Regan Appleton had me at “bicycle taxidermy.” Actually, Regan had me at “Regan Appleton,” followed closely by “bicycle taxidermy.”

And while anything involving taxidermy might seem to have been spawned in the sticky woods of our own beloved South, Appleton us is very British. And his very British description of this little effort is way better than my American version could ever be:

An eccentric side project born out of too many sleepless nights at the Royal College of Art and a homesickness for the rugged Highlands. Bicycle Taxidermy first began on a couple of memento mori for my father’s once prized but long discarded mountain and road bikes.

One could argue that this process was born out of a post-modern disdain for the conspicuous consumption of disposable objects but in reality it was a bit of laugh taken too far and turned into a bit of an obsession.

I can provide a couple of services. The first is a taxidermy service for client’s retired steeds. An epitaph, saying what you wish, is engraved in stainless steel of the horned beast’s legacy. It can be backed on either a scorched or bleached European oak plaque sealed with natural beeswax, a couple of 22 or 28mm chromed fixing brackets and a wall mount. We can send this piece out to you; you can send us the handlebars or if you visit a couple of affiliated bike reclaimant shops they’ll buy the rest of the bike off you and we’ll collect and mount the handlebars from them before sending them, mounted back to you.

The second is for purpose made mounts; the same mounting strategy can be applied to newly sourced handlebars. I focus on chromed Chopper, Cruiser, Pursuit, Butterfly and Dropped bars. Others can be used but I’ve found these to be the best.

Are you going to order one? Probably not. But “a bit of a laugh taken too far” could be the story of my life and for that alone it’s worth raising the roof for this guy.