A graduate of London’s Royal College of Art has launched a service enabling cyclists to permanently remember their pride and joy once its cranks have turned for the last time.
Bicycle Taxidermy mounts handlebars on wooden shields, together with an inscribed plaque, taking its cue from hunting trophies.
That latter aspect also gives rise to the unsettling notion that celebrity chef James Martin might take a bit of an interest should the BBC Saturday Kitchen set be due for an overhaul any time soon.
Should your own bike not quite be ready for the final ride to the afterlife's version of the Champs-Elysées just yet, you can buy purpose made models of different types of handlebars for £100 plus postage and packing.
Regan Appleton, Bicycle Taxidermy’s founder, describes it as “The loving and lasting solution for your mechanical bereavement.”
On the Bicycle Taxidermy website, she adds:
An eccentric side project born out of too many sleepless nights at the Royal College of Art and a homesickness for the rugged Highlands. Bicycle Taxidermy first began on a couple of memento mori for my father’s once prized but long discarded mountain and road bikes.
One could argue that this process was born out of a post-modern disdain for the conspicuous consumption of disposable objects but in reality it was a bit of laugh taken too far and turned into a bit of an obsession.
I can provide a couple of services. The first is a taxidermy service for client’s retired steeds. An epitaph, saying what you wish, is engraved in stainless steel of the horned beast’s legacy. It can be backed on either a scorched or bleached European oak plaque sealed with natural beeswax, a couple of 22 or 28mm chromed fixing brackets and a wall mount.
We can send this piece out to you; you can send us the handlebars or if you visit a couple of affiliated bike reclaimant shops they’ll buy the rest of the bike off you and we’ll collect and mount the handlebars from them before sending them, mounted back to you.
The second is for purpose made mounts; the same mounting strategy can be applied to newly sourced handlebars. I focus on chromed Chopper, Cruiser, Pursuit, Butterfly and Dropped bars. Others can be used but I’ve found these to be the best.
Further information on Bicycle Taxidermy can be obtained by emailing Info [at] BicycleTaxidermy.com
Simon has been news editor at road.cc since 2009, reporting on 10 editions and counting of pro cycling’s biggest races such as the Tour de France, stories on issues including infrastructure and campaigning, and interviewing some of the biggest names in cycling. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, his background has proved invaluable in reporting on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, and the bike industry. He splits his time between London and Cambridge, and loves taking his miniature schnauzer Elodie on adventures in the basket of her Elephant Bike.