Funky oddball bikes!

[Manixguy@1994]

So, which are the oddball/funky ones?!

[Evil D]

Honestly that's pretty rad

[Bloke]

Honestly that's pretty rad

I thought so too, D.

I’m bone idle but it’s got me thinking I should build one out of 1/2” reo bar for the grandkiddies. It’d no doubt flex but still be pretty cool I reckon.

[JRinFL]

So far only two I would consider in any manner "funky" or "oddball". Seems to have morphed into a bike flex thread.

So, which are the oddball/funky ones?!

I would call David's & LakeOconee's both funky.

[bjz]

Tall bikes were quite popular In portland, Oregon throughout the 00’s, and one particular summer monthly street art even would inevitably end up in tall bike jousting events in the streets…good fun for the participants, I suppose, until they would fall over/crash into the cars parked along the streets

[abbazaba]

I was into BMX as a kid too, so I now a 29” BMX so I can still do wheelies.



Also have a 26” cruiser to pull the kid trailer and to hold my beer!

Those Hookworms are some of the most fun I've had on pavement.

[abbazaba]

This reminded me of an article I read a while back about Christian Zenga riding across Africa on a tall bike! He builds some pretty crazy tall bikes.



None of my bikes are that "odd". I guess my 1st gen Gary Fisher Rig was pretty odd when I bought it 20ish years ago, being a 29er SS, but we all know what happened next.

My favorite around town bike is a old "Concord" made of crap steel that I put some 27" Bloodhound tires and built with spare parts as a joke. It's now a straight bar SS geared pretty high and is happiest at 16mph or more. It's super slack for a road bike and I think that's why I like it so much. Plus 27" wheels are a hoot and actually slightly larger than modern 29ers (700c).

I have a shed full of franken bikes, but I just got an Ibis Ripley AF and it's dominating by ride time.

[Dazen]

I was into BMX as a kid too, so I now a 29” BMX so I can still do wheelies.



Also have a 26” cruiser to pull the kid trailer and to hold my beer!

Those Hookworms are some of the most fun I've had on pavement.

Yup, I’ve got a thing for Hookworms and ESI Grips! Best way to stay connected to the ground and bike.

[bjz]

This reminded me of an article I read a while back about Christian Zenga riding across Africa on a tall bike! He builds some pretty crazy tall bikes.



None of my bikes are that "odd". I guess my 1st gen Gary Fisher Rig was pretty odd when I bought it 20ish years ago, being a 29er SS, but we all know what happened next.

My favorite around town bike is a old "Concord" made of crap steel that I put some 27" Bloodhound tires and built with spare parts as a joke. It's now a straight bar SS geared pretty high and is happiest at 16mph or more. It's super slack for a road bike and I think that's why I like it so much. Plus 27" wheels are a hoot and actually slightly larger than modern 29ers (700c).

I have a shed full of franken bikes, but I just got an Ibis Ripley AF and it's dominating by ride time.

A couple of my best friends both ride ripmo’s and LOVE them. I was on a 29er since the first Redline monocog came out (prob following in the steps of surly etc). Even rode a GT peace 9r which was a super fun bike…not sure why that one left the garage, but it did! These days I’m on a SC chameleon 27.5+ and riding it like a downhill bike…these friends keep trying to tempt me over to the full suspension world with their ripmo’s but I know better

[benben]

So far only two I would consider in any manner "funky" or "oddball". Seems to have morphed into a bike flex thread.

[JRinFL]

So far only two I would consider in any manner "funky" or "oddball". Seems to have morphed into a bike flex thread.

fe5ec352959638f312c338cc864f5344.jpgf258a3a213eb11fb9fce9ea711c20e48.jpgOverKill1a.jpg

Funky indeed!

[Evil D]

Alright, you want funky, here's funky. This is the custom rubber ducky bike I built for my daughter.









If that's not funky enough, here's my '52 Schwinn lowrider. Forgive the crappy pic, it's about 15 years old.




'88 Ford Festiva for good measure

[Senfkarte]

Not as funky as the ones above me, but out of my bikes, this is the funkiest.
My dad bought it approximately 30 years ago, maybe even before that. Now it's mine. Changed the grips, saddle, and pedals. Oh, and the seatpost, because the old one was too short for my legs. The bars are a little high, he rose them up, would be a very easy fix, I just never lowered them, because it hasn't bothered me enough.
The funkiest parts are the chainstays. They are kind of unusual.
Other than that, it is an early MTB without any suspension, a 3x7 drivetrain and 26" wheels, that got a second life and has been ridden some more kilometers since I claimed it for me.

[BLUETYPEII]

I was into BMX as a kid too, so I now a 29” BMX so I can still do wheelies.



Also have a 26” cruiser to pull the kid trailer and to hold my beer!

I’ve been looking at getting one of these bmx bikes… can you recommend a brand or a specific bike? (27” 28” 29”)

[bjz]

I like all these additions.

Evil D…hmmmmm, I wonder if the “D” really stands for “ducky”

[bleasure]

not *too* odd, but definitely one of a kind

this was once a mid 90s trek multitrak hybrid: 21 gear (3x7), grip shifters. was given to me for free, and i didn't change a thing for years other than the seat when it decayed; just rode it every day, year round, left outside, until it started getting into really rough shape. something needed to happen

cut to dissertation anxious avoidance time. instead of restoring it as is, or bit by bit, i figured i would rebuild it from the ground up as something altogether new, having never done anything other than maintenence before. and very badly wanting to do something other than write.

so,i decided to turn it into a streamlined, stripped down 1x10 all-year, all-weather commuter beast. modeled it loosely on a cross-check. broke it down completely to the extent of sandblasting the frame. repainted it myself with 2-part epoxy car paints (ford dark green metallic/BRG), rustproofed the insides, and replaced essentially every single non-frame component on the thing - wheels, seat tube, grips, bb: you name it. finished it off with some mad max lookin protective self-adhering tape to keep it from getting banged up too bad too fast, and a new rack & pannier.

ridden it almost every day since 2014. i put like, 5k miles on my car a year. tho I'm living in a place temporarily where i can't ride it and it's killing me, because i love my bike. and also, because now i'm getting fat(ter than the gymless pandemic's already left me).

[JRinFL]

^ Steel is real!

[JRinFL]

Alright, you want funky, here's funky. This is the custom rubber ducky bike I built for my daughter.









If that's not funky enough, here's my '52 Schwinn lowrider. Forgive the crappy pic, it's about 15 years old.




'88 Ford Festiva for good measure

Finally, a low rider bike! I wondered if we would finally see one in this thread. That Ducky bike is awesome. Your daughter must love it.

[benben]

^ Steel is real!

Been thinking hard about building me another mountain bike....if I do it'll be a steel slack HA 27.5" or 29" hardtail with somewhere around a 140mm fork.

[bleasure]

i just want to say thanks for starting this thread btw; i was really happy to see one about bikes, let alone cool weirdo ones sheldon brown would be proud of! somehow, for me, knives and bikes zero in on a very similar part of my brain, and make sense in similar ways.