Squidgy?
Squidgy?
I prefer the term comfortably controlled.
It does have some interesting handling features.
if you lock the back end to slide round a bend it goes round in a series of short slides interspersed with hops, as the back twists and unloads. On Tarmac it leaves a series of tiny black lines.
I am amazed that it did not collapse downhilling or crusing flights of steps.
I am planning on digging it out of the bindweed and killing it in this year's klunker Classic. Or winning.
The Kona Bikehotdog was an ill handling piece of junk.
the design was flogged to Kona by my mate/enemy Lonebiker, and copied from my first chop, Dr Hannibal.
So the HOT ROD was an ill handling piece of junk designed by you start with, then copied by your mate, then used by Kona. So it WAS your fault, that piece of ****. Nothing else to say really.
I never said it was a nice piece of design either - simply that it was as good as these things ever get, which isn't very good at all.
The Kona thing.
A brief history.
First up Dr Hannibal, my first attempt at a chop.
(note the 40 shot airbomb repeater on the back).
I was a bit wary of my metal joining skills so I used two frames, the front of one and the back of another, so no brazing on the headtube or rear triangle.
The bike rides like a dream, no swerveyness, no forks flopping into corners, can almost ride him no handed. A complete fluke I confess. But a high front end and long forks gives that long look and avoids to much rake or is it trail? or whatever. The Great Rat was smiling when I built Dr H'.
I used to take my boy to school on it, in traffic, yes it handles safely. Nobody has ever fell off it, no matter how drunk or stupid.
We met Lonebiker of project Bikehotrod, The Enemy (and a good mate). His bikes were to put it bluntly *****. Handled like pigs but did look cool. Sadly no surviving photos.
Anyway, he had contacts within the Kona mothership, and persuaded them to build a chopper. They wanted a highfront ended long design, but some management flunkey insisted on both wheels being the same size. Cue ill handling barge. They even managed to sell some of these contraptions. We did chop one in half and stretch it some more, it handles ok'ish but again no photo's.
People thought I should be angry or bitter about 'inspiring' the corporate whores to productionise a chopper. No way, I was flattered to bits, especially when I rode one of them and realised how badly it handled.
This was a long time ago, my god about 10 years back.
We is so old and sad.
Rockjock, you didn'y buy one of those things did you?
Does anybody remember my media war with Boneliker and Bikehotdog in MBUK. I had somebody writing to them complaining about my irresponsible conduct. To be slagged off in the national press, what an honour.
Guys, my dad used to own a bike shop. It went under and we still have a ken load of bike parts in the shed. If you want chainrings, cranks, wheels, all that kind of junk, let me know!
A kind offer.
Just be careful, start collecting that kind of junk and it multiplies all by itself.
We took three trailer loads to the tip a couple of years back.
but somebody starting out in this nonsense might be grateful for it, it is a great help to hav eheaps of stuff.
if any of it has XT or XTR on it can I have first dibs?
More seriously it could be worth getting a real bike nerd to go through it some of this gear is quite valuable.
It can also be good for this kind of thing.
I am a bike nerd, It's all pretty much junk. If it's not I have it stored for my DH bike. I might have the right hand side of an XT v-brake, want that?
so i notched the neck and completed the welding on the frame.
at first i put a smaller front wheel on the bike and it handeld much better than before.....no more wheel flop. (did'nt make any pics of the bike with a small front wheel.
but then i thought i'd change the seat and go with the original idea. so i took the extra long seat off and went back to a normal seat. you'll see a seat from the kids bike on now but thats just till i bring the official seat from belgium.
realized that this is a welding site.....so i make alot of pics of the welds....
i had read somewhere that on bicycles you dont need wide, fat welds. that the weld only needs to be as wide as the thinnest material. for that reason, i used stringer beads on the joints......the welds are high and narrow......
i used a weave motion where the seat post meets the backbone,,,those welds came out wide and low....
im not planning to paint the bike until i've ridden it afew times to be sure all the structural bugs are worked out ( had to gring off a good bit of the first paint job....
now.....without furthur adu.......tadaah
notice the "full" handel bar....held together with two small bolts
forgot to mention....i turned the steer tube around.
i was too much in a hurry when cutting it off and as a result, i grinded a little into the neck....not much but you could definetly see it was grinded. so i turned the tube around....hence the two holes. those two holes are normally inside the backbone and upright tubes
Just been reading throug this topic. Very interesting!
I'm a biker too, I've got a 99 Spesh Ground Control, Pace Monters, Hope disks (with rear adapter coming). Used to have a Big Hit, ALL the best bits on it, 888 RC2's saint etc. Till some chav scum broke into my garage and nicked it.
Didn't know the history with the Kona bike.
hmm...nice idea on the chonkolini....might happen...dont know what im doing in july yet.
`testacle remover`......thats the brackets for the long seat that i had before. did´nt cut them off yet until i get the official seat and checked out how it works out. depends on how it feels, i might go back to the long seat.
funny you should ask about paint......i find the raw metal look very beautiful.
i did some grinding on the handle bar with a sanding disk/flap disk.
i really liked the smooth grind it gave that exposed the "grain" of the steel.....
thinking of flap disking the whole frame and applying a clear coat...
even with those "amature welds"......they are'nt TIG pretty.....but this is my first build....so i like the idea of being able to see all the "not so pretty bits"
What do you need to enter?
You need:
To be completely stupid;
To drink too much,
To ride a completely crap bike,
Not take yourself seriously,
To be at Porlock First weekend of July, Sparkhayes Campsite.
Look for the unruly rabble at the bottom of the field.
Google Clunker Classic, there are loads of references to it.
My favourite Clunker photo.
Regards frame coating, let the sucker go rusty then rub it down and varnish it, a gorgeous finish, or just let it decay.
Rad as ken!!
Looks like I'm gonna have to knob myself up something silly! The old man and I made a 3 wheeled recumbent many years ago, maybe I could use that...?
To be at Porlock First weekend of July, Sparkhayes Campsite.
Look for the unruly rabble at the bottom of the field.
Chunko ,
I was playing shed dragging around Exmoor ...Minehead / Porlock & Illfracombe last week and chanced to glimpse some amazing ferric art work including a 3 mtr high red rust sea horse .. it that where yours is ? .. I can't remember the place ..... I've been to sleep since then .