This year promises to be a dusty one - there has been very little rainfall on the playa this summer, which means that the playa surface is going to be super loose, with "dunes" of dust spread around. Road or speed bikes with skinny tires are pretty much useless even in a good year; this year they'll be even more so. You pedal and pedal and watch the tires spin, but get nowhere.
The bigger the tires, the better. Mountain bikes and beach cruisers are the way to go!
The more complicated a bike is, the more room there is for trouble. The gears are going to get packed with playa dust. Oiling them just makes it worse, since the playa dust sticks to it and then becomes playa clay! If you can find a single-speed cruiser with big tires and a nice, wide saddle, you will be a happy rider.
Don't bring your thousand-dollar fancy mountain bike to BRC unless you're a savvy bike mechanic and can take the entire thing apart to clean it, oil it, and rebuild it post-Burn. It's better to find a used, beat-up but still good 'playa bike' for BRC. We have three in our storage shed in various states of repair that we use only for the Burn.
If you don't lock it when you leave it in a public space, it WILL GET STOLEN. Some folks are bad Burners and for some reason feel that bikes are community property. A friend of mine went to the potties, dropped his bike, and went into the blue room. Came out a minute later to find someone mounting his bike to ride away. WTF?? Fortunately he caught the guy and got the bike back... but still - be warned and keep that sucker secured! If you don't have anything available to lock your bike to, lock two bikes together facing opposite directions (Russell and I do this all the time) - or at least lock it so that the front wheel won't turn.
You must must must LIGHT YOUR BIKE! (And your person, but we'll get to that later.)
Remember: your headlamp might light the way in front of you, but you want to BE SEEN as well as see. There are a thousands of people, bikes, and art cars moving in every direction at night. You might be sober and aware, but don't count on others to be. EL wire, LED's, battery-operated xmas lights, and even the infamous glowsticks can be used to light your bike. Use them and secure them tightly! You should also have the requisite front and tail lights on your bike. There are even fancy LED spinners you can put on your spokes to light your wheels. Go all-out! It's safety bling!
The other added benefit to a well-lit bike is that you'll be able to find it again if you leave it somewhere. You'll see what I mean when you're on-playa and roll up to one of the big dance camps at night to get your groove on. Hundreds of bikes are parked in a swarm with no rhyme or reason; what seems like an open and easy-to-spot area might be completely covered by the time you come back for your bike. Friends of mine have even lost their bikes due to this! When you leave your bike, leave the lights on! And do *try* to park it intelligently, where it won't be a danger to other Burners on the move.
Don't bring your bike to the big burns, like the Man Burn or the Temple Burn. If you're camped way out on the outskirts of the city, bike up to the A road or Esplanade and find a good place to lock it, then walk out the rest of the way. There are too many people and things get crazy out there; bikes left everywhere present a safety problem. Plus, if you get inspired to join the mob on the front lines, get a chance to jump on an art car, or have to move quickly because it gets too hot, it's best not to be encumbered by a bike.
A tennis ball with a hole punched in it affixed with duct tape to the kick-stand gives you a better chance of leaving your bike standing, rather than dropping it in the playa.
Baskets or panniers are a wonderful addition. I hate carrying a heavy pack around, but you need to keep some of your gear on you on at all times (mask, goggles, water). I use my basket heavily through the week. I just secure a milk crate to the handlebars with zip ties and then line it with a draw-string bag. Be sure that items in the basket don't fall out when you lay your bike down - no MOOP is good MOOP!
Sore ass is a constant Burner complaint. Your bike seat might be comfortable on the road at home or for the occasional jaunt up a mountain, but day after day, in the heat and the dust, a bike seat starts to chafe and bruise those tail bones - and you want your taint in good shape should you get sexy on the playa. I use 3" foam, a piece of material, and a lot of duct tape to create cushy bike seats. Just cut the foam to fit the shape of the seat, wrap it in soft material, and tape it. Voila! I've also seen folks use old stuffed animals in basically the same way...
Having a horn, bell, or even a whistle on a string is another good safety measure for your bike. Most of the time you won't need it, but when you're in an area of thick crowds it's good to let people know where you are with a little toot-tooting.
Decorate your bike! People do all sorts of things to their bikes for the Burn. Mine has fur on the body and then I add a little fun here and there on the handle bars. Music players and water vapor misters are also great on a bike! I've had my bike covered in My Little Ponies (it was a rental - super stoked to have it arrived already blinged up with ponies!), with party beads, flower leis, whatever! Just be aware of potential MOOP when decorating your bike. Make sure everything on it is going to stay on it, even in harsh conditions or when the bike gets dropped and locked.
It's also smart to bring some basic bike repair supplies, like a pump, and extra inner tube, and some tools. If your bike gets trashed you might be able to find someone who can help you fix it, but your chances of doing so are even better if you have the materials to do it.
Be prepared to ditch your bike - but always retrieve it! Lost/stolen/and abandoned bikes are a HUGE problem for the staff of BRC. Don't be a part of the problem!
There are times when having a bike is great, but sometimes it's also a burden. For instance, in 2011 Russell and I cruised all the way to the opposite side of the city to catch a friend's DJ set at Boogie Knights. Typically, the schedule was off and he wasn't there, so we were trying to decide what to do when the epic mutant vehicle the Purple Palace rolled onto the playa, ready to take on passengers and head out for an amazing ride. Getting on a big (or any) art car can be tough; they reach capacity quickly and aren't often taking all-comers. We saw our chance and we took it - so we locked our bikes to a random sign on the 10 o'clock radial and jumped on board. We had an amazing night on the Purple Palace - best night on the playa in fact! We disembarked at some point after the Black Rock Horse burn and had to hoof it all the way back to retrieve the bikes. Totally worth it. Just make sure you lock your bike to something secure where it's NOT IN THE WAY and do your best to triangulate it's location so you can find it again later.
That being said, the open playa (where there are no art installations or easy-to-find map points around) is NOT a good place to leave your bike. You might think you'll be able to hike back out there and retrieve it later, but the likelihood of finding it again is very slim. We've found so many bikes abandoned out in the expanse past the Temple, and it's always a shame. If you're on foot out there and find one of those lost and lonely bikes, I say it's ok to take it - probably it was stolen to begin with and then ditched, and just straight lost by it's owner. However, if you take it - it's yours. Take it home and don't leave it on the playa for the clean-up crews to deal with.
A little note on unsafe bikes:
My first year, I was very dependent on friends for my playa gear. I was flying in and wasn't terribly Burn-savvy yet. A buddy (also a virgin) got a bike for me at a flea market that was too tall for me and didn't have good brakes. Once the dust got on the tires, the brakes didn't really work at all. I wrecked several times and avoided being injured by pure dumb luck. Apparently bikes with bad brakes are a common problem; a used bike one of my campmates picked up in Reno pre-Burn last year had none. I seriously recommend against using a bike with no brakes. Make sure you test used or rented bikes for good brakes BEFORE you get to the playa. No sense getting a head injury or breaking something because of a bad bike! A bike that's too small is way more preferable to a bike that's too big; you can 'walk' the bike while seated in heavy-crowd areas, and if you hit some deep dust and the bike spins out from under you, you have a better chance of landing on your feet and avoiding injury.
Pre-Burn in '08 I fell in love with a kid-sized bike named Tropical Splash at a thrift store. It was $10, in great condition, and super sparkley. It had 8" tires I think: tiny! Bill's bike got stolen and Tropical Splash was his only option; he suddenly became a babe-magnet on that little bike. Don't discount a little bike just because it's tiny - it might be just the ride you need!
One last thing: If it starts raining, STOP riding your bike immediately. If you must keep moving, lock your bike and retrieve it later. Water+playa turns to a sticky muck that will seize up your gears and collect on your tires. It's a pain in the ass to clean it off once the rain stops, so save yourself the trouble.
Happy cruising!
The Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter actually recommended bringing bikes with multiple gears this year because the playa conditions are so loose that we might need those lower gears to push through.
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