Ofana'eem, Part 3: Random Oddities

The DBS (Department of Blogular Services) is threatening to put The Cycle in blog foster care and arrest me for Blogular Neglect if I don't get posting ASAP. So it's time for the freak show I promised in my last post, lo those many weeks ago.

First up, since I got a request for a cargo bike, and since I'm nothing if not a serial audience panderer, here you go:

I have no idea what's going on here. I just managed to catch this from across the street before the rider saddled up and headed off. And yes, I know, that's not a cargo bike... it's a bike towing a trailer. Think of it as an ancestral Xtracycle... or the B.O.B. trailer as reimagined by C.H.U.N.K. 666. (whoa, just used up a week's supply of periods...) 

I think the towing bike is a rat-rodded chopper model that I saw elsewhere and coveted greatly. Here's an example (lacking the bespoke trailer) outside the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv: 

These look like kids' bikes (like the Schwinn choppers you can get in the States), but all the ones I saw were piloted by adults. The thought of rolling up to my office astride one of these bad boys is almost too delicious to ponder. 

And now (mental drum roll), the image that (apparently) no one was waiting for... it's the CAMEL ON A TANDEM! And, if that's not enough, he's with his friend, the FROG ON A BICYCLE! Be amazed! Be astounded! Or at the very least, be bemused:

I wish I could tell you what this was all about. We just happened to walk into some kind of street festival/live music thing in Zion Square, Jerusalem after a long day of wandering the city. The pilot/wrangler of these beasties just rolled them around the area attracting attention. The camel also featured a huge, homebrewed two-legged kickstand to keep things upright while at rest. I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, a captain could get in there behind the camel's neck, poke his head out of a hatch, and actually ride the thing... or maybe I just wanted to believe it so badly that it felt possible. The frog has clearly usurped a rider's hope of climbing aboard and riding away.

Looking through ye olde picture-taker, I still have electric rental bikes, a real bike shop in a mall, and -- my personal favorite -- the Little Black Basket, every Israeli cycler's must-have accessory. I'll get those written up, queued up, and out to the adoring masses just as soon as my little fingers can tap them out.