Stranger Things bike: Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will's BMXs, and why they matter so much
Universe · Bikes · The 80s
A bike lying in the leaves, on a forest road: that is the first strong image of the show, and the reason we look for Will. The group's bikes are its cars, its weapons and its escapes, for four seasons. Here are those of Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will, and what they tell.
The essentials
- Will's bike: found by Hopper on the road, Season 1
- The reference: E.T., the kids on bikes chased by the government
- The lines: Mike and Lucas bikes, released in 2019
- The next generation: Max's skateboard, from 1984 on
Contents
Will's bike
On November 7, 1983, Hopper finds Will's bike lying in the leaves, at the edge of the Mirkwood road. It is the proof that something happened: a twelve-year-old boy does not abandon his bike. The object comes back in season 2, repaired, and in the season 5 prologue, which finally shows what happened that night between the road and the shed.
The Mike Wheeler T-shirt, the banana-seat bike.
In the shopMen's 3/4-sleeve baseball Mike Wheeler T-shirt44,90 €See the product
The party's bikes
Mike rides a banana-seat high-handlebar bike, the emblematic model of the 70s and 80s; Lucas a racing BMX; Dustin a bike a little too small for him, which is part of the character. All three are period, chosen by production so nothing postdates 1983. Eleven, for her part, rides on the back of Mike's, and it is Mike's bike she lifts off the ground as she throws a government van.
In 2019, for season 3, a manufacturer produced replicas of Mike's and Lucas's bikes, in a limited series, with the same colors and the same accessories. They have become collector's items.
| Character | Bike | Key scene |
|---|---|---|
| Will | Kids' road bike, 70s | Found on the road, season 1 |
| Mike | Banana seat, high handlebars | The flying van, Season 1 |
| Lucas | Racing BMX | The runs through the woods, Seasons 1 and 2 |
| Dustin | A bike a little small | The escape with Dart, Season 2 |
| Max | Skateboard | Arrival at the arcade, Season 2 |
| Eddie | None: a van | Season 4 |
The tribute to E.T.
The Season 1 scene where the group flees the government cars on bikes, until Eleven makes a van fly, is a direct quote of the final chase in E.T., where the bikes take off. The Duffers never hid it: the bike is the vehicle of 80s childhood, the one that let you be far from home without a phone, and that is what the show films.
Why no more bikes after 1985From Season 3 on, the party grows up and moves by car: Steve's, Nancy's, Eddie's van. The bikes disappear with childhood. Season 5 replaces them with raid outfits and radios.
Max's skateboard
Max arrives in 1984 on a skateboard, and that is already a sign: she comes from California, she does not do things the boys' way, and she goes faster than they do. The skateboard is to Season 2 what the bike was to the first. It comes back in Season 4, when Max no longer goes out, parked in a corner of her trailer.
For fans
The 2019 replicas have long been sold out, but any banana-seat bike from the 70s and 80s, restored, does the job for a cosplay or a photo. Fans find them at flea markets and repaint them in Mike's or Lucas's colors, with a rack for Eleven.
The Will figure, with his bike.
In the shopLego Mike Wheeler mini figure and his orange bike14,90 €See the product
Every big bike scene
-
Mirkwood road, 1983
Will bikes home alone from the Wheelers'; a silhouette on the road, the fall, the abandoned bike Hopper finds the next day.
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The chase, 1983
The boys and Eleven flee the lab cars on bikes; Eleven flips a van with her mind, and the group goes under it.
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The pumpkin patch, 1984
Will sees the shadow from his bike, at the edge of the field.
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Cerebro hill, 1985
The group walks the bikes up to the top for Dustin's antenna.
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The last errands, 1986
The bikes give way to cars, to Steve's BMW and Argyle's van: the group has grown up.
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The Wheeler house, 1987
Mike and Lucas race on bikes to save Holly, while Eleven and Nancy take the car.
Why the bike is the vehicle of the show
The bike is the object that says the characters' age. In 1983, the group has only that: twelve years old, no license, parents who sleep, and miles of woods to cover between middle school, the quarry, and the lab. The bike gives the children an autonomy the adults do not watch, and that is the freedom the show films in its chases, in the manner of Spielberg's cinema.
As the party grows up, the bikes disappear in favor of cars, from Billy's Camaro to Steve's BMW, and that is a sign: in 1986, nobody pedals anymore. That Mike and Lucas pick up their bikes again in 1987, in the urgency, to save Holly, is a voluntary return to the 1983 image.
The E.T. scene, shot by shot
The 1983 chase is the show's most direct homage. In E.T., kids on bikes flee government agents, and the bikes take off; in the show, the kids flee the lab agents, and it is the van that takes off, flipped by Eleven over their heads. Dixon and Stein's music rises like John Williams's, and the shot of the bikes in a line on the road picks up the framing of the 1982 film.
The Duffers said they wanted their show to look like an 80s film without copying its scenes; this one is the assumed exception, and one of the reasons the 2016 audience immediately understood what the show was about.
Will's bike, the first proof
Will's bike is the first clue of the whole show. Found by Hopper at the side of Mirkwood road, the day after the disappearance, it is intact: no accident, no mark. Hopper understands that Will did not have an ordinary fall, and it is that abandoned bike that starts the investigation. The show comes back to it in the prologue of its last season, by showing what Will did after dropping it: run, shoot, climb, fall.
For fans, that bike became a symbol, reproduced in miniature and in illustration: the bike lying in the leaves, the lamp still on, November 6, 1983.
The Season 1 poster.
In the shopMike and Eleven keychain12,90 €See the product
TakeawayWill's bike, the first proof of the disappearance. Mike on a banana seat, Lucas on a BMX, Dustin too small. The bike escape: a quote of E.T. Max arrives on a skateboard, the next generation.
Frequently asked questions
What bike does Mike have in Stranger Things?
A banana-seat, high-handlebar bike, the emblematic model of the 70s and 80s. A replica was produced in 2019.
Why does Will's bike matter?
Found lying on the road by Hopper, it is the first proof that something happened to Will, on November 7, 1983.
Is the bike scene a reference to E.T.?
Yes: the bike getaway in front of the government cars, through the van that flies, quotes the final chase in E.T.
Why are there no more bikes after season 2?
The group grows up and gets around by car. The bikes disappear with childhood.
What does Eleven do during the 1983 bike chase?
She turns with her mind the lab van that is speeding toward the group; it flies over the bikes and lands behind them, in a direct homage to E.T.
Does the group still bike in the later seasons?
Less and less: in 1986, cars have replaced bikes. Mike and Lucas take them up again in 1987, in the emergency, to save Holly.