Bike-Riding Skeleton Is this Year’s Best Halloween Prop

30 years ago, you could wow the neighborhood kids with a giant inflatable spider on Halloween. But such mundanity won't cut it these days. To really give trick-or-treaters a scare, you'll need something more impressive. This bike-riding skeleton, created by Instructables user rc jedi, sets the bar that you'll need to clear if you want to stand out next year.

While this is an Instructables, it is more of a build log than a true tutorial. That makes sense, because you probably won't reproduce this project exactly. But it should serve as inspiration for next year's Halloween projects. It is a life size skeleton that peddles around on an actual bicycle, which a demonic zombie dog riding in a bomb-shaped sidecar. Until you learn how it works, it doesn't seem like it should be able to move on its own at all, which is precisely what makes it so fun to see in action.

The secret to this prop's movement is in the sidecar. It houses an electric scooter motor and that drives the wheel on the sidecar. The bicycle itself has no means of propulsion, but the sidecar pushes it along. Steering is through the bicycle's handlebars, where there is a heavy duty servo attached to a linkage. The skeleton is completely passive and is just along for the ride. Because this is a fixed-gear bicycle, the peddles turn anytime the rear wheel spins. That makes it appear as if the skeleton is peddling.

The Instructables page provides more detail about how rc jedi constructed the sidecar, which is a dressed-up barrel. On the electronics side, this is a straightforward RC setup. A standard RC transmitter sends throttle and steering commands to an RC receiver in the sidecar. The throttle controls the drive motor speed through an ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) and the steering controls the big servo motor attached to the handlebar linkage.

Mechanically and electronically, this project is well within the ability of most makers. But it’s the ingenious execution that makes it stand out. The bicycle has no obvious means of propulsion, which makes the whole thing spooky and exciting.