Motorbike for Stage

[MrKev]

Hey fellow techs,

 

we have the plants, the chair... all you need for Little SHop of Horrors... but a motorbike. Proscenium's is out on hire until the 11th hour and it may be just too late to hire that one, anyone have an idea of a motorbike for stage use, anything that looks American 50'2/60's but no engine etc... fit for stage use! Companies, groups, individuals.... any ideas - am all googled out!

[paulears]

Cut it! There's no real need to have one - I've seen more versions of Shop of Horrors without the bike, than with. If the bike is even mentioned, it's via a sound effect 'off-stage'. You don't lose anything, and most people wouldn't even notice it's absence. It isn't a crucial plot point. To be honest, the effort of getting one, then removing all trace of fuel to make it safe, isn't worth the bother!

 

P

[pritch]

I'm with Paul. We did it with the bike, and it was a complete pain. Getting a heavy and quite long bike onto stage, especially if you've got limited space in the wings, isn't too easy.

[GridGirl]

I agree with Paul and Pritch - when I did LSOH we had a bike which was actually ridden across the stage and it was a huge hassle. We couldn't get it through the upstage crossover - the turning circle was too big - and so it had to go through a dressing room corridor, it was heavy and awkward and just generally a PITA. We also had one for The History Boys and it was as much of a pain. You can easily cut it from LSOH - I'd definitely be doing that.

[WiLL]

We did it with a good panning sound effect and the actor running across the stage with a set of handle bars with a headlamp (trailing lead had to be struck at lightning speed) during a blackout, actor was laughing like a maniac and the sound effect was a real harley hog, bit of low fog on the ground and the effect was pretty good. Worked well to establish that he had arrived on a bike. Other cast were dimly lit in a special on the apron then the cast 'parked' his bike offstage, trailing lead was whipped off and lx was brought up. Bingo, no bike in the wings for the rest of the show.

[Grum]

If it's any help I have a CD with 25 different motorbike sound effects on. No, I don't like bikes that much, it came free with a bike magazine years ago and I thought it might come in handy. It's got a Harley Davidson 883R Sportster fly-by which might do the trick and save you trying to get a decent recording yourself.

[Claire]

We did it without the bike; it really wasn't an issue!

[MrKev]

Urm, so, concenus is to cut the bike I think! Well it may have to go that way, but ever the optimist, I'll keep searching!

 

Kev :blink:

[Jivemaster]

Leave (lead ) the audience to believe that there is a bike.