This may not be a traditional rat rod bike, but it was handcrafted over 5 months and it's basically two bikes put together with a rat rod car on top. I built this pedal car because I don't like the way life is nowadays. I don't like how fast life moves now that almost everybody has cell phones. I don't like how people will not be able to buy a new car in the U.S. that doesn't come filled with electronic doo-dads after 2012. I don't like all the environmental problems that we are causing.
Sometimes I wish I was born 100 years ago so I could experience the glory days of America. It wasn't all good, since the Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, and many other bad things happened, but the past 100 years held so much more American spirit compared to today. Almost all the bikes on this website come from a time when things were built to last and we could actually take pride in the products we actually made. In 1998 I was given a Raleigh M20 mountain bike for Christmas and on the seat tube was a red, white, and blue sticker that said "MADE IN THE USA". Just eight years after that, in 2006, the same make and model bike has a sticker that says, "DESIGNED IN USA (made in china)".
What happened? The search for big profits has caused us to abandon our pride. I understand that by transferring manufacturing duties to a developing country means cheap labor, cheap products, and more money for both countries, but there are still costs to consider. These costs aren't measured in dollars or production numbers, but rather the amount of American pride that is lost at each sighting of a "MADE IN CHINA" sticker. I hate buying things from China. I have nothing against China and I'm glad to see that their standard of living is increasing, but it's at the cost of an American's drive to succeed. If a little kid grows up in a country that produces almost nothing because the companies just want to make the most money, what type of person do you think that kid is likely to become? A cheater? A bum? A slacker? If they follow the role model of, "Outsource duties to make more money" that is almost the same thing as cheating on a test. Companies don't have to work as hard to make more money, so the kid won't study but will still get good grades.
Unlike cheating, the companies that outsource duties aren't doing anything legally wrong. However, they are doing damage that they never intended. As a recent Jeep commercial said, we do good when we make good things, and not so good when we don't. I believe this to be true. Buying from China may be cheap, but that's because the cost is subsidized by a tax on our American pride.
The solution to this would be to restore America's glory. However, we can't just push rewind and then replay our past. Times have changed, so we need to change with them. One of the things that made America great was our manufacturing of the greatest cars in the world at the time. Sure they were gas guzzlers, but in a time when gas mileage wasn't a concern there was no other country that topped our craftsmanship, our ease of maintenance, the power, and the "wow" factor of something like a 1959 Cadillac El Dorado.
Since gas mileage is of upmost concern right now, it would seem as if the best way to restore American glory is to make the coolest and most sustainable method of transport as we can. I built the pedal car to give inspiration to the "garage craftsman" all across America to either get together or go out on their own to make the next cool, sustainable mode of transport. Rat rod bikes are plenty cool, but if you want to go grocery shopping, go out on a date, or ride in the rain or cold they aren't always the best choice.