FOLDAKAR – Cyber Marian is Racing a Folding Bicycle in Dakar Rally!


We have met Cyber Marian, the modern Polish hero, previously when he Wrecked to the Future in an FSO Polonez and was involved in Car Wars, where he helped protect old cars from the environmental, bicycle-riding, Evil Empire. Now Cyber Marian is back and this is a story of how he competed in this year’s Dakar Rally!
Marian being Marian, he has chosen his vehicle carefully – a Polish folding bicycle from communist era!
Marian, like me, apparently grew up in the 1980s, in typical communist block building neighborhood that is present in every city in Poland, as seen in the beginning of the film. Back then every one of us had dreams, dreams of being able to do things that we’ve seen in the movies and on TV. Unfortunately, the Iron Curtain only allowed us a peak at this other world and left the rest of it to our imaginations.
Bikes were popular in Poland but, like everything else, hard to come by. There were about half a dozen popular models in varying sizes, each one of them a folding kind so that it could fit in one’s undersized city apartment. The Wigry 3 bicycle was one of young Cyber Marian’s first vehicles and an obvious choice to compete the grueling rally with.
Here is the amazing part about this film – Cyber Marian and his crew actually traveled to the Dakar Rally in South America with the Polish ORLEN Team. The ORLEN team had three vehicles in the race; two MINIS and a Toyota HiLux. Everything was shot on location. Enjoy the film, subtitled for your viewing pleasure.


Bonus clip. This a spoof of Fast & Furious 7 trailer which I have not covered here in Hooniverse.
And, below, the making of the FOLDAKAR.

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  1. Manic_King Avatar
    Manic_King

    I had very similar bike too. In then USSR these were sold under 2 names: Aist (swan) & Desna, latter of which I got, built it myself from the frame, without the reflectors, mudguards and other crap, painted it with strange powder based paint available in shop and by adding fork from the bigger wheeled bicycle. It looked cool I thought. Not my bike:
    http://www.moped.ee/jalgrattad/suurte/desna2-2.JPG

    1. Tanshanomi Avatar

      I had an early ’60s British Moulton Mk I Stowaway for a few years. It didn’t fold, but it did separate in the middle of the downtube. Awesome bicycle, but mine was pretty far gone. I ended up selling to another classic Moulton enthusiast for parts.
      http://tanshanomi.com/temp/352.jpg

  2. mzszsm Avatar
    mzszsm

    Great video, thanks! Yes bikes were hard to come-by. My dad had one in the country side. It was probably welded together from pipes by a farmer – SO HEAVY!

    1. mzszsm Avatar
      mzszsm

      This reminds me, Turbokid is on netflix now, something like the Canadian version of this made into a full length film.

  3. Bibbs Avatar
    Bibbs

    Marian, jesteś zajebisty 😀