Bike Rack from (the Temple of) Heaven

I realize how far behind I have gotten in my bike rack posting. J. Dach reminds me every day. This will be rectified, starting today!

While Jonny will be disappointed to not three-peat, K. Edwards deserves a shout-out for the magnificent specimen of bike rack she found in Beijing, at the Temple of Heaven.

Pretty impressive, although I'm not entirely sure what purpose it serves - isn't the actual fencing enough? Or is it keeping people away from touching it? Props to China for getting matchy-matchy and painting it white, though. 

OK. More posts to come on a regular basis, I promise. Just keep sending me the photos and I will keep writing ridiculous descriptions about your favorite man-made moveable barricade. 

THREE bicycles out of four bicycles. 

BRATW: Mandela Edition

This post comes to you AGAIN from J. Dach, but for good reason. This is a tribute to the late, great man whose funeral is today. An inspirational man who truly made the world a better place.

No rating necessary. 

(And yes, Mr. Dach - you even wrote the headline of this post.)

A short update in haiku form

Bike rack blocks my path
It would be annoying but
I can submit it.

(Courtesy BRATW MVP contributor J. Dach.) 

(Four bicycles out of four. Obviously.)

Partisan bike rack in Tamarac, Florida

You'd think it'd pretend to be bipartisan for business' sake

This quick blurb comes from M. Hupp, who points out that while bike rack remains universal for political parties across every spectrum, every so often one decides to display its preference for one candidate or another. Here's an example of a piece that picked up a Romney sticker....

However, I'm sure that piece of bike rack was super sad not to be included in the election day parties of the Republican Party, who decided to opt for some crazy clear barricade (that seems kind of dangerous, if you ask me):

Behold the creepy force field around the stage

Note that it just looks like everyone is well behaved and keeping away from 10 feet (standard buffer distance)...but a very, very clear plexiglas version of bike rack is used here. Crazy! And kind of weird if you ask me. I don't like it. Thanks to N. Kaine for pointing this out!

For partisan bike rack and...uhhhmmm, the absence of bike rack, ZERO bicycles out of four.
(But a zillion points in my heart to Nat and Megan.)

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. 

Mini and maxi bike rack - and the return of the blog

Ladies and gentlemen. I've been very remiss lately, and I apologize. But this blog is here to stay, and dammit, I WILL update it. Hopefully more often than every seven months.

My passion for bike rack has not waned, nor has yours - I get photos of bike rack every week, so there's lots of good material here.

So, let's kick this off with a mega issue of bike rack small and tall. Now, this is not a new topic. You can see tiny bike rack here and here, and large bike rack here - but it keeps popping up wherever bike rack might be needed. Which is EVERYWHERE. (This blog would be completely moot if that weren't true...clearly.)

From my dear M. Hardin comes this entry from a Walgreens in Davenport, Iowa. It's small, it's clearly just for actual bikes, but it fits the profile - you can move it, you can use it for barricade for, um, less statuesque people, etc. So maybe bike rack for people my height?

Mr. Rose sends us this example from New Orleans. While not exactly tiny in height, it's got some....length issues. I guess it's not the size, it's how you use it? (Rim shot)

Not to be outdone, the J.W. Slider caught this tiny painted version in the U.K. (Londontown to be exact) guarding...well, I'm not sure exactly what it's guarding but it's doing one hell of a job.

Off topic - why is that plastic chair chained to a dolly?



The last entry features the ladies showing off the tall, tall bikerack. My BFF M. Goodman submitted this entry of some formidable height, guest-starring one D. Rosenzweig and C. Waitekus at UPenn. Looking good, ladies. Looking. Good. But what is that for? That is some serious barricading off. I mean, Crystal is one tall lady - god knows how shrunken I would have looked next to it. (Very, is the answer.)

Thanks to everyone for playing. Clearly one bicycle for every photo posted here. FOUR bicycles out of four.



Also, thanks to everyone for reading and continuously sending me photos. Don't stop doing that. Ever.

Thanksgiving Day parade bike rack. So topical.

I've been hanging on to this goodie of a post for quite some time now, as it's very seasonal and pretty much appropriate exactly one day a year. But friends, that day is TODAY and I'm so excited to present...Macy's (tm) Thanksgiving Day Parade Bike Rack!!!

This treat is from M. Goodman, who actually sent this to me last year but I felt like it deserved prime-time placement for the holidays. As she is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, not only am I thankful for these photos but for her as well, as she keeps me sane when I am trying to navigate a 12-passenger van and pick up a pizza in rural Iowa.

Anyway, the bike rack featured here is from New York, where the huge parade inflatables are stored, overnight and protected from harm using your standard-issue bike rack. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Of course, the bike rack is somewhat secondary to the inflatables themselves. While in the photo above, we have some cute, very PG Christmas ornaments - classic stuff. I only mention the MPAA rating as the next photo, to the right, features Mr. Kermit the Frog in a weird, compromising position. I'm sure he's, uh, totally upright for the parade, but for storage...yikes.

 


So while I'm here - thank YOU to everyone who has sent in photos (and continues to do so) the last two-plus years. Could not do it without everyone. And that's as mushy as I get.

Ahhhh, bike rack. So versatile. For basic bike rack doing what it does best, THREE bicycles, but minus one for the weird storage of Kermit. What would Miss Piggy say?!