Big Bikes

Concrete shoes, Cyanide, T.N.T

The Wicked Ride of The East was really the first test ride of the re-vampinated Dunderchee...it went OK. When I was performing the travel adjustment surgery I found that there was not one, but TWO travel spacers. Now if I wasn't clinically retarded and I could perform a real job, like that of an actual surgeon, and I was doing an actual surgery, and I got in there, and there was like an extra kidney, like there were two of them...I would take one out, because obviously it's extra.

Maybe I would make a great surgeon.

My thought when I saw the two spacers was, "travel spacers...we don't need no stinking travel spacers!" So I took them both out. More travel is like more ice cream or more pizza or more puppies...delicious puppies. In this case I may have gone overboard like that movie you should never ever see starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Now promise me you will never, EVER see that movie. Do it...now! Or we're not moving on.

OK, that's better.

Jesus Krispies! This is worse than trying to keep a toddler from sticking a fork in a light socket. Now go take Overboard off your Netflix queue please.

Thank you.


So I jacked the thing up past 100mm to 115-frickin'-millimeters. It looked great anyway. Once I got the thing on the trail it was a different story, I was all over the place. I dropped the handlebars by 20mm right off the bat to improve steering control. I have no clue how I used to ride around with zero drop between my saddle and bars, no clue.

First chance I get, I'm dropping the travel back to 100mm, this thing handles like a bread van. This time I've gone too far.


It's true. My Independent Fabrication Deluxe weighed over 30 Lbs. in '98. It had the Hayes R-Mount for the rear brake and a Marzocchi Z1-CR, wicked long travel fork (110mm). That note is to my co-worker who can't hear by the way, in case you were wondering why I would be writing notes like that. That one was too tough to pantomime.



What can go wrong with a Single-Speed? Not a whole hell of a lot...except for breaking a chain. What are you going to do in that case if you don't have some extra links? Walk, that's what skipper. A few links and a power connector are all the mojo you need to ward off a chain break in the first place; but if it does break you'll be a happy camper. Or at least not such a horribly miserable camper.