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Jay's only been riding the new dragon bike for a few days now, and I had the pleasure of cruising with him last night as we dropped off some homemade apple pie (a la mode, of course) from our pot luck dinner to a friend who was tending bar at the Lone Palm on the other side of the Mission.

Thanks to Bike Rod N Kustom for posting this amazing cruiser, Elliot Norris' Full Tilt. If you've never read BR&K before, it's highly recommended. Great community site for the custom chopper and cruiser scene. A new 'edition' of this web magazine comes out, roughly, three times a year. And the editors host a cool series of events in Louisiana and New York.

So I've been thinking about the elements of a great cruiser ride. I won't go into the obvious ones right now, but I want to share one of the ones that's not so obvious.

Getting a lot of people into a small area.

Hey bike people,

There's an awesome discussion of an amazing chopper bicycle over at chopperbicycle.net.

Part of the discussion get into the issue of whether a beautiful chopper like this should have a fake engine that is purely cosmetic and offers no functional benefit to the rider.

Kipchoge and Eco invited me to a hard-rocking Manu Chao show on Wednesday night and uncovered a new use for the Down Low Glow. Our group of eight people was dancing in an enormous crowd at Bill Graham Auditorium. The room was dark, save for the strobe lights coming from the stage.

A few minutes into the show, we were already dispersed through the crowd. I caught a red glow in the corner of my eye and saw Kipchoge holding this intensely bright red line in his hand. It took me a minute to figure out he had grabbed the Down Low Glow from my bike. Our group came together and danced for a few songs before splitting apart again. Later we put the Down Low Glow on the floor and had a great disco circle a few minutes before a really hard moshing number came up and I grabbed the lights so they wouldn't get kicked.

Check out the full description of Olli Erkkilã at Bike Rod 'N Kustom.

At the Maker Faire (www.makerfaire.com) May 25 and 26, Fossil Fool taught a workshop on how to make a one-of-a-kind bicycle audio system.

Topics included:  

- Overall concepts

- Picking amps and speakers and batteries.

I rigged my favorite speakers to my new Soul Cycle Chopper, to prototype the sound of my new custom cabinet. To power the speakers, I used a small digital amplifier similar to the ones in our Soul Cycle Head Unit.

Above: Fossil Fool's new ride -- the Soul Cycle Chopper.

This shot reminded me of the classic image of New York's first hip hop DJ, Kool Herc.

Kool Herc, pioneering hiphop DJ's classic convertible

Kool Herc was the first to introduce the spoken word (rap) to dance parties, and the first DJ to play just the breaks, or sweet moments of a song, instead of the whole songs.

With its bulging top tube and kinked handlebars, Monroe's new ride shouts 'Stretch Chopper.' Even the large front wheel, while certainly outside of the standard chopper aesthetic, seems pleasantly contrary.