Project

After reading about the history of mountain biking in Charles Kelly's book Fat Tire FlyerI decided to give klunking a try. My first thought was to build a new frame with the old geometry but with new components, including 1 1/8th headtube, English Threaded (BSA) bottom bracket, 27.2mm seatpost and 135mm rear dropouts. Since getting a custom frame built, while a wonderful process, is really expensive and working with a Taiwan frame builder is not a simple process I decided to start with building a klunker from an old frame. The old Schwinn middleweight frames are a "dime a dozen" heavy with old fixtures but they are cool and supposed to ride well.

So, the plan is to use and old cantilever or straightbar frame and scrap together as many mountain bike parts as I can find, a newer 1 1/8th straight fork, bars and stem, new single speed crankset, some 26" wheels v-brake on the front and either a coaster, side-pull or drum brake on the rear. I'll start with the largest tires I can find (or studded tires) because the snow has just started falling and its 3 months of snow and ice on the trails. It would be nice to have some gears so maybe I'll try to reuse some 10 speed cassettes and a chain I have on hand. So, it will probably be a 1x10 klunker with rim brakes.