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Stick with bicycles. Spectators think you are using a trick deck if you use anything but a bycicle. even the pink bicycles make some people think you are using a trick deck. So I would suggest to only use bicycles.

all i can say to u my friend is... buy some.. and then u will see

totalmagic wrote:Stick with bicycles. Spectators think you are using a trick deck if you use anything but a bycicle. even the pink bicycles make some people think you are using a trick deck. So I would suggest to only use bicycles.

Wrong. Wrong.

(Ok, maybe right about pink ones)

Some of the BEST sleight of hand workers I've seen—who work only with regular decks—don't use Bicycle.

They're 'natural' in the US as you can get them in just about any store, and it's true that many gaffs and gimmicks are Bicycle-centric.

But, don't concentrate soley on Bikes... there's MANY riches to behold with other brands...

Bikes are pretty much a standard in america. if you walked aroung the street people recocnize them immediatly. oh and the masters. those are alot better i know they look the same and they have a new ace. And they fell so pro and if you compared couple month old masters to brand new bikes there is still a great difference. Bikes are nice smooth but like most playing cards they can be sometimes a little off printed. Alot of people dont care about that but some people do if youre one of them the master is for you. those are perfectly printed and fell as smooth as glass.

Why bikes? Because they're cheap and easy, just like a good date . Why Poker-sized? Because it's what everybody else, including gimmick makers, is using.

I use bikes because they are great to work with, cheap and almost all gimmicked cards/decks are bikes.

But I also like to use other decks to get the feel for all different shapes and sizes. My auntie bought me a deck in Las Vegas which were big thick mommas. I was having a right nightmare on flourishes with them. However doing DL's with them were an absolute dream.

Oh and I just remembered that someone was worried about signing cards and destroying them. If I'm worried about signed cards being ruined I just put a sticker onto it and have it signed. It works the same way only I can remove the sticker after, leaving the card as before.

I always keep a top up deck aside and use cards from that to replace any that get destroyed. A sticker works ok, but actually getting the spec to sign a card, in my opinion just looks more profesional and there's no question of you moving the sticker.

Yeah definitely signing a card looks more professional and can give a stronger reaction. The sticker is just a good option and is useful if your just performing for a few mates.

Or maybe I'm just splitting hairs here as a deck only costs about £2. I'll throw my stickers out then.....

I love Bikes, to me they handle superbly, and very much like a good instrument improve the more they are used, a friend of mine had a deck from the 60's and they were like butter, i say had cos his housemate spilled coffee on them!

Its funny to here people question bikes. Here in the US they're everywhere, drug stores, little convinence stores, etc. It's really the only cards non magicians are familiar with here. I like Tally-Ho's (oh no Al Sharptons mad at me now) but you never see them in stores here so people always say "Those are nice cards, can you do the trick with a different deck or is that a trick deck?"

I use green elephant bikes a lot, they're the coolest! And oddly enough because they are bikes they dont get questioned nearly as much as Tally Ho's. Plus they come with a blank card. I've used a couple to make gaffes for ultimate monte I believe its called.

Oh, and unlike the pink and light blue bikes (which have white trim on the back) the trim on the back of the green elephants matches the face so a reveresed card doesnt flash.

I've been actively trying to find a reasonable alternative to Bikes. This is because non-magicians notice/care about/find suspicious the brand of cards being used as much as non-guitarists notice if you're using a wound G string or not (unless the brand is as completely, ubiquitously dominant as, from reports here, Bikes are in America; or unless the backs have a Marvin's Magic design). However, I think that the cards being an odd size (i.e. poker - everyday cards in the UK as almost exclusively bridge-sized) might be vaguely suspicious. More importantly, I like bridge size out of pure personal preference. It's no problem finding bridge-sized non-Bikes, of course, but - as many people have said - you either have to forego gaffed cards, or swap to a different deck when they're needed - which is a poor option. I'm not big on gaffed cards, but I hate to exclude them entirely and I do often find I want blank facers.

Paitnik do a range of bridge-sized cards 'for magicians'. As well as normal packs you can get pretty anything available in Bikes. I'd like to say that solves the problem, but, well... the cards just don't handle as well as Bikes (or any brands printed on the same card stock). They rapidly become sticky from normal handling - your dribbles turn into a brief run of thuds. I'll use them for lots of tricks, no problem, but anything that isn't sleight-light is going to mean I grab my bridge-sized Bikes again - a pack two-months old handles far better than Paitniks I've had for a week.

Bicycle cards are cheap, readily available and virtually all gaffs are bikes. That's my reasons summed up.

Plus david Blaine uses them

"Why Bicycle Cards?"


WHY NOT BICYCLE CARDS?