Fair weather cyclist getting back in the saddle – The rat bike revolution

For while a there has been a trend in America to ‘rat out’ cars – stripping them down to their bare essentials and encouraging them (through chemical treatment) to rust, giving them a distinct ‘unfinished’ look.

Now it seems cyclists are jumping on the ‘rat-rod’ band wagon – ‘ratting’ out their bikes by stripping off the paint, and encouraging them to rust. The rusting process can be halted at any point by applying a coating of silicon spray.

For a long while cyclists have kept a battered old bike which isn’t attractive to thieves at railways station so they can use commute without worrying to much about having it stolen. This new ‘ratting’ trend is turning tatty and battered bikes into an art form of their own.