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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Artsy / Bikes Japan Wins...

Posted by Matt Stangel on Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 3:00 PM

...the proverbial weird-bike arms race:

  • Image lifted from Wonderhowto.com
  • "My name is Dekochari. My father was a pinball machine and my mother was an ATM."

These clunky things are called Dekocharis, which essentially means "art-bike" in Japanese. They look a lot like props from sci-fi flicks— which isn't surprising, considering that the Dekochari is a product of a cultural obsession with Truck Yaro, a film from the 70s featuring lots of disco-era, blinky-light studded trucks. Here's a clip from the film:

In the Wonderhowto.com article which turned me onto these robot bikes, the Dekochari Wikipedia entry was quoted as stating, "current Dekocharis have elaborate light displays and many include hi-fi audio systems and cup-holders."

Oh Dekochari, you had me at "elaborate light displays," but hi-fi sound systems to boot?! Do we have anything like this in town?— I just Googled the hell outta "Portland" and "Dekochari" and found nothing. Anybody know something I don't?

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