Chronicled Dissolution: 365 Days In The Life Of A New York City Bicycle

We've all seen those sad, abandoned bicycle frames still chained to a street sign or bike rack. Wheels, seat, handle bars and chain, all gone—everything pilfered, leaving just a lonely rusting triangle of metal. It's hard to imagine that what remains was once a fully-equipped bike that someone pedaled around the city.

Though this video from Red Peak Branding can give you an idea of how a bicycle arrives in such a state. On January 1, 2011 the design firm chained a bike with bells, basket, lights, a water bottle and more on a street in Soho and took a photo of it each day of the year. The bike seems to survive a little over 200 days without too much damage or theft, but its state deteriorates pretty quickly after the basket vanishes on day 212. By day 231 its seat is gone, by day 242 it has lost its rear wheel rack, and around day 251 someone walks off with the front wheel. The rest of the bike vanishes forever on day 270, leaving you with a bit of existential ennui as other bikes come and go for the remainder of the year.

If you'd like to follow the bike's sad demise in real time, Red Peak also created a daily calendar out of their photos. We hope the bicycles in NYC's Bike Share program, which is scheduled to launch this summer, fair better than this poor maroon ride:

-- John Ruscher