Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday we brought you a gallery of home-modded bikes and asked you if you knew of anything crazier. The post was so popular, and we got so many great suggestions, that we decided to go again. The only disappointing part? Of the mountain of suggestions as to the true nature of the "Pizza Bike", none were plausible, despite being very funny. One more thing — far too many of you suggested that it might be a condom carrier. What’s wrong with you guys?

Photo Credit: TheThompsonFive/Flickr

Pub Bike

One of the reasons I ride a bike is so that I can roll back from the pub and not lose my drivers license (although in Germany, oddly, you can lose your car license for being drunk in charge of a bike).

This monster takes it slightly further, putting the pub on the bike. The PedalPub holds 16 people, although only ten of them have to pedal while the others relax. The original is Dutch, but we picked up on the Minnesota version as it was pointed out to us in the comments and also because it highlights an interesting Minnesota law.

According to the PedalPub site, Minnesota State law was amended to allow passengers to drink while pedaling. Here’s the exception:

a vehicle that is operated for commercial purposes in a manner similar to a bicycle as defined in section 169.01, subdivision 51, with five or more passengers who provide pedal power to the drive train of the vehicle

Product page [PedalPub] 

The Poppa Chop

Far too dangerous looking to be practical, the Popa Chop is a chopper built to wheelie. Made by Gadget Lab reader Macbaen, the bike balances on the back wheels of two kids’ cycles. As you can imagine, its almost impossible to steer. In fact, it ended up "attracted to the tree across the street".

Poppa Chop [Macbaenchunk]

The Schloooong Bike

This ridiculous example of bike hacking is brought to you by the Rat Patrol. It’s classed as a Limo Bike, but lacks any frills. The stretch-cycle is, as you’d expect, dangerous — under the listing for Most Memorable Ride we find the following: "Ones where critical bits didn’t fall off!"

Sadly, the Schlooooong Bike is out of action — it was actually stolen, presumably by someone with a sense of humor.

Schlooooong Bike [Rat Patrol]

The Aquaduct

Not a homemade mod, but fantastic nonetheless. The Aquaduct is designed for developing countries where water is both far away and dirty. You cycle the empty bike to the well or river, load it up and, on the return journey the water is pumped by pedal-power through a carbon filter and ends up in the top tank.

The design is still a concept (we first covered it a year ago, but if there’s anything we know about the developing world is that the people are very inventive hardware hackers. Hopefully somebody will build their own.

Aquaduct blog [Aquaduct]

Water Bike Pitches Pedal Powered Purification [Gadget Lab]

Sport Utility Bicycle

Here’s another ute, this time fashioned from two bike frames and one shopping cart. Don’t overload it, though. The maker, called TheThompsonFive, tells us how it rides:

Yeah it’s heavy, but it rides pretty good. The only problem I’m having is that the basket has quite a bit of flex in it, which is a little unsettling going around bumpy turns. I may have to work out some cross bracing. I wonder if they will let me take it into the supermarket.

Photo credit: TheThompsonFive/Flickr