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Snowboard DVD Review:BikeCar - A Documentary

BikeCar - A Documentary DVD snowboarding snowboard skateboarding skateboard DVD video review

Director:
Studio:
Released: 2006
Rating: 3 Stars

Staring:
Travis Parker, Louie Fountain, Scotty Wittlake and Thane Mahler.

Forget buying a hybrid car and don't waste time filling barrels with "Chinese restaurant fuel" for your bio-diesel conversion project (please don't do this to any of the classic Mercedes diesels - tragic). If you're not peddling, you're ruining the environment.

If this all sounding a little too "green" for your liking... fear not. Bikecar isn't about saving the earth. It's about three friends who love adventure as much as they love snowboarding. What better adventure than peddling down the highways of the North West and stopping at resorts on the way to hit the snow?

Putting snowmobiles and 4x4s to shame, the crew traveled across the Northwest through Idaho, Washington and Oregon in a bikecar. The bikecar is a four person pedal-powered vehicle that pulled their trailer with snowboards and gear, as the crew pedaled in search of snow. Documenting all the trials and tribulations of this trip was filmmaker Joey Fountain, formerly of Robot Food. Bikecar is a one of a kind documentary, which brings a new perspective to travel, adventure and snowboarding.

In March 2006 the three guys left Moscow, Idaho on an 850 mile journey through the North West. Traveling both highways, backroads and bike trials, the crew filmed some amazing sights as they traveled. As they made a turn, the camera panned to a sign stating "No Motor Vehicles Aloud". The crew chuckled as they peddled their bikecar and trailer down the trail. Now the viewers know that part of their mapped trip is using bike paths, not just highways. Awesome! They did run into some anti-car obstacles, but they quickly discovered if the obstacles couldn't be removed, they could lift the car over them. Cool deal.

Biking and Boarding Schedule

Day 3 they arrived at Silver Mountain in ID where they were glad to get out of the bikecar and go snowboarding. Afterwards they rented snowbikes. The subsequent footage firmed up my belief that these nut-crunching toys are not the best way to traverse a snowy hill. Scotty hurt his foot and began wondering if he could continue on the trip - they needed his peddle-power.
Day 6 they learned that a little ingenuity can go along way when they lifted the bikecar over anti-car obstacles in the path.
Day 9 they were pulled over by Washington state cops who were mainly curious and told them to be careful. Apparently it was only WA cops who bothered them on the entire trip.
Day 14 was spent at Mission ridge where they built a 3-bump whoop-de-doo, slopeside.
Day 16 proved the trip was about snowboarding - but not exclusively on snow. They stopped at a large sand dune and climbed to the top for several sandboard runs!
Mile 502 brought about the first flat tire.
Day 20 they peddled into Oregon.
Day 22 Scotty decided he would have to leave the trip and they were joined by Thane Mahler, a 1-legged rider who was quick to show off his various prosthetics. Pretty cool that he still wanted to ride and could after losing his leg in a snowboarding accident. On the other hand, if this guy can golf...
Day 24 they reached Mt. Hood.
Day 30 they reached Mt. Bachelor

When most people encounter snow while driving, we use snow-tires, tire-chains and four wheel drive. What if you're traveling via bikecar? When they encountered snow, they put on their own version of tire-chains - zip-ties wrapped around the wheels. Very ingenious and seemed to work well!

They wound up the trip in Bend ,OR and loaded the bikecar onto a trailer for the next adventure. I can't even imagine peddling that much, then snowboarding and along the way climbing up a huge sand dune for a couple of sandbaord runs. These guys must have been in incredible shape. I'm usually beat by the end of one day of snowboarding.

My only gripe is they didn't go into any detail of how they came up with the bikecar design and how much of the building they did. I'm also surprised they didn't include more "public reaction" moments. How can you travel in an odd looking bikecar and not attract a lot of attention? I'd like to have seen more of that in place of the dumb stuff in the Bonus Features.

Forget that fucking hybrid car and don't waste time filling barrels with "Chinese restaurant fuel" for your bio-diesel conversion project (please don't do this to any of the classic Mercedes diesels - tragic). If you're not peddling, you're fucking up the environment.

If this all sounding a little too fucking "green" for your liking... fear not. Bikecar isn't about saving the earth. It's about three friends who love adventure as much as they love snowboarding. What better adventure than peddling down the highways of the North West and stopping at resorts on the way to hit the snow?

In March 2006 the three guys left Moscow, Idaho on an 850 mile journey through the North West. Traveling both highways, backroads and bike trials, the crew filmed some amazing sights as they traveled. As they made a turn, the camera panned to a sign stating "No Motor Vehicles Aloud". The crew chuckled as they peddled their bikecar and trailer down the trail. Now the viewers know that part of their mapped trip is using fucking bike paths, not just highways. Awesome! They did run into some anti-car obstacles, but they quickly discovered if the obstacles couldn't be removed, they could lift the car over them. Cool deal.

Biking and Boarding Schedule

Day 3 they arrived at Silver Mountain in ID where they were glad to get out of the bikecar and go snowboarding. Afterwards they rented snowbikes. The subsequent footage firmed up my belief that these nut-crunching toys are not the best way to traverse a snowy hill. Scotty hurt his foot and began wondering if he could continue on the trip - they needed his peddle-power.
Day 6 they learned that a little ingenuity can go along way when they lifted the bikecar over anti-car obstacles in the path.
Day 9 they were pulled over by Washington state cops who were mainly curious and told them to be careful. Apparently it was only fucking WA cops who bothered them on the entire trip.
Day 14 was spent at Mission ridge where they built a 3-bump whoop-de-doo, slopeside.
Day 16 proved the trip was about snowboarding - but not exclusively on snow. They stopped at a large sand dune and climbed to the top for several sandboard runs!
Mile 502 brought about the first flat tire.
Day 20 they peddled into Oregon.
Day 22 Scotty decided he would have to leave the trip and they were joined by Thane Mahler, a 1-legged rider who was quick to show off his various prosthetics. Pretty cool that he still wanted to fucking ride and could after losing his leg in a snowboarding accident. On the other hand, if this guy can golf...
Day 24 they reached Mt. Hood.
Day 30 they reached Mt. Bachelor

When most people encounter snow while driving, we use snow-tires, tire-chains and four wheel drive. What if you're traveling via bikecar? When they encountered snow, they put on their own version of tire-chains - fucking zip-ties wrapped around the wheels. Very ingenious and seemed to work well!

They wound up the trip in Bend ,OR and loaded the bikecar onto a trailer for the next adventure. I can't even imagine peddling that fucking much, then snowboarding and along the way climbing up a huge sand dune for a couple of sandbaord runs. These guys must have been in incredible fucking shape. I'm usually beat by the end of one fucking day of snowboarding.

My only gripe is they didn't go into any detail of how they came up with the bikecar design and how much of the building they did. I'm also surprised they didn't include more "public reaction" moments. How can you travel in an odd looking bikecar and not attract a lot of fucking attention? I'd like to have seen more of that in place of the dumb shit in the Bonus Features.

Bonus Stuff

Excercise - a 20 second look at a guy on an exercise bike. Um... whatever.
Snowdance - extra snowboard footy.
Dear Diary - Off the cuff diatribe about the depleting supply of fossil fuel.
Lance face - Lance Armstrong impressions.
Snowdays - Info about this non-profit organization that introduces snowboarding to kids.
Just build It - A time-lapse look at building the bikecar. There's no narrative, just a fast-forward glimpse into the project.
In Your Face - With time the crew became tired of always being "on camera" and weren't afraid to voice their opinions.

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