// Custom Art for the Bike
Posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Part of the cool thing about cycling is that it lets you express yourself in endless ways. You can express your concern for the environment by riding places that you would normally drive. You can express your artistic taste by picking a frame you like, and adding colored bar tape or grips, pedals, lights, or other parts. And changing how you express yourself on the bike is much easier and cheaper than say, changing the color or style of your car.
But though you can customize your bike with tape or lights, you’re still just using mass-produced items that anyone else can buy. Your bike is special because of how you put these items together, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could really personalize your bike so that it was unique and different from any other bike out there?
Sounds good, right?
Welcome to the world of custom bikes. For some, a custom frame with a custom paint job is the way to get a truly custom bike. But much as we all want a custom frame, we can’t all afford one.
Does that mean you’re stuck with a boring bike? Maybe it did once, but not anymore!
Instead, you can get a custom designed head tube badge!
Designer Isabelle Eyman is based out of Emeryville, and has been designing custom head tube badges for a few years now. She designed the badge seen on the right for a custom frame builder who was also based out of Emeryville–it was a way for his brand to be distinctive. But she also does more personalized badges for individuals too. If you’re looking for a way to get your bike to stand out in the crowd, this is definitely it. In fact, it’s arguably easier to incorporate different styles of art into a head tube badge than into a frame, which after all, must still have the proper engineering to function as a bicycle. These gorgeous head tube badges are really like jewelry for the bike–beautiful, personal, and unique.
One of my favorite designs by Isabelle is actually the one she has on her personal track bike. It’s really just a simple frame that’s just the right size to hold a mini tarot card. The idea behind the badge is that on race day (or any day, I suppose), the rider pulls a card from the deck, and that’s the card for the day. It can be slipped into the head tube badge as a predictor of how the day will go, or a reminder of fate or destiny. It also has some roots in the fixed gear culture, because the original spoke cards used by fixie riders were usually tarot cards. It’s a great personalization and update of that cultural phenomenon, and it can be continually changed for easy and unique personalization.
Of course, a personal head tube badge isn’t as cheap and easy a solution to lack of personalization as changing your bar tape color (less than $10 for new tape!), but it is infinitely more stylish and more personal. There’s currently a bit of a wait (about three months) for personal badges from Isabelle. That’s because the design process takes time (and approval from you), and the work involved in these detailed pieces of jewelry for the bike takes time, too. Just take a look:
But if you can stand to wait a couple months, you’ll definitely be pleased with your results! To see some of Isabelle’s head tube badges up close, please visit the exhibit Urban Renaissance: New Vistions of Jewelry and Sculpture which is currently running at Arts and Crafts Cooperative Inc., located at 1652 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley.