Pic of the day

Phenomenal bicycle photographer Matt Lingo has posted a black and white photo story called “Alex’s Cuevas.” In fourteen images it conveys the story of his friend Alex while rebuilding a new Cuevas bike after a hit-and-run totaled his previous hand-built Cuevas frame.

I also love this image Matt posted earlier in January.

Beautiful, evocative work, Matt! Keep it coming!

Tim Woody submitted this image to the Bikejuju Dark Days photo contest, and it seems like the perfect way to inaugurate a new Bikejuju feature: Freak Bike Fridays! (Inspired by, but not to be confused with GoMeansGo’s ever-wonderful Penny Farthing Fridays).

Previous freak bike posts:

• Velopunk Adventuring On Tallbikes Through Indonesia
• 1952 Freak Bike
• Bikes of Burning Man 2009

While my friend David was in Botswana last year, he began taking pictures of the everyday cyclists he met while riding around Gabarone, and asking them a few questions. I’m pleased he’s sharing the images with Bikejuju, and I’ll be doling them out in the coming weeks.

Kelly Kontsenyane:

I ride for 30 minutes to get here to work. I ride my bicycle for exercise. It is not dangerous to ride here because I go away from the road. I get fresh after riding, not tired. I get strong. I have the power, so I do not get weary or tiredness. I feel energetical after riding. Even if I am in work, I can still patrol. On Sunday in the morning when I don’t work, I will ride on my Humber to the border of South Africa with my little brother for exercise. I have used my bike for a life time. I paid 400 pula for it.

My father passed along a photo he took of this great bicycle rack outside his dentist’s office in Salem, Oregon.

Welcome to 2010, which rises like this blue Phoenix, emerging ripe with possibility from the ashes of 2009.

More from Axum to come, stay tuned.

Our friend Cabelo in Brazil has posted this lovely image to his blog.

Previous Cabelo posts on Bikejuju: illustrations, posters, street art. Cabelo’s art is “copyleft,” feel free to re-post with attribution.

So at the end of the day we’re all just monkeys riding bicycles. But, uh, some of us more than others.

(Photos borrowed from various places, including Ratrod and Flickr users bongopix, amangla007, David Wilmot, Paul Cowell, Painted Lotus, Shjaan V, N Dangthuy).

Oh but wait there’s more…

From Telegraph.co.uk last December:

When one of the monkeys refused to ride on a child’s bicycle in a street performance in Sizhou, in eastern China, their owner beat it with a stick. Although they were tied to the man with ropes attached to their collars, the monkeys appear to have decided to fight back.

The two animals came to the defence of the third monkey, grabbing the stick from the man, pulling on his ear and biting his head. When he dropped his cane, one monkey snatched it up and began beating the trainer on the head until he broke the stick, witnesses said.

The dazed trainer told his audience: “They were once wild and these performances don’t always come naturally to them. They may have built up some feelings of hatred towards me.”

This guy better watch his ass:

I’ve got my hands pretty full this week trying to pick every ripe blackberry in West Seattle by bicycle. More substantive posts are in the hopper, but for now, “Ryan Nyquist. Van’s Triple Crown (Stop 3). Oceanside, CA. 09.27.2003″

See it full size in The Shamptonian Institute’s Flickr stream, and then go watch his amazing stop-motion film The Falcon. (Via Moontroll)