sort. To fit the fancy nature, looks like Rio sprung for some custom white bike rack, complete with their own branding and pretty blue logo to match the blue domes. 

Here's what looks to be a variation on the theme - squared off edges instead of roundness; a little less rusted (I mean, hard to keep perfectly clean in all that humidity, no?) and gridded off lines. How exotic.

Pretty fabulous, I must say. Just missing a carnival girl in a thong and a headdress! THREE bicycles out of four.

Lebanese-flavored bike rack

I've seen a lot of different bike rack coverings - from bunting (my personal favorite) to black or blue Banjo fabric, to some weird tablecloth-like plastic, and even placards taped on in a futile attempt to cover the metallic gray expanses of welded piping.

But somehow, the spray-painted variety has totally escaped my notice and my clearly limited and stunted imagination.

Today's lesson in decorative bike rack comes from J.Slider and Spicy, from a jaunt abroad in Beirut. Clearly, instead of leaving bike rack to be a cold silver, they jazz it up with some spray paint in the motif of their national flag. I mean, why didn't anyone think of this before? So simple. So patriotic.

Words totally fail me.

Which is rare. (And short-lived.)

Anyway, you can see it being deployed here giving some color and cheer to an event with some heavy-duty military equipment in the background. It really makes the par-tay pop, don't you think? I think that home decorations dude with the extra H in his name from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Thom or something, would totally approve of the DIY-ness of the whole affair.

I give this bike rack THREE out of four bicycles - I'm withholding one star because the Lebanese could have gone the extra mile and put the tree on there too.**

** Although, let's face it - if and when I get ahold of my own piece of bike rack, and paint it in the manner of Old Glory, I may skip the whole fifty stars business. I mean, it's bike rack - it ain't going in the Smithsonian.

Imperial Palace of Japan Bike Rack

And so we begin - today's very special bike rack comes courtesy of one D. Ceasar, straight from the royals of Japan.

Man, the Japanese really are better at everything - note their neat signs, double-wide stature and

wheeled appendages. Those be some fancy-pants barricades.

They've even managed to put some English on there to deter the riff-raff from even THINKING of breaching the secure area. Color me impressed.

I give this bike rack a rating of FOUR bicycles, out of four.