Does Anyone Know What’s Going on with These Wooden Wheeled Bikes in Center City?

July 12, 2012

1–2 minutes

Spotted this weird, abandoned looking bike on Pine street at Broad a few nights ago. It looked like an abandoned bike that had artificial wooden wheels attached where, perhaps, the real wheels were stolen.

After posting the photo to the left on Instagram, asking if anyone knew anything about it, a bunch of people chimed in saying they had seen similar wooden wheeled bikes all around Center City (the photo on the right was even sent to me by @Hexopod) with one woman speculating that maybe it had something to do with the city’s push to clear abandoned bikes locked up, one man suggesting it was maybe just some UArts kids’ art project, and another man finally surmising that it was probably a joke for wheel stealing bike thieves.

Does anyone really know? It’s cool, I guess. Or at the very least interesting enough to get so many people noticing them and chatting… Hhhmmm.

What’s the deal?!

2 responses to “Does Anyone Know What’s Going on with These Wooden Wheeled Bikes in Center City?”

Bob Bruhin

July 12, 2012 at 3:32 pm

Reminds me of the all-wood bike Marco Facciola built in 2008. If the ones in Philly are also functional, they clearly aren’t build by a purist as extreme as Facciola.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/01/boy-builds-bicycle-entirely-ou.php

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cmehiel

July 20, 2012 at 1:56 pm

Here’s the low-down…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bike (Ph)ix: Stripped bicycles being faux-fixed on the streets of Philadelphia by local artist Corrina Mehiel

WHAT: Bicycles that have been locked to bike racks throughout the city are regularly stripped of their wheels, seats and handlebars. These bike frames end up staying locked to racks for months and sometimes years.

This summer Philadelphia based emerging artist Corrina Mehiel has been ‘fixing’ these stripped bikes by replacing the missing parts with non-functional parts, to give the members of the community a different experience and new way to view no-longer-functional objects in public spaces, as well as to suggest new approaches to ‘fix’ broken objects on our city streets in new creative ways.

WHEN: This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, “Fixed” bikes can be found throughout center city, but for a limited time only! As announced last month in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the mayor’s office is sending a task force to remove and recycle these stripped, abandoned bicycles on July 23, 2012.

To see bikes that are a part of the Bike (Ph)ix project, and to meet the artist, contact Corrina Mehiel at 717-525-2323, or at corrinamehiel@gmail.com.

WHERE: Bikes are currently installed and ready for viewing and documentation at:

Broad and Lombard (SW corner)
Pine between 15th and Broad (North side)
Pine between 9th and 8th (South side)
Walnut and 18th Street
Spruce and 13th Street
Lombard and 16th Street
15th between Pine and Lombard (West side)
12th and Vine (West side)
11th and Appletree
11th and Cherry

WHO:

Contact: Corrina Mehiel corrinamehiel@gmail.com

blog: objectsofobjects.blogspot.com

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