One of the most well-known anecdotes from the filming days of Star Trek; often told by The Original Series actors to audiences at Star Trek conventions, concerns Leonard Nimoy's disappearing bicycle. Presented below is the story as originally documented in the pages of "The Making of Star Trek" (Ballantine Books, 1968) by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry ...
The studio is such a big place and it takes so long to walk from one place to another that the stars of a series are usually given bicycles in order to let them take advantage of the precious little time they have free during the course of a day. Each bicycle has the name of the star on a sign attached to the frame, and it is considered verboten to touch the bicycle. For a while it became standard procedure to hide Leonard's bicycle. Anyone who happened to see it standing unattended was duty-bound to hide it.
Leonard began to complain he was having trouble finding his bicycle whenever he wanted it. Apparently he decided the only way he could be sure of locating it when he needed it was simply not to let it out of his sight. That is why one afternoon Leonard rode the bike into the sound stage and parked it right next to the set, where he could keep an eye on it. Naturally, a plan was quickly formed to hide it. As soon as Leonard's back was turned, one of the crew members on the catwalk overhead dropped a rope to waiting hands below, and in no time at all the bicycle was securely lashed to the catwalk overhead. There it hung, about eight feet above the floor, nestled in between a couple of arc lights. The word spread rapidly, and soon everyone but Leonard knew about it.
About fifteen minutes later Leonard decided to check on his bike. He walked over to the place where he had left it, saw immediately that it was gone, and yelled, "Hey! Where's my bicycle?" Immediately there was a loud chorus of, "What bike? You mean your bicycle? I haven't seen your bicycle. Your bicycle was on the set?"
Leonard began to frown noticeably and said, "Now wait a minute, I left it right here." Someone suggested he look outside, as it could have been removed from the stage in order to get it out of the way. His jaw set, Leonard stalked out the door. He was back in a moment, still yelling, "I can't find my bicycle." He then shouldered a broom, apparently determined he was going to clobber the guy who took his bicycle. He walked around the set, waving the broom in the air, saying, "All right, where's my bike? Who's got my bicycle?" As he passed beneath the bicycle securely fastened overhead (the broom barely missed hitting it) someone said, "You're getting warmer." As he moved a few steps away, someone else said, "You're getting colder." For a moment, Leonard looked slightly bewildered, then it began to dawn on him that he was being put on. He turned around, slowly looked from left to right, then tilted his head back and looked up. There was his bicycle neatly suspended from the catwalk. He immediately dropped the broom, started to grin, and then broke up in laughter.
In the following photo, actress Nichelle Nichols is seen riding her studio bike on the Desilu lot during a break in TOS filming ...
Leonard Nimoy expanded on the story at the recent 2010 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention this past August ...