Ben Bikin'

Ben Bikin' is a 32 foot fiberglass cyclist in Gay Nineties costume, perched on a penny farthing at the corner of Water Street and Wisconsin Street in Sparta, Wisconsin. His base reads Welcome to Sparta, and a speaker box beside him plays a recorded history of the town. He advertises the title Sparta gave itself, Bicycling Capital of America. The town is the western end of the Elroy Sparta State Trail, a 32 mile former railroad grade with three tunnels that opened in 1967 and is generally counted as the first rail trail in the United States, and about a hundred miles of connected state trails now radiate from it. The trailhead is at the old depot a few blocks away. Ben was made in Sparta itself. F.A.S.T. Corporation, short for Fiberglass Animals, Shapes and Trademarks, descends from the 1970s firm Creative Displays, which built the Jolly Green Giant of Blue Earth, Minnesota, and its yard on the edge of town holds the discarded moulds of giant animals, ice cream cones and mascots shipped all over the country. The chamber of commerce dates Ben to 1995. In 2013 a near twin cast from the same mould, named Will B. Rolling, was installed at Port Byron, Illinois, and an annual October ride now links the two. In 2022 a records certification company named Ben the largest bicyclist statue in the world, a title the town uses freely.