When Bikes Argue 2

When Bikes Argue 2 is a short webcomic by Dozerfleet Comics, first conceptualized on December 13th of 2005. It was completed as a webcomic on January 30th of 2006, and a video adaptation was uploaded to YouTube on June 23rd of 2008, though later sent to Ivan's Vault.

Plot
As the story opens, Ackro is disappointed that Colly refuses to talk to him after he tried unsuccessfully to convince her that bikes don't have civil rights in the eyes of human beings. Barry, a Chevy Lumina parked in the driveway of the bike's home pole barn, offers to lend some listening to Ackro's complaints. However, Barry's advice to Ackro proves to be of no use, since Barry can only see things from a car's point of view and he is obsessed with the idea of a couple having sex in his back seat.

Ackro decides to see what Hilo is up to, only to be greeted by Hilo having a meeting with Bludger the Snow Blower and the lawn mower/tractors Clove and Baron. Hilo tries to defend his latest paranormal fantasy for destroying Saudi Arabia, while telling Ackro that they have a battle map already made for them on the floor of the pole barn. When Ackro argues that there's no way the grease smudges can be a battle map, he is met with an absurdist explanation for how he's "all wrong." Hilo, as usual, accuses Ackro of being a communist and a pacifist for not towing the "party" line. Frustrated with the stupidity of the others, Ackro exits the pole barn and goes to talk to Barry some more.

While the men are all doing their thing, Colly and the pink child's bike Betsy discuss whether or not to go outside. Colly argues that they have to go outside in order to defend female bikes' rights and not be "sold down river." Betsy dismisses Colly's paranoid fantasy, and argues that them being bikes means they will likely rust some day anyway, regardless of whether or not they're sold.

Colly decides that convincing Betsy is hopeless, and tells her to talk to Ackro, whom she also is annoyed with. Betsy misunderstands Colly's suggestion as though Colly suggested that she flirt with Ackro. After Betsy objects, Colly explains that she didn't mean to imply that Betsy flirt with anyone.

Characters

 * Green 1996 Huffy Snake Rock 15-Speed Bicycle as Ackro: A bike who is all concerned with fairness. He doesn't like conflict, but if one comes along, he tries to find the quickest way to fairly diffuse the situation.  He is inspired by Church and Tucker of Red vs. Blue.


 * Black 1991 Schwinn Woodlands 21-Speed Bicycle as Hilo: A Southern-accented warmonger of a bike. He glorifies the thought of war, and dreams of being the one who destroys the entire Middle East.  He hates Islamofascism with a passion, and frequently fantasizes about nuking Mecca.  He suffers from many delusions, such as believing that Muhammad is a vampire and that grease smudges on the concrete floor of his home pole barn represent a usable map of Saudi Arabia for planning his war strategies.  He is a stereotype of what Leftists believed the Bush administration was like in 2003 and 2004.  His voice was inspired by that of Matt Hullum as "Sarge" of Red vs. Blue.


 * Cobalt-Blue 2005 Royce Union Calais 21-Speed Bicycle as Colly: A more liberally-minded bike than her male counterparts. She is obsessed with women's rights issues and sees gender inequality in nearly everything.


 * Red 2-Cycle Snowblower as Bludger: An elderly snowblower who is revealed to be the source of Hilo's indoctrination into believing that the vehicles of the pole barn have a responsibility to drop nukes on Mecca. He is even more delirious than Hilo, and is proud of his positions and beliefs.  He gives off a grandfatherly aura around the other vehicles.


 * Green John Deer Riding Lawn Mower as Clove and Red Riding Lawn Mower as Baron: Mower/tractors inside the pole barn. Clove is a fanatical supporter of the War on Terror, while Baron just wants to tow the line to keep the others happy.


 * Blue 1997 Chevrolet Lumina LS as Barry: A car who is obsessed with the idea of his backseat being used for romantic purposes. He talks about everything in terms of how a car can make someone look more attractive to a human female.  He is regarded in this way by the others as having a one-track mind.  He is delusional, believing he is a sexy car in spite the others reminding him to the contrary.


 * Small Pink Bicycle as Betsy: A kid's bike that cares more about convenience than causes. She cannot understand Colly's fanatical obsession with "fighting for rights," and has a logical assessment for every situation, similar to Ackro.  She is not friends with Ackro yet; but according to Colly, she should be, given her similar personality.

Development
The snapshots for this short piece were made on December 13th of 2005, with the comic itself being completed on January 30th of the following year. In keeping with the creation of When Bikes Argue, the idea came forward that WBA could end up as a series, rather than just a single production. The idea for an ongoing series was scrapped when the Huffy Snake Rock playing Ackro lost its rear axle.

This loss was reported on the Dozerfleet founder's Facebook status at 2:41 PM EDT on Thursday, September 21st of 2006. All the same, WBA2 was made as a Christmas special to coincide with the first one being a 4th-of-July special.

The idea was to use the same props as When Bikes Argue; but to expand upon the worldviews and lifestyles of the sentient bikes. The sequel expands their world, demonstrating the origin (and intensity) or Hilo's insanity and Ackro's insecurity. Betsy's apathetic attitude provides a foible for Colly's impassioned feminism.

It was decided that the tractors would serve as reinforcement for Hilo's insane plans to nuke the Middle East, providing for more conflict for Ackro to have to resolve. The camera used was the same camera as was used to shoot the last story, a camera that would cease to function by late 2006.

This would be the second-to-last webcomic made in the Cormorant era in which the code standards were for HTML 4.0 Transitional. After that, coding for DSHW's would be altered to match XHTML specifications.

Video version
The original When Bikes Argue video was released as a video in January of 2008, synchronizing with the production at that time of Ciem 2. However, planning the Service Personnel episode of Who's Who at FSU? meant the Dozerfleet founder had to put production of both Ciem 2 and When Bikes Argue 2 on hiatus to work as a producer and director for studio production class projects. Production of When Bikes Argue 2 was not resumed until June. Production of Ciem 2 did not resume until the middle of July.

Images from the DSHW were converted from 400x300 "full" format for DSHW to the 640x480 standard size for standard definition television. They were imported into Premiere and synced as close as possible to the audio. Conversion went from JPEGs to an AVI file to a WMV file and then finally to an FLV file after the piece was uploaded to YouTube. YouTube shrank the footage back down to a 400x300 form.

As with the last production, there were considerable problems trying to record the voices of characters. Ackro was easiest to convert, but his voice went from the "black" accent undertones previously present to a more warbly voice that was similar to the one used for Volkonir.

Colly's voice was more consistent in quality in this version than before, but her whiny voice still had tone similarities and whine ranges consistent with the voice used for Polly Mindoche of the Trapezoid Kids. Betsy's voice, new to this production, wound up sounding an awful lot like the voice for Humdrum Mindoche.

Bludger, the snow blower responsible for Hilo's anti-Muslim diatribes, wound up having a voice similar to that of Enclo Mindoche. Hilo's voice maintains a lot of the "Texan" accent flavor expected of him, but also still sounds like that of Mutt Mackley.

Video trivia

 * This video uses an alternate logo for Dozerfleet Comics.


 * The 2005-era message at the beginning is a discussion of the so-called "2005 closet" (later rebranded as the 2005 shelf of Ivan's Vault,) referring to all Dozerfleet program ideas that were contrived in 2005. This includes most Dozerfleet DSHW's and a few videos. Examples include the When Bikes Argue series and The Gerosha Chronicles.


 * In contrast to the 2005 closet is the "2004 closet" (which includes The Meshalutian Trilogy) and the "2002 closet."


 * Since When Bikes Argue was originally meant to become a series, Ackro's demise is explained as the reason for the series' cancellation.


 * The ending dedication is to Ka Pang Lee, a graduate of Ferris State University and was a friend of the Dozerfleet founder's via instant messaging. The video was dedicated to her as a belated birthday present.