Friday was the second SF Bike Party – an evening of biking with 500+ people, a stop in Dolores Park for some live music (Odd Owl), a Michael Jackson (and other music) dance party courtesy of Trikeasaurus in Garfield Square Park, and running into a lot of people I knew.
I got home from work about an hour before the ride was supposed to start, and wanted to quickly throw something together related to the “Love Your Bike” theme.
The supplies I pulled together:
I’d actually never used EL wire– I thought wire nuts or conductive copper tape might make a good enough electrical connection for a few hours, but they pulled apart too easily. So I fired up an old lighter-fluid-powered soldering iron. Wrinkle #2: I couldn’t find any solder. In a fit of desperation I reheated an old circuit board I had laying around and scavenged some solder from it. To my surprise, that actually worked.
The EL wire lights up! 15 minutes left until I need to leave.
I bent two coat hangers together to hold a shape, wrapped the EL wire around it, and secured it to my bike rack with cable ties. Success!
Here’s the bike later that night, in Dolores Park (the heart actually blinks on and off, though you can’t tell from a photo).
