Making Do: The Clunker MTB and Too Much Fun.

[W I S N E R !]

A few months ago I snapped the derailleur hanger on my Kona MTB in a near miss crash with another bike on a local singletrack. We both rounded a blind curve simultaneously, each launching into opposite sides of the trail to avoid a head-on hit. Somewhere in the mix I snapped my hanger off. Six miles of coasting and pushing home without a chain. Yay.

This was the impetus needed for my building my first clunker. For those not familiar with them, look into some MTB history. Alan Bonds’ Clunkers.net is a good place to start. An old black beach cruiser sitting in the yard for years got a quick makeover a few weeks ago. Removal of chain guard, kickstand, reflectors, and swept back cruiser bars. Installation of some 2.4 knobby tires and an old MTB riser bar. Done. I’m a big fan of the beater bike, the clunker, the scraper, the frankenbike, the daily workhorse of the average Jane or Joe. One must resist geeking out too hard on components when building a clunker; it would defeat the very nature of the beast.

The ensuing riding is the most fun I’ve had on a bike since…?

I attribute most of it to the coaster brake. “Stopping” is a very relative term when talking about a coaster. Slowing, sliding, drifting, and flat out panicking are more appropriate adjectives. Timing one’s pedal rotation in order to be able to brake is a bit tricky (read: fun) on technical stuff.

But with the relative lack of control comes the demand for a sort of flow that was immediately reminiscent of my early days of learning to ride a brakeless fixed gear in city traffic. Anticipating trouble, picking flowing lines, riding smarter. It also brings back fond memories of being ten years old and having neighborhood competitions to see who could lay down the longest skid mark on the sidewalk.

I just returned from what was supposed to be a ride to the trailhead for a trail run up the canyon. I locked up the bike, started to jog, and turned back for it after 100 yards, turning the afternoon into a 10 mile MTB ride instead. Stream crossings, technical, rocky flowing sections, high speed rollers.

Too much fun.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Excellent!

The frame is like my first bike, a Schwinn Typhoon. We didn't know we were mountain biking in 1964, but we went flying down park trails, jumping roots and rocks. I was an expert at coaster brake slides. Somehow we survived, sans helmets. My favorite was a Raleigh 3-speed.

I have an old Marin in storage that I've planned to clean up. It was $20 at a yard sale. My current town and rail-trail bike is a $50 Schwinn Frontier from a thrift store. I put air in the tires and tweaked a couple spokes. No further investment required :)

I really want to do a couple hybrid hikes next summer, covering washed out FS roads with the bike, stashing it the brush at the trailhead and hiking from there. There is a 12 mile section of road in the North Cascades that isn't steep and could be quickly covered with a bike— super fast on the way out. With an UL pack load, a bike makes a good pairing. I think the ultimate would be to take a bike on a commuter bus with a bike rack to a cut-off for a forest service road and then bike to the trailhead. You could leapfrog all over the state that way.

I saw a Gary Fisher the other day at Goodwill for $60. I had to run away singing LALALALALALA

[BlackHatGuy]

Too much fun indeed! Our bodies have to grow up, our minds don't.

Good on ya, Craig.

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