A New Turn-Key Klunker Gets Rode Hard - and Survives!
[Intrusive Narrator Sidebar 1: Before you get too excited, this is another post about a bike you can buy in Canada but not in the US, snagit!]
Cheap, Cargo, and Klunker - when you think of those words, I hope you think of 2Wheels Maybe. In my quest to make that happen, I scour the entire world North America to find cheap cargo bikes and klunkers. If you're going to ride a green machine, well, it might as well be odd and fun.
So, I'm very excited to tell you that I found another cheap-ish klunker! Woohoo! I found it by bravely searching the wilds of youtube. It's the Columbia Rambler.
Ironically, the Rambler is an updated version of a bike called the Columbia Klunker, but the Rambler is more of a klunker than the Klunker was. And it comes in three sizes. The Columbia Klunker was a multi-speed bike that was more of a comfort hybrid bike in a klunker-ish frame.
But the Rambler, like most traditional klunkers, is a single-speed bike with motocross handlebars, a BMX stem, and knobby-ish tires. The one place it really deviates from the traditional formula is that it has a pair of mechanical disc brakes rather than a single coaster brake. (Better stopping is cool when you're fearful like me.)
The old Columbia Klunkers
[Intrusive Narrator Sidebar 2: Fear of Flying vs. Sam Pilgrim
If you've been around here very long you know that one of my favorite forms of Walter-Mitty-Escapism is watching youtube vids of crazy people who can do amazing feats on two wheels. You may have seen Danny Macaskill, Ali Clarkson, Seth's Bike Hacks, and Brandon Semenuk mentioned. Another guy I watch is Sam Pilgrim. Sam is arguably the craziest and most fearless of the group.
Sidebar 2 ends here]
British mountain biker Sam Pilgrim does a series of videos where he travels to exotic places, buys a department store bike, and rides it in torturous terrain. The series is called, The Cheap Bike Challenge. Invariably, he thrashes the cheap bike to a point where it is no longer ridable. Sam's enthusiasm and complete disregard for his own safety make the videos very entertaining, but the cheapness in my DNA cringes every time I see him buy a bike to destroy. (My shoulders get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.)
Sam's latest Cheap Bike Challenge held a number of surprises for me. First, he's on this side of the pond at North America's most famous mountain bike park, Whistler in British Columbia. He's in Canada! Second, he's goes to the Canadian Walmart and buys a klunker I've never seen.
Third, he rides it on some of the toughest mtb trails on the continent and does not break it(!!!!!) Most people who ride Whistler do so on bikes that cost more than my car. You see things like carbon fiber and long-travel suspension and dropper seatposts and such. What you don't see is anyone crazy enough to tackle the place on a rigid, single-speed, Walmart bike.
So, yes, you know where this is going. I'm resisting the urge to call my friend the Canadian Kneivel who just happens to be vacationing this month in (You guessed it!) British Columbia. Originally, I wanted to ask him to pick up a Mongoose cargo bike, but the Columbia Rambler 24" is less than half the price ($178 Canadian) and might just fit in his minivan du jour. Father, deliver me from temptation, please. I don't need another klunker, but I sure like that matte-blue finish and those disc brakes!
May your green ride be odd, fun, and capable of flight!
[Intrusive Narrator Sidebar 3: If you'd like to see another Sam Pilgrim video - check out what the guy can do with a few ounces of lumber!]
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