Glitterman Speaks About Part 1. The Original idea

[glitterman]

There now follows a 7 part serial on Pattaya's only superstar. This is very revealing and direct information on the idea and construction of Pattaya's most famous moving sight. THE GOLDEN MAN.

 

The bicycle itself is a piece of junk, of unknown make as it was all hand painted over in yellow when i bought it back in november 2003 for just 600 baht from a second hand shop in Soi Bukao. It is 21 speed, but the shop sold it with all the gears not working, i took it home and repaired it , [i always do all the mechanics on the bicycle myself]. I repainted the yellow bike silver and painted my name James Bond on the metal plate of the basket.

 

A couple of months later i added my first bit of decoration, a fiber optic torch light, sold by street vendors at that time, [now this type totally unavailable], the ladies recognised me more easily and i enjoyed the extra attention.

 

Christmas 2004, walking through Carre Four, noticing a length of gold wide leafed tinsel for sale, i thought it would be a good idea to dangle a length at the ends of my handlebars, gold has always been my favorite colour [i had previously tried to buy handlebar ribbons, but found none for sale].

So i bought the tinsel, cut a couple of 18" lengths, and plugged them to the ends of the handlebars, the effect was fantastic, the gold diggers.......uuuummmm.....i mean ladies eyes lit up, and at night it acted as a string of mirrors in cars headlights, perfect for safe night riding. Then that night laying in bed i had that 'Eurika' moment 'what would it look like if i covered the entire bike in this gold tinsel'. I had never seen it done before and i was so excited about the idea that i could not sleep that night, and so watched the golden dawn shine its first morning rays of goldenlight into my visionary eyes. THE GOLDEN MAN WAS BORN.

 

I cycled around on this gold tinsel covered bike for a year, only adding more fiber optics. Then in xmas 2005 i felt my artistic talents confined to the small size of the bike frame, so i wanted to put some sort of extention on the back making the bike look longer, i needed something that would bend and not break when girls got on and off my passenger seat behind me. So in a shop in Bangkok i found a very long bendable plastic blanket dust beater [it looks a bit like a fly swatter but much larger and stronger]. Attaching this horrizontaly from under the passenger seat i was then able to dangle yet more gold tinsel from this extention.

 

Then later followed a large Thai flag on an old plastic balloon stick.

Then in mid 2006 i bought a 4 foot length of small diameter aluminium tubing, and stuck the flag on that, with more tinsel. I had to make an unclipping lock so i could remove the flag pole every night for storage

I then realised i could no longer use my bike for everyday use such as shopping. So i had to sacrifice the bike and only use it for the hour or two at night, when i would go around in a reflective plastic gold shirt [more about that in part 3 soon], and 12 separate units of coloured lights.

I was starting to generate a lot of cheers and screams from the thousands of bar girls that i passed, so my 'show' became directed at passing as many beer bars as possible [hundreds], and it included busy Walking Street. It was quite simply a beer bar night show for the bar girls. I loved to hear them all scream at once, so loud that i could not even hear my music playing in my headphones......great stuff.

Now these days my show has changed from night to day and the majority of cheers come from the customers [expats etc] in the bars, the girls at 4-6pm are too sober, so shy.

 

coming soon part 2.

 

The royal Glitterman hath spoken.

[baht_miser]

And thus the bike was born. How has the Glitterman managed to stay in country for so long?

[Bushcraft]

Good luck to you mate, you've found something that you really enjoy and you're doing nobody any harm.

May your pedals continue to turn. May you never be saddled with debt. May your cross-bar always be rigid. May you never tyre .. though you may be flagging. Bushcraft hath spoke.