I don't know how many of you have seen those Adchoppers around the Downtown and Waikiki areas, but I wanted to post this, just in case you've missed it.

 

Some weeks ago, some guy who lives in Hawaii Kai got the idea to buy 30 bicycles that were made to look like chopper motorcycles and lock them to bike racks in the areas of Downtown and Waikiki. According to EKI Cyclery, who sells the same type of bike, these choppercycles cost $600+ each. So, thirty of these things cost him $18,000 if he bought them at their usual retail price. He then put little signs on the front and under the top post that said something like "Advertise here" and gave a phone number.

 

He then locked the bike to bike racks around Downtown and Waikiki, then waited for the phone to ring from people who thought putting an ad for their business on a kid's bike locked to a bike rack was a good idea.

 

I have seen *ONE* ad on his bikes from a business (I forget who), but that ad was discontinued after awhile. Since then, the bikes sit adless.

 

Instead of advertisers, the choppercycles owner, named Mark Bell, got complaints. He had placed many of his bikes on the racks in such a way that, instead of being able to lock four bikes to a rack, you could now only lock two. The choppercycles occupy one whole side of the racks, unless you push them out of the way. Worse still, these bikes never move. The bikes are locked to the racks and they stay there, intended to be billboard-like adspaces.

 

Legally speaking, Bell is doing nothing illegal. There is no law against putting an ad on a bicycle, nor of parking it at a bike rack and not moving it. As long as Bell can prove that he has not abandoned the bikes to be left to rust and fall apart, his bikes will never be seized by the City as abandoned vehicles.

 

Bell maintains that he is doing nothing illegal or wrong and is dismissive of cyclist objections to his taking-up bikerack space. He tells everyone who is obstructed by his bikes to simply lock your bike to his, if you can't find a space on the rack otherwise.

 

Not that the choppercycle are going unscathed, though: at least five have been stolen, meaning $3000 worth of bikes in the hands of thieves. On some others, the little placards with contact info have been removed which results in no contact number for interested advertisers to call. Some taggers have taken an interest in his bikes and some of his bikes have been tagged with graffitti.

 

The whole Adchoppers idea might have seemed like a good one to Mark Bell: people might think it's kind of cute to place an ad on a kid's bike. The bike racks are free parking and no laws are being broken.

 

Nevertheless, $18,000+ has been sunk into an endeavor which has netted him next to nothing in financial gains and gotten some negative publicity. Not to mention angry phone calls. Add to that the fact that $3000 worth of bikes have been stolen from him and you wonder if this guy can rub two brain cells together and spark a thought: this whole idea has been a waste of money and gotten a lot of people pissed at him.

 

It's time for Mark Bell to wake-up and remove his bikes. Chalk it up as a stupid idea and a lesson learned.

 

News story from the Honolulu Advertiser

 

Adchoopers website

 

 

DUANE