The Frankenstein bikes taking over the streets of Britain
- Text by Paul Calver
- Photography by Paul Calver
Bike culture’s ongoing and colourful resurgence is a constant source of inspiration – and awe – for communities around the globe. From the Fixie fiends who ruled the mid-noughties, to moustachioed Bike Polo teams; from devout road racers to couriers-turned-champs, the humble bike has lived a thousand different lives since it’s birth in 1917.
But perhaps nowhere is this constant state of evolution playing out with more humour than in the world of Monster Bikes. Behold the Frankensteins of the cycling world.
Tim Davies
Sculptor / Hackney, London.
Tim Davies runs training courses for disaffected youths and started making tall bikes “as a tool to facilitate creativity”. Over the course of ten years, he’s made about fifteen bikes and runs workshops teaching others to do the same. Why? Because, he says, they are an end in themselves.
“I like building them and teaching other people to build them because of the confidence it gives you in approaching problems and finding the solutions yourself, instead of going down the shop and spending money,” he says. “Most of the bikes I build are just for fun. When I ride them around people come out of their shops to look, car mechanics are interested and kids stare and wonder what the hell is going on.”
Peter Georgallou
Artist / Molesey, Surrey.
Peter Georgallou is a man of many occupations. As well as being “that guy who holds things up” at auctions, he splits his time between photography, art directing an opera company and working in three different bike shops. And his ride totally reflects his eclectic personality.
“I like commuting on Roger [the bike] because it’s silly,” he says. “If I ever wake up in the morning and feel a bit serious I just think, ‘You know what, today I’m going to wax my moustache and ride to work on a tall bike.’” And he’s not going to get serious any time soon.
“I think of [Roger] as a pedal-powered euthanasia machine,” he says cryptically. “If you cycle 180 miles at a rate of 20mph, a bolt of lightning goes straight into your head.” Okay then…
Billy Prendergast
Brixton Cycles worker-owner / Brixton, London.
After a chance encounter at a bicycle wheelie race, BMX pro Billy Prendergast changed the way he looked at scrap metal. “I saw a guy on a tall bike,” he remembers, “and I thought it was such a great idea. I had a go and I loved it.”
Suddenly every discarded bike part in Brixton Cycles, where he is part of the worker co-operative, had potential and when some old frames turned up weeks later, he decided to get crafty.
“A friend had a welder and I just thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ll give it a go,’” says Billy, “and it came out pretty good. I love having a laugh on bikes… I’ve met most of my mates through bikes… Why do I like them so much? It’s obvious isn’t it? I just love to ride.”
Alan Ross
Metal sculptor / Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.
Craftsman Alan Ross likes to keep things homemade. In fact, it was while drinking some of his self-brewed cider with friends in Herefordshire one night that he came up with his latest DIY masterpiece.
He explains: “My friends and I had been at the cider one evening and I’d just learnt to weld. My wife was away for the weekend and I saw a chopper bike on the Internet and thought, ‘I can make that’. I’ve always been a cyclist but I’d never cut a bike up before.”
Undeterred, the enthusiastic fella got straight to it and found a way to unite his love of cycling and creativity. But why the two-wheeled obsession? “Bikes are transport, freedom, company and somewhere to think when I need to think about things,” he says fondly. And the sculptor is now totally hooked on building monster rides. “I do have a plan to make a tandem eventually. Not just any old thing, it will be a quality machine.”
This story originally appeared in Huck 22 – The Counterculture Issue.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
5 decades ago, Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel redefined photography
Evidence — Between 1975 and 1977, the two photographers sifted through thousands of images held by official institutions, condensing them into a game-changing sequence.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Warm portraits of English football fans before the Premier League
Going to the Match — In the 1991/1992 season, photographer Richard Davis set out to understand how the sport’s supporters were changing, inadvertently capturing the end of an era.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Tbilisi nightclubs to reopen for New Year’s Eve after 40-day strike
Dancefloor resistance — Georgian techno havens including BASSIANI and Left Bank have announced parties tonight, having shuttered in solidarity with protests against the country’s government.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Why did 2024 feel so unreal?
Unrest & Stagnation — With unending mind-boggling news stories, the past 12 months have felt like a spiral into insanity. Is AI to blame or a hangover from the pandemic? Newsletter columnist Emma Garland digests the mess.
Written by: Emma Garland
The party starters fighting to revive Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival
Free the Stones! delves into the vibrant community that reignites Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival, a celebration suppressed for nearly four decades.
Written by: Laura Witucka
Hypnotic Scenes of 90s London Nightlife
Legendary photographer Eddie Otchere looks back at this epic chapter of the capital’s story in new photobook ‘Metalheadz, Blue Note London 1994–1996’
Written by: Miss Rosen