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| Fresh from the workshop. |
The Stooge was conceived as ‘a bike’, not a ‘this’ bike or a ‘that’ bike, it doesn’t wear a badge or have a label stuck on it. It’s a bike designed to expand your horizons not limit them, it could and should be ridden anywhere and everywhere. The fact it’s rigid was never meant to define its role or limit its uses … so although it might look a bit ‘niche’ it wasn’t ever meant to fit into one.
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| An air of 60’s muscle car? |
The first time I saw a picture I was intrigued, it ticked all the boxes – Steel, rigid, 29″ wheels, singlespeed(able) and a little quirky looking – everything I like in a bike. I invited it and its owner along to the WRT so they could introduce themselves to the great unwashed. Along with numerous other people I had a tootle around the field, jumped up and down on it and squeezed the tyres … a week or so later I ordered one.
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| So glad it didn’t fall over. |
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| Double top tube and massive stand-over. |
The bike pictured is what became of my frame and forks after a few hours workshop time. There’s nothing exotic or expensive on there, the frame and fork went together mainly with ‘parts bin’ components and a sprinkling of new stuff like headset and bottom bracket … which I’m glad to say are good old 1 1/8″ external and 68mm BSA housed in an eccentric.
I hold my hands up … At the time of taking the pictures I’d not ridden it more than 200 yards. I could have written something based on those 200 yards but that wouldn’t be right, it would be unfair to the bike and unfair to any interested parties reading this. Instead I rode the bike for 4 consecutive days, up, down, over and around every type of terrain. It accompanied me on everything from mountainside death marches to twisty singletrack … we even visited a trail centre! You’ll be able to find out how we got on in the next couple of days … stay tuned.
UPDATE: Here you go
