how to fly into Reno, pick up a bike, and get to the gate?

[stew]

to agree with graidawg -

You don't need a bike. Walking around BRC is great and you will discover many things that you'll miss on a bike. And really, if you don't have a plan yet of how to dispose of your bike afterwards, then don't even bother getting it.
I remember years where the playa was so bad that we left the bikes at camps on most days. We'd even walk to trash fence playa art, and it was fun!

[bennetthaselton]

OK so I rented a bike from Playa Bike Repair camp. It seemed like the easiest.

So now what I'm wondering is -- of all the pages on burningman.com about bicycles:
http://www.burningman.com/preparation/e ... bikes.html
http://www.burningman.com/on_the_playa/ ... playa.html
http://www.burningman.com/preparation/t ... Bikes.html

including discussions about what kind of bike to bring, how to pack it out, etc. -- why do none of them mention anything about the option to rent bikes on the playa, which for many people would be the overwhelmingly simplest option? (Even if it's arguably off-topic for the Reno page, I'd argue 90% of the people looking at a page about bike options in Reno, would potentially be interested in the on-playa rental option.)

Is it because Burning Man has some rule against promoting enterprises being run by particular camps? That seems odd since they apparently have no rule against linking to off-playa businesses.

[FIGJAM]

Why don't you start a thread with everything you've learned?

It might help somebody.

[Sham]

Is it because Burning Man has some rule against promoting enterprises being run by particular camps? That seems odd since they apparently have no rule against linking to off-playa businesses.

I dunno!

[graidawg]

I suspect because you can't rent bikes ON the playa, it needs to be sorted out beforehand (ideally including payment) or its commodification. which as you know have having read the survival guide and 10 (most holy) principles is strictly VERBOTTEN.

now you notice how you have rented it before the playa? also if PBR don't want to mention their services here (if indeed they can) that is not our problem is it?


anyway this is all guess work personally i walk as i may have already mentioned

[theCryptofishist]

Is it because Burning Man has some rule against promoting enterprises being run by particular camps? That seems odd since they apparently have no rule against linking to off-playa businesses.

I dunno!

"Apparently" being the operative word. As far as this board is concerned, you cannot post your business or your friends' business "cold". If someone asks a question, a pertinent answer that recommends for or against a particular business entity/product is okay.
And there's not a whole lot in the Jackrabbit Speaks, afaict. I rarely actually read it.

[dragonpilot]

why do none of them mention anything about the option to rent bikes on the playa, which for many people would be the overwhelmingly simplest option? (Even if it's arguably off-topic for the Reno page, I'd argue 90% of the people looking at a page about bike options in Reno, would potentially be interested in the on-playa rental option.)

I don't think there's a person here who would object to a Playa bike rental service...shit, they sell ice and coffee...clear contradictions to the non-commecial clause. Why don't you just start this up yourself? I'm sure hundreds will flock to your bike rental camp and you'll make a ton of money. Start this year with just 2-3 extra bikes...expand in future years once you get the lay of the land.

[bennetthaselton]

@dragonpilot not sure if you missed it but I was saying that someone *was* already doing this (playabikerepair.com), and I ended up renting from them; my confusion was over why the "bikes" section on the Burning Man website -- in the midst of all their advice about what type of bike to bring, how to repair it, how to get it out -- doesn't mention this option at all, which for many people would be the overwhelmingly most convenient option.

[FIGJAM]

Because convenient and Burning Man don't go together!

First responces are linked to "self relience", so it's not thought about a lot.

[dragonpilot]

@dragonpilot not sure if you missed it but I was saying that someone *was* already doing this (playabikerepair.com), and I ended up renting from them; my confusion was over why the "bikes" section on the Burning Man website -- in the midst of all their advice about what type of bike to bring, how to repair it, how to get it out -- doesn't mention this option at all, which for many people would be the overwhelmingly most convenient option.

My apologies...I thot you were advocating that someone should start an "on playa" bike rental service. Anyone can engage in any commercial activity prior to arrival and after leaving the Burn, of course. Sometimes the discussion regarding decommodification becomes blurred as do various endorsements. I don't believe I've seen anything on burningman.com that specifically endorses a particular company, altho Jack Rabbit Speaks puts out a list of Burner-friendly commercial enterprises that sell Burner-specific products.

People rents RVs, yet there is no mention of renting RVs. People rent camping gear and there's no mention of that. Burners rent tons of things for their trip to Burning Man, and nary an honorable mention.

If someone needs something they need but ask here and most likely someone in the forum will point the way...but we can't hold everyone's hand, as helpful as we might like to be. And you are a good example of what a little self reliance can do...at least with regard to finding a bike.

[bennetthaselton]

Why not just host the burning man info pages as a wiki? Having the "bike" page link to a camp that rents and repairs bicycles, is exactly the kind of information that would probably be put there if it was hosted as a wiki. If they're worried about people vandalizing the wiki with junk posts or off-topic advertising, they can restrict wiki editing either to highly trusted people (to pre-emptively prevent abuse), or to people whose identities are known (e.g. Burning Man ticket-holders -- that won't pre-emptively prevent abuse, but at least you can sanction blatant rule-violators after the fact).

Generally, I think there is a common bias towards efficiency in terms of tangible things (food, water, trash, pollution) but not for intangibles (mainly time). Suppose you optimistically assume there are ONLY 10 other people like me who spent an average of an hour reading the survival guide, the first-timers guide, the official "bikes" pages on burningman.com, and posting in forums, looking for information about how to get a bike to Burning Man, before someone finally said "You can rent a bike on the playa." If someone had spent one minute editing the burningman.com "bikes" page to say "And here's where you can rent a bike on the playa", that one minute of editing time would have saved 10 hours of searching time for everyone else. That's a far greater benefit to the world than packing down your trash so it fits into a single plastic bag. If there's too much of a time bottleneck for the people who have editing privileges on the site, then the wiki would help with that.

I think the biggest favor you can do for the world is not to be completely self-reliant, but to be time-efficient in a way that involves mutual reliance (you spend one minute posting information that saves me an hour of searching; at some future point I'll do the same for you, and we both come out ahead), and then use the time savings to do something else useful. I really, actually did blow off helping a friend move because I was busy trying to find information about how to get a bike to Burning Man; if the "bikes" page had just had a link to the bike rental camp, I would have been done, and I could have gone and helped him. If they do create a wiki for next year, I'll happily volunteer to add whatever I learned this year, if it would save time for other people.

[gaminwench]

I googled playa bike rental and the first two hits are the folks you're renting from. Took about 4 seconds.

Shouldn't you be packing?

[bennetthaselton]

Yes, but if you Google "burning man bicycle rental" like I did (which is the more natural thing to search for), the first three hits are all the pages on burningman.com, which lead to a list of links for bicycle rental shops IN RENO (not on the playa). Since I assumed that the burningman.com pages were organized to give people the most useful information, I started going through that list of links, trying to find out which ones were not sold out, trying to find out how to get a bike from the shop to the playa, trying to find out which if any of the Burner Express buses would stop to let me pick it up -- all because the "bikes" page on burningman.com didn't say "and here's a link to rent a bike on the playa". If it had been hosted as a wiki, it probably would have said that.

[theCryptofishist]

My guess is that the llc wouldn't want to have a wiki--they are careful about what kind of information they put on the website. (Including this section.) I'm not going to rely on the non-profit changing that.
Those of us who have been for on the boards for a while might want to mention the "google 'playa' plus..." when we're helping people find information.

[stew]

I really, actually did blow off helping a friend move because I was busy trying to find information about how to get a bike to Burning Man; if the "bikes" page had just had a link to the bike rental camp, I would have been done, and I could have gone and helped him. If they do create a wiki for next year, I'll happily volunteer to add whatever I learned this year, if it would save time for other people.

I have an idea: You create that wiki! I'm sure it would be a great year-round gift to many.