Swing & Wrong-Way Bikes

Trick cycles from Cyclecide.

On a Swing Bike, Laird Rickard demonstrates how both back and front wheels rotate out of the plane of the frame.

On a Wrong-Way Bike, gears between the handlebar stem and front fork make the front wheel turn in the reverse direction of the handlebars.

MAKE Projects Editor Paul Spinrad had a great time trying to ride two trick bicycles, the Swing Bike and the Wrong-Way Bike, from the bike rodeo Cyclecide (cyclecide. com). He spoke with Cyclecide’s Jarico Reesce, Jay Broemmel, and Laird Rickard about how the bikes work.

Photography by Sam Murphy

Paul Spinrad: Where did the Swing Bike come from? Jarico Reesce: Back in the 1970s, Donny and Marie Osmond actually invested in and promoted a commercial swing bike as a wacky new bicycle for kids. This was when the Schwinn Sting-Ray was popular. But too many kids fell and got hurt, and the

bikes didn’t sell. Like with any my hands. industry, innovative things JR: We tell people at our get shelved and come back show that you need to be an years later. ambidextrous dyslexic with Laird Rickard: The trick to attention-deficit disorder to riding a Swing Bike is steer- ride it, and you have to look ing with your butt, which directly into the sun and ride most people don’t get when as fast as you can. they first hop on. That’s why We challenge the audi-they end up falling down. ence, saying we’ll give $50 JR: Laird here is pretty good to anyone who can ride it. at making the back wheel Of course no one can. In our alternate between left and show, it’s always like, are we right. It looks cool when you entertaining the audience, or get a rhythm going. Riding are they entertaining us? Ev-fast down hills, a Swing Bike eryone gets a chuckle when really turns heads, which is some über-biker type in one of our objectives with spandex gets on the Wrong-our bikes. Way Bike and just flops and PS: And then there’s the falls. Wrong-Way Bike, which PS: Can anyone ride it? amazed me because JR: Yes, we have a clown I couldn’t ride two inches who can ride it, Otis. And on it, even if I crossed he fits the criteria of being

ambidextrous, dyslexic, with attention-deficit disorder. Jay Broemmel: I got the idea for the Wrong-Way Bike from David Apocalypse, who said it was an old carny trick. He would have the gears covered up, and charge people to try. He’d be like, “Two dollars! All you have to do is ride this bike ten feet, get across that line, and I’ll give you 50 dollars!” Then he’d ride it himself and say, “Look how easy it is!” PS: Those old carnies!

JR: Of course, we don’t consider ourselves carnies. We consider ourselves show-men. If anyone calls us

See more photos of Cyclecide’s bikes at makezine.com/11/cyclecide.

Make: 73