AtomicAtom
Retro Guru
(WAY MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 2)
I approached Mickey from Spooky Bikes about doing a custom 29er commuter bike. I am a big supporter of Spooky and have gotten to know Mickey since he resurrected the company in 2007. I was ecstatic to find out that Frank The Welder has started working with them again! He did a lot of the welding on the jump bikes and DH rigs bitd. After talking with Mickey about the custom bike he decided he was going to show it at the North American Handmade Bike Show (NAHBS) in Austin, Texas this year.
I decided I wanted a versatile new bike, but something I've never had before. Spooky isn't known for making 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes and I have never ridden one. We talked and it came together as a single speed steel framed bike with clearance for 2" mtb tires but the geometry more like a bmx bike, or the Metal Head of old. I tried commuting on the Metal Head for a while but found it impossible to do for a long time. Why not make a large wheeled MH that I can just ride off the street on to the trail? It was capped off with a set of Columbus Max tubing that he has been wanting to use for a while. Currently the front end is at FTW's shop in Vermont getting worked on while some of the smaller bits are out for CNCing.
Although this is a UK/EU forum primarily I think you can all appreciate the ideals behind Spooky. They work hard to source all materials locally, and work with the best local artists/manufacturers. ALso, they want to get out there and ride some bikes hard and have a ton of fun doing it. Bringing FTW back to make custom bikes again is something I think a lot of us here at Retrobike who appreciate his place in our culture can really get behind. Maybe he will start to make some kick ass production bikes in the near future too?
I will post more info on the bike as it get built for those who are interested. NAHBS is coming up at the end of February and I will be there to photograph it and support Spooky.
