Filed under: Etc.
Autoblog Project Garage: Hot Wheels, Big Wheeler
Living in the Bay Area, we get our fair share of interesting activities. Some are more benign than others, but for seven years, a small band of friends have decided to relive their youth by temporarily shutting down a one-block long portion of Lombard Street –- known as the Most Crooked Street in the World –- to run their childhood conveyance in a spectacular showing of grace and stupidity. It's referred to as BYOBW, or Bring Your Own Big Wheeler.
This year, we decided to join the fray, and in order to do so, we needed a Big Wheel. With forty dollars and an hour of our time, we built our plastic steed the night before the big race and decided to document it here.
The full story of our Easter exploits is forthcoming. But in the meantime, follow the jump for our compelling build up.
The night before the big race, we headed down to our local Toys 'R Us and for the bargain basement price of $40, we were able to get a vehicle that met the "race's" requirements: a kid's first ride, specifically with plastic wheels (no rubber tires allowed). Note the brown paper lunch bag, which contained some of the smaller pieces.
We picked out this model because of its adjustable seat. However, the maximum weight of 70 LBS had us a little concerned (at a waifish 140 LBS., worries about bending the plastic frame came to mind).
The furthest seating position was still pretty close, so we drilled four of our own holes to move it back an extra inch or two. Crucial for our comfort, or at least we thought.
After some banging and screwing, things began to take shape. Next up, the totally irrelevant addition of steering.
Done! Our ride was complete. Our only concern at this point, considering our feet would be dangling past the front forks, was the rapidly spinning pedals. We considered trying to chop off the metal protrusions and plastic pedals, but we didn't have access to the necessary tools. Plus, it was 1 AM and we had entirely too much to drink. Oh, wait! We forgot the stickers!
Note the glowing exhaust tips and shiny rolling stock.
On either side of the handlebars, our Hot Wheels trike came equipped with buttons to row through the gears. It wasn't quite as intuitive as Audi/VW's DSG, but it served the purpose.
Not only did our fantastic plastic creation come equipped with 21st century shifting technology, but we also apparently installed a turbo at some point (upper left). Notice our maxed out speedometer and tach (they never seemed to work right).
More stupidity to follow. Stay tuned.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
geo.stewart 10:44AM (4/09/2007)
should have gotten the Green Machine. that was the BADDEST 3-wheeled ride to have before you moved up to a Schwinn BMX
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MikeUF 10:51AM (4/09/2007)
I'm waiting for the video and pictures of the actual ride...
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Matt Dell 11:19AM (4/09/2007)
This is hilarious!
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jvvv 11:27AM (4/09/2007)
nice effort to keep us entretained :)
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Martin Bjornstrom 11:43AM (4/09/2007)
I posted a video from the 2007 BYOBW on YouTube yesterday!
Its right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5lI6Y6DF4E
The race was great by the way!
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James Dehnert 12:42PM (4/09/2007)
Lombard St, eh? Years ago a few friends and I did our own Big Wheel Challenge, but we rode from the summit of Mt. Diablo (Thats in the east SF Bay Area). The trick was we went in the winter, at night, on a night with a full moon. When we went into the part, big wheels hidden, the ranger told us we pretty much had the place to our selves. Perfect!
Big wheels are the ultimate drifters, so we had miles and miles of fun, but eventually the wheel centers melt out, so in the end that was our limiting factor.
The next year, we knew what to fix! ;-)
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billy 2:01PM (4/09/2007)
"should have gotten the Green Machine. that was the BADDEST 3-wheeled ride to have before you moved up to a Schwinn BMX"
Um, you mean Schwinn Sting Ray right? The original SUV. Slick tire up front, knobby in the rear, and seating for two (three if you used the ape-hangar bars).
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Jonathan Fung 11:03PM (4/09/2007)
Hah. Nice Autoblog stickers. Way to improvise when you can't afford real vinyls. :P
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amp 1:23PM (4/10/2007)
Big Wheels...you learned from an early age that FWD sucks, but can be stupidly fun.
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