I have nothing against art, but every time I see an installation utilizing bicycles it makes me cringe. Do I go up to it and see what bikes were actually used to make this or just forget it? I mean, assuming that an artist is not a bike geek and needs 20 bikes for a work, should I be concerned if s/he uses a bike I'd consider to be "better" than the art deserves?

Anyway, a larger version of this work was on display at last year's Festival of Lights at our local arboretum, but it was fenced off and lighted so not much detail could be determined, and I just noticed this smaller one next to the nearby farmers' market so I decided to take a closer look. Fortunately for my bike sensibilities, no C&V was harmed in the making of this thing. There were lots of gaspipe big box examples represented, mostly juvie and kids' bikes, but there was one Concord mixte worthy of note; it looks like a 22" frame so is pretty unusual.

So relax, your Pinarello grail bike is not in this pile, but that is not to say it has not been used in some other installation like this.

Note the bike parking stanchions.

There are an infinite number of old bikes that are not worth fixing up. The Free Spirits and Huffys and Murrays number in the hundreds of thousands and a static sculpture is a very apt use for them. Also, there are often invisible 'deal breakers' on nice frames, too, like rust perforations, seized bbs, cracks, that you wouldn't see when admiring the art from afar.

I understand and appreciate that, but if a "good" bike winds up in something like this I'd be willing to bet that it was selected because it fit the available space and not because some damage had relegated it to non-cycling use and it fit. Wanna bet that Concord couldn't easily be returned to service?

I feel your pain.

I doubt that would happen often, if at all. The bikes are probably collected from the discard piles at co-ops (which have been removed from the Grade-A and -B stream and destined to be used as scrap metal) or found abandoned. My experience with such bikes is that the bikes you get for free are often worth exactly what you pay for them. There are too many pickers who would catch anything usable or valuable bike long before a sculptor/welder gets his grimy hands on it. At least I hope so

I would think so, too, but I've seen so many examples of nice bikes being trash picked here on the forum that it does make you wonder. And not just from the curb, but from landfills. Just going by the numbers I would expect the vast majority to be low end jobs but I'm sure there are some nice ones end up used for things like this as well.

Bike art is awesome, no matter what bike went into its construction. That is all.

I agree. All said and done, unless it was the top line bike of the time (per manufacturer/framebuilder) then in the scheme of things it doesn't matter.

It's a damn good question: does the artist consider the bike that goes into the bike art piece? The artist should; but unless stated by the artist, I would doubt it is.

What annoys me is someone taking a couple old 52T chainrings, bolting three brake levers to it, calling it "wall art coat hanger" and putting a $105 pricetag on it.

I never thought much about it.... thanks, now you just added to my C&V bicycle/recycle paranoia. My guess, and it's just that, is that the artist used whatever bikes they could most cheaply obtain (that's what my artist friends seem to do with other "found object" art). That means possible dealings with friends and neighbors, recycle centers, landfills, scrapyards, etc. And, we've read the stories here, with eager eyes and lustful hearts, of great acquisitions with these same Bicycle Penthouse Forum origin stories. I realize my passion to save vintage bikes outweighs that of 113% of the typical persons out there; so my policy of "no bikes should be sacrificed to art" probably doesn't match that of John and Mary American.

my guess is it's not a an artist at all, but a serial "killer" of vintage bicycles. notice the placement of the giant fake christmas tree next to the empty bike lock stations, also in the form of bicycles. coincidence? hardly. security video will likely show a loner type that steals bikes from the nearby racks and places them in the tree. it's likely his personal war on christmas. my fear is what he will add to the tree when he runs out of bikes. i just hope he doesn't turn to wheelchairs, especially those in operation.

If a mixte was the most notable thing you could find in that pile, no harm done.

Yeah, those bikes would look much better in my backyard:

Maybe someday, you'll discover the artist in you.

(And no, saying "It's art if I say it's art" doesn't apply to throwing old bikes in a pile and letting them rust.)

I'm just saying that in at least one of the works below there is probably a bicycle that you would like to have.

Burning Man:


Overton Park TN:


Some unspecified work:


"Cyclisk" in Santa Rosa CA:


Ackley IA

I made my own bike-art Halloween decoration.



The bike I used was/is a well rusted, non-functional, big box store, 20" boys bike.... with no value.

In the next town over is a lugged frame mixte someone has spray painted gold, tires and all. It is attached to the fence in front of their home for yard art and has been out their for a couple years now.

One of my other hobbies is collecting vintage Tootsietoy cars and trucks. One I had been looking for was a cement mixer like the one I had as a kid and had been unable to find one in decent shape. We went to a BBQ place someone recommended and it was decorated with all types of vintage and rustic items. On the wall above our booth was the very truck I had been looking for in above average condition...... except for the holes they had drilled through both sides of it to for the deck screws holding it in place.

Epic.

A pile of fixies welded together wouldnt bother me so much.

Love it. Bicycle yard art ROCKS!!!

It's better than this.
https://vimeo.com/71609883

Oh, man. where did you get that doggie skeleton?
Cool.

At a CVS drug store... I think. I got the skeleton spider (front wheel) at the same time too.

I had this moment the other day when I saw someone's bike art and one of the bikes had a really nice pair Mafac brake levers. Had to really use restraint to ask if I could take them off the bike.