End the Yellow Bike Program

[nncoco]

It is time to end the idealistic Yellow Bike program.

There are too many abuses. People are not only hiding them in camps but now they are stealing and re-painting them as personal transportation for the week. The MOOP report said 10% of yellow bikes were missing and 10% were disguised or repainted, used as exclusive personal transportation for the week and then abandoned. No wonder you can never find one!

Yellow Bikes also teach people to "just grab a bike" which likely leads to other "bike borrowing" when the frustration of seeing yet another person emerge from inside a camp with a clean one likely hidden in their tent or under an RV. Meanwhile you are standing in disbelief dehydrated and exhausted after a fruitless search for one.

There is no accountability for the bikes. They start as shitty Wal-Mart cruisers and decay rapidly. Dangerous ones are out there injuring unsuspecting people. A girl in our camp did a header on one with a stripped gooseneck and hit the playa so hard she couldn't move. Alone and was covered in blood she waited for a random her to take her to Rampart. Her burn was fucked. She spent the rest of the week in camp with a nasty raspberry across her face.

People need to bring or rent their own bike and then take it out.

End Yellow Bikes!

[Lonesomebri]

The BRCCP will send this idea to committee, but this comrade swore off the Yellow bike program the exact moment he spotted a shirt-cocker riding one.

[Captain Goddammit]

Well, there's always the "this bike has no brain, use your own" theory. If the gooseneck is stripped, don't fucking ride it.
Read the back of your ticket.

[nncoco]

Stripped goosenecks reveal themselves in many ways. She stopped hard and then BAM! You or I may have given that bike a pro quality safety check but not everybody knows what to look for.

[Captain Goddammit]

OK, end the whole program then.
I wonder if she'd have made sure her own bike was in great shape and never crashed it?

[danibel]

20% of them bikes either taken off playa or disguised is not 80%. I rode one this year and honestly, it was a pile of crap. I would rather walk than ride one of those, but some people do not have a choice.

[ygmir]

don't like it? don't use it.

easy.

[Captain Goddammit]

The First Mate and I rode several Yellow Bikes. Most were OK, and the ones that had issues I took to my camp and fixed, like the sticker right on them requests.
Try being part of the solution instead of bitching that something being given to you isn't good enough.

[ygmir]

The First Mate and I rode several Yellow Bikes. Most were OK, and the ones that had issues I took to my camp and fixed, like the sticker right on them requests.
Try being part of the solution instead of bitching that something being given to you isn't good enough.

this too!!

[unjonharley]

Elliot's Bike Repair Camp will safety check a yellow bike and repair it if needed..

If the Repair Camp is not open.. Tools are on a table for you to do some work.. If you can't turn a wrench ask some one to help.. Thousand of burners are everyday bike riders that do there own repair..

[Ratty]

Well, there's always the "this bike has no brain, use your own" theory.

Also don't climb on unsafe structures.

Try being part of the solution instead of bitching that something being given to you isn't good enough.

Good advice.

don't like it? don't use it.

Life is full of choices.

No wonder you can never find one!

Well there you go. Problem solved. If you can't find one you can just pretend that the program doesn't exist. Don't worry about us, save yourself.

[ACfromSAC]

They yellow bike program is awesome.... one of my favorite participant supplied gifts for sure. Bikes are a notch below food and water on my burn necessities list... the playa is just too vast to be without one for a week. It's the asswipes that abuse the program that are the problem. Two years ago, myself and a group of burner friends were talking about the program and kicked around the idea of piggy backing the yellow bike program with a blue bike program. Same basic idea, but blue painted bikes, rather than green, and blue bikes are for playa use ONLY. Once you hit the Esplanade, you get off and walk through the city. Basically, they'd be more for exploring art and the playa than a "one way ride" like the yellow bikes. Part of the plan was to encourage people to "BOO THE BLUE". Basically, if you see someone cruising on a blue bike on city streets, give them a good loud BOO to acknowledge their abuse. Nothing too abusive, just a well deserved boo for not following along. Bikes would be labeled appropriately, alerting users. It's easy for someone to cruise a yellow bike into camp and stash it, but if a blue bike is spotted anywhere in the city streets, people would automatically know that it's not being used properly. Of course, that idea may ultimately be born from my love of booing in general.

[Ratty]

In a perfect world....That is a real nice dream. Some of the best things come from dreams.

[unjonharley]

The yellow bike program are a gift from the city.. The city stores these bikes for the next BM.. The blue bike program would leave blue bikes as moop at the end of a burn.. Great idea, Just some fly's

[ACfromSAC]

The yellow bike program are a gift from the city.. The city stores these bikes for the next BM.. The blue bike program would leave blue bikes as moop at the end of a burn.. Great idea, Just some fly's

Oh yeah, major logistics would have to be figured out (transportation, storage, maintenance). Hence the reason it ended as just talk. Maybe after I win the lotto and can afford to transport and store hundreds of bikes it will take a step toward reality.

[Elderberry]

The yellow bike program are a gift from the city.. The city stores these bikes for the next BM.. The blue bike program would leave blue bikes as moop at the end of a burn.. Great idea, Just some fly's

Oh yeah, major logistics would have to be figured out (transportation, storage, maintenance). Hence the reason it ended as just talk. Maybe after I win the lotto and can afford to transport and store hundreds of bikes it will take a step toward reality.

There's always crowd funding. Might be an idea people would like to donate money to. Might even be a tie-in with the artery.

[ACfromSAC]

Oh yeah, major logistics would have to be figured out (transportation, storage, maintenance). Hence the reason it ended as just talk. Maybe after I win the lotto and can afford to transport and store hundreds of bikes it will take a step toward reality.

There's always crowd funding. Might be an idea people would like to donate money to. Might even be a tie-in with the artery.

Very true. The ARTery tie in-is something I hadn't considered but makes a lot of sense, seeing as how they would be bikes primarily dedicated to exploring art on the playa.

[tamarakay]

Damn, my bike is blue.

[ACfromSAC]

Damn, my bike is blue.

BOOOOOOOOO!

[Elliot]

I rode two or three Yellow Bikes this year, and they all had severely under-inflated tires -- flat tires, almost. The cheapo inner-tubes on the cheapo bikes are simply not up to holding air for a couple weeks -- specially not after they are two or three years old. I see this very clearly with my own Loaner fleet.
So (if the program continues) I would suggest replacing all the tubes with the extra thick "Thorn Resistant" ones, which hold air much better. I pay only $6.70 for them, by the case. I bet Yellow Bikes, buying hundreds of tubes, could get an even better price.

I have always thought of the Yellow Bike program as somebody's art project. Any actual utility one might get out of it would be a bonus.

As for people getting hurt by riding a defective bike.... I blame it on video games. That is... few people seem to have any understanding of mechanical things anymore, which is a shame. So I try to teach young folks whenever the opportunity arises, such as when I fix bikes for neighborhood children here in Defaultia. Better to light a candle than curse the darkness, yes.

Now.... With all the ruckus this year over commodified camps... I'm getting ready to start saying "I told you so". For years I harped on the importance of protecting the Burning Man ethos. But nine out of ten responses voted me down, claiming "radical inclusiveness". Well, those radically included folks are abusing the Yellow Bikes.

All in all.... Life is good, Burning Man is wonderful -- and Carthage must be destroyed.

[Roberto Dobbisano]

real men ride unicycles.

[FIGJAM]

Real men ride unique cycles!!!

[unjonharley]

Thank you for fixing that Figjam

[Captain Goddammit]

By the way, I apologize for that stripped gooseneck incident.
I had rigged it for unjonharley but the son of a bitch got on the wrong bike.

[unjonharley]

By the way, I apologize for that stripped gooseneck incident.
I had rigged it for unjonharley but the son of a bitch got on the wrong bike.

Fuck you and the bike you rode in on....Nuf rain yet?

[Captain Goddammit]

It started a few weeks ago and hasn't stopped since.... why do ya 'spose I like going to the desert!

[ranger magnum]

They yellow bike program is awesome.... one of my favorite participant supplied gifts for sure. Bikes are a notch below food and water on my burn necessities list... the playa is just too vast to be without one for a week. It's the asswipes that abuse the program that are the problem. Two years ago, myself and a group of burner friends were talking about the program and kicked around the idea of piggy backing the yellow bike program with a blue bike program. Same basic idea, but blue painted bikes, rather than green, and blue bikes are for playa use ONLY. Once you hit the Esplanade, you get off and walk through the city. Basically, they'd be more for exploring art and the playa than a "one way ride" like the yellow bikes. Part of the plan was to encourage people to "BOO THE BLUE". Basically, if you see someone cruising on a blue bike on city streets, give them a good loud BOO to acknowledge their abuse. Nothing too abusive, just a well deserved boo for not following along. Bikes would be labeled appropriately, alerting users. It's easy for someone to cruise a yellow bike into camp and stash it, but if a blue bike is spotted anywhere in the city streets, people would automatically know that it's not being used properly. Of course, that idea may ultimately be born from my love of booing in general.

Great. Something else we don't need.

Do you really think someone is going to stop riding a blue bike as soon as they hit the esplanade? And other than "booing" them what's to stop them?

[stopgo]

I decided to walk to deep playa at sunrise this year they morning the ultra marathon was going on. I like heading out early in the morning, before it gets too hot and I ended up way out at the last outpost. As the sun was slowly rising and it was starting warm up when I realized that it was a long way back to camp. I was gearing up ready to head back, trying to decide if I should head over to the large gathering at the trash fence, complete with BLM trucks with flashing lights. I realized after a few moments that it was the famed sunrise dance party at robot heart when I stumbled upon a lone yellow bike sitting a few yards from the trash fence. Happilly I hoped on and slowly pedled my way back to camp. The bike was in decent shape and I was glad it was there.

That's all I got.

[Ratty]

I had 2 occasions to ride a yellow bike this year. I was glad for it. Art cars can dump you a mile from home. A stroll can end up being a journey.

[Navi_Keef]

somewhat off topic, but do you think it is unethical to cut locks off of locked up yellow bikes?