Bike Pics December 2023 (Lots of Klunker shots)

-

December was a surprisingly good month for riding. The weather was uncharacteristically beautiful and offered up warm days and clear skies.

Mark and Greg at Mae Simmons for the OBG (Old Bike Guys) somewhat weekly ride. Good times!

The Worksman klunker came out of storage, received a lighter Schwinn fork and a new lease on life!


    This is the bike I built for the Rat Rod Bikes Bike Build-Off in 2021. The original build had a very heavy fork and polo seat setup. (It looked better than it rode!) The remodel has made for a much better ride and it's been my primary rider since.

Shakedown evening ride at Mae Simmons

    The Worksman is a pretty traditional klunker since it has a single-speed drivetrain with a coaster brake. I've been riding it at the local mountain bike trails. It's a blast to ride and much more capable than I feared. Not having a front brake or a freewheel has its drawbacks, but it has added a simplicity that I didn't know I wanted.

No breakdowns - but it sure got dark!

Worksman at work...

If you're looking for a change in your biking life, grab a coaster brake and try it!

...at coffee...

...in the dirt...

...under the sun...

...with a bent seatpost...

Last day of the year

That's about it for December, friends. Be watching for January very soon! Be well, ride often, and leave every place better than you found it!





 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Turn-Key Klunkers (Or DIY your own)

-
Image
Yep, my most recent distractions have been variations on the klunker. I've always been fond of upcycled vehicles, the ones where you take something old and uncared-for and turn it into something useful and enjoyed. Cafe racers, resto-mods, rat rods, lowriders, bobbers, all of them have caught my eye over the years. And the klunker fits right in. About forty years ago, some people in California started using old balloon-tired cruiser bicycles and modifying them to become the prototype for the modern mountain bike. If you do an image search for a klunker, you get something that looks like this: That's a whole lot of DIY retro-coolness! But wait.... Yep, at least eight of those are not DIY - they are new! Sure enough, for those of you with klunker lust who'd rather ride than wrench, there are options out there, and some are relatively affordable. The Retrospec Sully For a little over $300 you can have a well equipped klunker with retro looks and qu...
Read more

Finally - tackling the No-Weld, Longtail DIY Cargo Bike (for hopefully less than $100)

-
Image
I finally started, y'all! Long-time readers of MH or 2WM are thinking, Jeez, MH, it took you long enough! To that I say,  Both of you are absolutely right. Our biggest-ever posts on both blogs have been about cargo bikes, and the really big one is about a No-Weld DIY Longtail Cargo Bike . So, here we go, people - it's time to build one. This week, the final piece fell into place: a Giant Simple Single cruiser bike ($35ish). Originally, I planned to pick up a cheap Huffy cruiser for the build, but cheap Huffys (Huffies?) have been rather rare lately, so I ended up with a nicer (but cheaper) bike. The free swingarm donor The other two main components that previously came into place are a nice and very cheap 3-speed Schwinn step-through ($20 and not pictured) and a junky full-suspension mountain bike ($0). So, the goal here is to balance this equation: Giant + Schwinn + Junky MTB = Longtail Cargo Bike < $100 Humble beginnings (I'll also...
Read more

Fossil Free Friday: Passing on the Electric Scrambler Jones

-
Image
(Getting it out of my system) The Scrambler Jones It happens more often than I want to admit. I go through a season of jonesing for a motorcycle to ride. It doesn't make financial sense, it doesn't make logical sense, and I know that if I had one, I would not ride it much. But I dearly miss the feeling of riding a motorcycle along a windy road on a beautiful day. The latest jones has been slightly different - it's still retro and it's still electric, but this time it's dirtier - I'm jonesing for a scrambler. When I look at what's commercially available, there's not much other than one very desirable bike - the Fly Free Smart Desert. Yes, I straight up want one. The Fly Free Smart Desert But they finished the pre-sale and haven't started the post-sale (and I could not afford either, snagit!) Subtract the surfboard, the ocean, the cool helmet and jacket and goggles - that could be me! What else is out there? I've ...
Read more