Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thumpin' Bikes or Dance-Dance Pedal Revolutions


The New York Times has an article and slide-show up about the latest trend for Guyanese and Trinidadian youths in Queens, strapping ginormous stereo systems onto bikes, as in bicycles.

The bikes roar, but the booming sound has nothing to do with engines — because there are no engines. They are ordinary bicycles, not motorcycles, although these contraptions look and sound more like rolling D.J. booths. They are outfitted with elaborate stereo systems installed by the youths.

“This one puts out 5,000 watts and cost about $4,000,” said Nick Ragbir, 18, tinkering with his two-wheeled sound system, with its powerful amplifier, two 15-inch bass woofers and four midrange speakers. It plays music from his iPod and is powered by car batteries mounted on a sturdy motocross bike.

Man, I'm all for crazy custom jobs on vehicles that will "freak the mundanes," from custom paint to covering your car in AOL cds, but this one has got me head scratchin'. Still some of these set ups are kinda cool, and definitely the result of a lot of time and effort. Having just had a birthday, I'm going to try and keep seeing it that way... though my knee-jerk reaction is closer to that of my grandparents whenever one of those cars would roll-by with a stereo that registers on the Richter scale.

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