Lest this become an all-bike blog (and take away from its focus on grave robbery), I'll not go into much detail about riding bikes on Friday. But for bike nerd posterity I'll list some of the bikes I saw.

• Sharpest bike in the parade: Definitely the Phat Cycle "Limo" tandem. The luxury sedan of bicycles. It was from Urban Bikes, the store where I got that fork to chop. The employees were all representin' on the Phat line of stretched-out cruisers, including a beautiful chopper.


• They employed the method of making the guy who stokes on another tandem also the guy who yells stuff into a microphone carried by a third biker. Those bike guys, they'll figure out how to do anything on bikes!


• Some lady had this bad-ass snub-nosed muscle bike of some sort, but it was tough to ride and I don't blame her for just biking a little while. People tend to join up and leave the ride constantly, as the noise attracts other curious bikers.


• This guy named Chopper Bob rode Hoser, a ten-speed with a second set of forks jammed on the end of the first pair and secured with expoxy and hose clamps to make a big J.


• An old velocipede and an old proto-bike from the Wright Bros.


• The Red Mouth Ghost on his xtracycle.


• A guy with no seat (brave, brave man) and a guy with no chain


• A guy playing a trumpet


• A guy with a big 3-foot pickle strapped to the back of his bike. The pickle had some sort of historical significance to CM, but we were far away from the speaker explaining why due to the metric shitload of attendees. Someone observed that it seemed like the "blessed are the cheesemakers" scene in Life of Brian.


• Of course, the evercircling couriers: Riding between two lanes of oncoming traffic(!), riding 2x2 on the berm between lanes on a concrete overpass(!!), and playing chicken with CTA buses(!!!)


• The owner of Urban Bikes, Tim, who sold me the fork to chop but strongly objected to my modification of "such a beautiful old frame". When I tried to tell him that I was only going to add to the bike, he stuck his fingers in his ears and chanted "LA LA LA LA LA" until I shut up. That happens to me a lot.


• Two rollerbladers who rapped about how they were there representing workers of the sex industry.


• Someone wearing a big sign that said CAPITALISM BITES with lots of little piranha on strings.


• About 350 other hooting honking howling hooligans, as shown here.