Trying to come up with a personal vehicle iceberg idea to match our Ice-Flø art car for Green Man '07. Call it a BergCycle, if you will.
The art car in question is to be a large and tall blue-lit iceberg (playaberg?) structure, doubling as a mobile LIVE music stage and DJ rig for non-stop party action, green style! We'll launch plushie penguins too!
In depth details as they happen are at our web site: iceflo.cliffypop.com/
BERGCYCLE
See the bergcycle2.jpg photo in this tribe for an illustration: pedalplaya.tribe.net/photos/...e4c6eb28
It has to be:
• simple to implement
• cheap to build
• solid enough to last a week (no MOOP droppings of bits!)
• must be lit up for night riding visibility
• lightweight and not to clunky or dangerous to ride
• and, of course, look icebergy and fun!
I looked quickly on the eenterwebs for anything similar that someone might have built but found nothing.
My first visualization glance would be a sort of hoop skirt for the bike.
The structure can’t be tall though it would be funny if it was built up to a pinnacle where a hole for just a head sticking out (maybe with a polar bear hat or seal head on the rider!).
The Bergcycle can stick out somewhat length ways rather than be very wide for riding safety in crowds. There’d have to be an door on at least one side in order to get in and out. Or, if it was a low iceberg design (not up to torso or the head), it could simply dip lower in the mid section so a person could step over the sculpture and inside where the bike is.
Little penguins ridin’ along would be über-cute!
Any help or ideas / helpful (or at least hilarious) comments are most definitely welcome. Thanks!
The art car in question is to be a large and tall blue-lit iceberg (playaberg?) structure, doubling as a mobile LIVE music stage and DJ rig for non-stop party action, green style! We'll launch plushie penguins too!
In depth details as they happen are at our web site: iceflo.cliffypop.com/
BERGCYCLE
See the bergcycle2.jpg photo in this tribe for an illustration: pedalplaya.tribe.net/photos/...e4c6eb28
It has to be:
• simple to implement
• cheap to build
• solid enough to last a week (no MOOP droppings of bits!)
• must be lit up for night riding visibility
• lightweight and not to clunky or dangerous to ride
• and, of course, look icebergy and fun!
I looked quickly on the eenterwebs for anything similar that someone might have built but found nothing.
My first visualization glance would be a sort of hoop skirt for the bike.
The structure can’t be tall though it would be funny if it was built up to a pinnacle where a hole for just a head sticking out (maybe with a polar bear hat or seal head on the rider!).
The Bergcycle can stick out somewhat length ways rather than be very wide for riding safety in crowds. There’d have to be an door on at least one side in order to get in and out. Or, if it was a low iceberg design (not up to torso or the head), it could simply dip lower in the mid section so a person could step over the sculpture and inside where the bike is.
Little penguins ridin’ along would be über-cute!
Any help or ideas / helpful (or at least hilarious) comments are most definitely welcome. Thanks!
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SF Bay Area
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Fri, May 11, 2007 - 11:32 AMP.S. We're Sonoma County based (Sebastopol / Santa Rosa). We need help with this freaking kewl project! Any fun-loving burners with project skills of any sort are welcome. We hold meetings often. Why not gives us shout? We're fun!
Visit our web site: iceflo.cliffypop.com/ -
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Fri, May 11, 2007 - 3:00 PMthe bottom of the skirt can be made of pvc piping, then attached to the bike with some rope or bungee cords. The icebergy material? silver or white sparkly fabric pulled taut? -
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sat, May 12, 2007 - 9:49 AMThanks for the reply!
FRAME
I thought about PVC but the problem is it can't be molded and shaped. With PVC it really would be like a hoop-skirt. it would be very even and rounded at best.
For a oddly shaped somewhat jagged icebergy look, it may have to be some kind of metal that is at once sturdy enough to retain a shape yet soft enough to bend and form. Anyone have ideas on a formable material?
COVER
The fabric I think can be, like you say, some sort of stretchy or spandex like fabric to pull taut over the frame. It would have to be sheer enough to let the blue EL wire light through which most of those fabrics are.
One issue is that the fabric has to be attached to inward forms of the frame. Icebergs often have indentions. They're jagged and angular and not very round. So stretching the fabric over the frame would hide the indented portions since the fabric would be stretched over one outer point to another.
Not sure... The fabric could have sewn fabric loops on the inside to tie around the indented frame parts. Or if it's rip-stop, maybe just poking a ziptie through the fabric and hope it doesn't rip free. If the fabric is like a sports jersey with little breathing holes, the small zipties would probably work fine. Plus that holey material would let the blue EL wire light though.
EL WIRE
Can't forget the EL wire. Luckily, it doesn't have to be too long. Probably between 12 and 15 feet for a lot of light and less on a budget. Are there any advances in super bright and low power wire lighting for cheap? A couple years ago it was still very expensive. Also it doesn't seem to be the brightest stuff.
I've heard rope lighting is getting brighter, cheaper, and smaller battery powered. I would rather have a continuous wire of light and not little bulbs though. It would detract from the even oceanic luminescence I'm going for. Think of how icebergs look just beneath the surface in daylight. The seem to glow brilliantly from within a deep blue. The EL wire would probably be the best for that effect.
Again, our Ice-Flø project site has some nice iceberg examples on the home page: iceflo.cliffypop.com/ -
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sat, May 12, 2007 - 9:38 PMmaybe you should use a trike for the bike and then you can have a stable 3 way set of points to bend a pvc or narrow pipe into an ellipse for your hoop.
this would greatly reduce wear on your bike. a recumbent bike would make it look more like someone was lying in the ice and pedalling ;)
there are used adult trikes for sale as well as conversion kits - tomkat on this tribe knows about those.
the fabric you stretch over could be both white and stretchy as well as shiny like ice....
for example, you could take this bike
sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/bik...549.html
or a slightly cheaper version
tune it up and attach extensions for the base maybe chopper forks? two pieces sticking out the back at angles for the back of the elipse, maybe one coming down from the front of the headset (welded on) for the front skirt - with an opening for the wheel to turn or just all the way over it....
you could also fabricate a tiny canopy too and put real ice in a little cooler in the back.
good luck! catch tom and CTP and other burning bikers, and cyclecide and the wooden bikes guy, we'll all be here next weekend (messing around with bikes and whatnot)
makerfaire.com/
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sat, May 12, 2007 - 9:41 PMthis is a picture of toms conversion of a regular bike
pedalplaya.tribe.net/photos/...433a7aec
here is a chrome trike conversion kit
cgi.ebay.com/20-INCH-CHR...cmdZViewItem
walmart (ugh anyway they are cheap) has these
www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do
and even a folding trike
www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do
just my reco! -
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sat, May 12, 2007 - 9:43 PManother nice thing about 3+ wheels is that it lets you sit and stand still, or move through crowds at an inch a minute, or whatever is needed to go faster or slower without losing balance. i think trikes might not be as efficient as a bicycle but they are more stable...
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sun, May 13, 2007 - 8:48 AMPVC indeed can be shaped. take a propane torch (or hot air gun) and heat the area you desire to bend (dont hold the torch at only one spot, nor too close... keep it in motion), once the area is warm enough, reshape as desired, then allow to cool (or wet with cool water to force cooling) once done, the PVC will hold this new shape.
caveat: this may collapse the internal diameter of the pipe, put kinks, burn marks, etc to the pipe, but since you're not using it as a pipe, does it really matter?
i've used this method to make multiple pvc didjeridoos, knife sheaths (heat and flatten with clamps), etc -
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Sun, May 13, 2007 - 10:03 AMExcellent help! I agree the trike idea is essential. Now that I think about it, by Friday (playa-time), it gets pretty hard to navigate through the hoardes. Riding a bicycle with a iceberg mounted on would make it a lot harder.
Being able to sit still and ride as slow as I want without strain is definitely the best way. Thanks for all of those conversion and trike links too!
Plus, the trike offers more and easier of mounting points for a frame. PVC might work for bending. I'll give that a try and see how it pans out in experiments.
Thanks again. Any other ideas are welcome.
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Re: BergCycle Concept to Match Ice-Flø (iceberg music stage) Art Car
Tue, May 15, 2007 - 12:34 PMOMG!!
Let me know if you need any penguin assistance on Playa!! :)
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!
♥ it!!
