FrankenBike – Ken Wadland

I just got back from my first full ride on what I call my FrankenBike. It was quite an adventure. Allow me to explain.

My son, Richard, builds his own bicycles, ordering parts from various sources. After he builds them, he frequently upgrades various subassemblies to get exactly what he’s looking for. As a result, he has lots of spare parts and leftovers from previous versions of his bikes.

One day last fall, I asked him if he had enough left over parts to build a complete bike. After a bit a thought, he concluded that he had almost enough to build one. We decided it would be nice if I had a cross-country (XC) bike and that these parts were more than good enough for a novice rider like me. (I have a recumbent bike and a tandem bike but nothing that does well when the pavement stops.)

Richard just finished building my bike last week. Since almost all of the parts of the bike came from other bikes, I decided to name it FrankenBike. It’s my first full-suspension bike. (This means that there are shock absorbers on both the front and back wheels.) It’s also my first 27-speed bike (3 gears on the front sprocket and 9 gears on the rear sprocket). And, it’s my first bike with disc brakes.

Last week, I had taken some test runs on FrankenBike. To use a colloquial term, it is one “sweet” bike! It stops on a dime. Its lowest gear can climb anything. The large wheels and shock absorbers allow me to ride over rocks, roots, and fallen branches as if they weren’t even there. (Richard tested it by riding down the stairs!) When riding down a narrow trail, the trees whiz by at scary speeds.

Today was my first major adventure with my new bike. I call it an “adventure” not a “ride” because this bike isn’t designed to simply get from here to there. As proof that it was an adventure, when I got home: I had to hose down the mud from my arms and legs before entering the house, every muscle and joint in my body hurt, and the bleeding had stopped in most of my new wounds. Not the results I’m used to getting after a ride on my recumbent!

I started my day’s adventure by riding up Fay Mountain Road. After the pavement stopped, FrankenBike continued without any noticeable change. I crossed the first brook without dismounting or slowing down. Dropping down to a medium gear, it climbed the steep hill without effort. (Years ago, I used to pause to catch my breath when walking up this hill on foot.) The rocks and fallen branches were of no concern; FrankenBike rode over them as if they didn’t exist.

Finally, the trail stopped abruptly at cliff, where they carved out the Mass Pike. I looked down several stories at the tiny cars below. Since going further north wasn’t an option, I decided to try going right (to the east). After a few tries I found a path that ran steeply down to the level of the Pike. Riding down the steep trail at full speed was an interesting adventure in and of itself. But, FrankenBike had no problem with it. Once at the bottom, I searched for a while to find a way into the woods. I finally found a break in the fence and headed in.

On my trial runs on previous days, I had discovered that my FrankenBike didn’t mind puddles but my sneakers did. To prevent ruining a good pair of sneakers, I had decided to wear crocs (all plastic shoes). This quickly proved to have been a good idea. While trying to cross what had appeared to be a muddy brook, FrankenBike sank down into the ooze. I dismounted and attempted to continue on foot. Now I was sinking instead of FrankenBike.

I was soon up to my knees in muck. This proved to be too much for my crocs. When I pulled my left leg up, the croc stayed put. Balancing on FrankenBike, I reached down to retrieve my croc. Now my right foot was stuck. I put on my left croc and took a step back. Then, I reached down to retrieve my right croc. Now, you guessed it, my left foot was stuck. Well, at least I had a procedure that seemed to be working. Lift the right foot, fish out the croc, put it on, and take one step backwards. Now, left the left foot, fish out the croc, put it on, and take another step backward. FrankenBike stayed with me as I slowly made my way back to relatively solid ground.

This route wasn’t holding much promise, so I switched FrankenBike down to its lowest gear and climbed the steep hill back to the top. Let’s try the opposite direction (westward).

I found something resembling a trail and FrankenBike and I took off. We soon encountered a rather large puddle. I decided to find out if I could make it all the way through the puddle. The answer turned out to be “no”. About midway (and far from any edge), FrankenBike came to a stop and nosed down into the mud. We walked to the other side of the puddle without further trouble and I remounted. The rest of the trail was much easier. I roamed around exploring various dirt trails for a while.

It was now time to return home. I hate to retrace my steps, so I decided to try to find a different way back. In the distance, I saw a road that I recognized but that would be too easy. Failing to find any other trails, I proceeded into the woods without a trail but where there didn’t seem to be too much undergrowth. FrankenBike had no trouble going where there was no trail; the occasional stray branch was no problem for FrankenBike but did leave interesting marks on my bare arms. Leaning my bike helmet into the larger branches seemed to help.

I finally reached the main trail (the dirt extension of Fay Mountain Road) and headed down the hill. By now, I was very confident that FrankenBike could handle the rocks and other obstacles in the road at low speed. How about at full speed? Off we went down the hill applying the brakes only when the speed exceeded my fear threshold. Sure enough FrankenBike navigated the trail with ease. We even crossed the brook at the bottom at full speed! Down one bank and up the other side without slowing down.

The rest of the route home was now paved road, too easy for FrankenBike. To make things interesting I decided to try “no hands”. I haven’t been able to ride “no hands” for years. The design of my recumbent bike doesn’t allow for “no hands”. Although I could try “no hands” on my tandem, the passenger in the back might not approve. After a little bit of precarious swerving, FrankenBike and I rode the rest of the way down Fay Mountain Road without the need for a handlebar.

Once home, I washed most of the mud that had come along for the ride off of my arms and legs. The crocs got their own washing. I cleaned and lubed the chain. (As my son reminds me, “shiny new chain + mud = rusty old chain”.) But, I decided not to completely hose down FrankenBike, because a little mud makes a cross-country bike proud!