Swing and Wrong-Way Bikes

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

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 Cyclecideโ€™s Jarico Reesce, Jay Broemmel, and Laird Rickard about how the bikes work.

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 didnโ€™t sell. Like with any industry, innovative things get shelved and come back years later.

Laird Rickard: The trick to riding a Swing Bike is steering with your butt, which most people donโ€™t get when they first hop on. Thatโ€™s why they end up falling down.

JR: Laird here is pretty good at making the back wheel alternate between left and right. It looks cool when you get a rhythm going. Riding fast down hills, a Swing Bike really turns heads, which is one of our objectives with our bikes.

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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.

PS: And then thereโ€™s the Wrong-Way Bike, which amazed me because I couldnโ€™t ride two inches on it, even if I crossed my hands.

JR: We tell people at our show that you need to be an ambidextrous dyslexic with attention-deficit disorder to ride it, and you have to look directly into the sun and ride as fast as you can.

We challenge the audience, saying weโ€™ll give $50 to anyone who can ride it. Of course no one can. In our show, itโ€™s always like, are we entertaining the audience, or are they entertaining us? Everyone gets a chuckle when some รผber-biker type in spandex gets on the Wrong-Way Bike and just flops and falls.

PS: Can anyone ride it?

JR: Yes, we have a clown who can ride it, Otis. And 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. Heโ€™d be like, โ€œTwo dollars! All you have to do is ride this bike ten feet, get across that line, and Iโ€™ll give you 50 dollars!โ€ Then heโ€™d ride it himself and say, โ€œLook how easy it is!โ€

PS: Those old carnies!

JR: Of course, we donโ€™t consider ourselves carnies. We consider ourselves showmen. If anyone calls us.

See more photos of Cyclecideโ€™s bikes at makezine.com/11/cyclecide.

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Paul Spinrad is a broad-spectrum enthusiast, writer, maker, and dad who lives in San Francisco. He hatches schemes at http://investian.com.

View more articles by Paul Spinrad
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