REM wrote a song about this, right? (Orange Crush. It was totally called Orange Crush.)

In my last putrid summer of Perth (was it only a couple of months ago?), I started thinking that perhaps I should photograph striking looking bicycles when I saw them on the street. Not for artistic purposes or for starting a 'Cycle Chic' blog - Simply for my own amusement. Unfortunately, immediately after this resolution, I was struck:

The owner was obviously unwilling to trust the good people of Morley not to raid the bike-parking so he/she had brought this orange and silver monstrosity inside to the air-conditioned comfort of the 'Centro Galleria' shopping centre. And then left it completely unsecured or attended outside the bank right next to the exit. Though I have had my own share of anxiety the few times I parked at Galleria (the bike rack is in the dodgiest part of the undercover car park so I chained my bike to a fence instead), I don't think the loving caretaker of this hipster wedgie need have worried. Embarrassment is a mighty deterrent.

I didn't dally too close or too long near the bicycle, fearing a flying hipster tackle if they returned to see me near their steed. I did spend long enough to silently acknowledge that perhaps it wasn't as offensive to my retinas as it could have been and that really, perhaps it was perfectly reasonable to bring that bicycle into an air-conditioned, bicycle banning shopping centre. Otherwise in a Perth summer, the plastic pedals might have melted.