The $1 Bike Handlebar Social Experiment: From Serindipity to Appropriation

A Timeline of events of a dollar bill I found on my Bike Commute

May 14, 2013 - I found a dollar bill in gutter on my bike ride to work. It was a little wet, so I wrapped it to my handle bars rather that just putting it in my pocket.

June 2013 - The parking attendant 'stole' the dollar, leaving me confused and thinking the experiment was over. However, the next day he left this note:

Then left another note, and put the ORIGINAL dollar back on the handle bars. And because he wanted to have a mention in the blog, he gets one!

I rode hundreds of miles with it attached to the handle bar by a bandanna.

August 2013 - While waiting at a stop light, I saw the dollar bill had been replicated. I later discovered that the same parking attendant found a dollar in the parking machine and donated it to the 'handle bar bike  experiment' I was conducting.

A few months later, I saw it was $3 on the handle bar, due to the parking attendant's second generous donation to the experiment.

I continued to ride all over, even leaving my rear red blinky light on the bike (~$20 value) knowing someone would more likely take the money on the handle bars. At one point I had it locked up for a few days and felt confident the bike was safe with the dollars as a deterrent, providing stronger security than a kriptonte. Granted the bike was locked up in the 'safest city in the world' for a majority of the time.

December 11th 2013 - 7:13pm in Costa Mesa at the intersection of Newport blvd and Harbor. STOLEN (Just like in this video from across the street)! The $3 dollars was finally stolen from the handle bars on this Wednesday evening. Likely due to the location at an intersection with an open area for high pedestrian traffic, creating a threatening environment for the dollar bill to survive on the handlebars.

I was so happy to see the money finally stolen! After all, that was the point, it just dragged on and kept growing in size, becoming a bigger experiment then initially planned for. Looking back it was a wonderful experience. I had countless discussions with friends and strangers about the meaning of the dollar bill(s) on the handle bar and even stirred some excitement leading to friendly gestures left by my bike.

So what's the next handle bar experiment? Maybe $5 Handlebar Social Experiment, maybe a parrot? Or maybe other bicyclists want to perform this experiment in their city and compare results!

Sometimes Dreams do come to full completion when you get to show the Blog post to the Co-Author!