At risk of revealing my secret identity to anyone who met me at the show… I’ll admit I was skulking around the BC Bike Show in Vancouver last weekend. Was anything Klunky?
The BC Bike Show is a bit of a funny beast. Held annually in Vancouver, BC, it’s really just a portion of the Vancouver Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show. So while I knew that, a lot of people were expecting more than just 1/3 of Canada Place to have bikes in it…
But I wanted to check it out to see if any Klunkers were making the cut. The trend is on the rise, again, but are dealers paying attention?
So the short answer is no. Not really. But I met some cool people doing cool things that are, at minimum, Klunker adjacent. Here are the highlights:
High Velocity Stunt Team
One of the best parts of the show was cut short this year. Literally. Because for some reason they put the biggest kicker under the lowest ceiling. This convention centre has portions that are like 150 feet tall inside…
…But this year, the stunt team was literally hitting the roof tiles with some of their backflips. Couldn’t have helped the confidence! But it was still a good show on both BMX and mountain bikes. Here are the BMX’ers:
Pretty impressive stuff, even though they were hugely limited by that damn low ceiling. Hey boys, let’s get some Klunkers in the mix next year! You can ride mine!
Battleaxe Warriors
Mad respect to these folks, an artist collective, and particularly to the lovely Shawna (pictured above) who took the time to explain her community and what they do.
Not Klunkers by any means, but certainly beside us in spirit. This arm of Battleaxe builds custom lowrider bikes built with passion and intensity. A close-knit group of primarily Indigenous locals, though all are welcome who share their spirit, they not only build these bikes but support local community charities, host events and basically do cool shit 24/7.
Here are some pics I took of the Battleaxe Warriors’ work, below:
I think I’d be too worried about scuffing the paint to actually ride one of these bikes! But I respect the artistry so much. Excellent work folks.
Whistler Cap Dealer
I loved what these peeps were doing—custom top caps for your bike. I was so excited I did something dumb. More about that in a second…
But first, a bit about Whistler Cap Dealer. They sell, among other items, custom engraved top caps in a whole host of fonts and colours, with matching bolts in titanium and aluminium. And they’re local. So I decided to buy two, one for my Klunkerson and one for my cargo bike. They even let you watch the engraving, below:
Here’s my Klunker Crew cap getting made!
Now the cargo bike cap went on easy and looks sick. Right? I love it!
But if you’re smarter than me, you’re probably wondering how I plan on getting a cap-and-bolt top cap into a Klunkerson headset that very clearly doesn’t work that way. D’oh! See below for what I mean. Excitement got to me and the crowds distracted me.
I’m posting this because we all make mistakes. Yes, even Klunky D.
And also, beyond swapping out my headset which I’m not gonna do just to fit a top cap, I want to inquire to YOU if I’m missing a way of making this work. Comment below, or just laugh at me for such a rookie move.
If I can’t get it to work, maybe I’ll do a reader contest and give it away. Hey, big prize right? Well what do you expect from a hobby blog?!
Viral Marketing
Dude—did you go to the show? Did you see how I left stacks of KLUNKERS stickers around? I got rid of about 300 of them; I’m stoked to (maybe) see them around the city. But I overshot demand. I’m now left with another 250 and no events upcoming.
If you’re involved in a Klunker event and want some stickers, send me an email. I’ll mail you the lot. If I get more than one request, I’ll divide them up. If you’re reading this in the future, they’re probably gone by now… but if it’s still March 2026, hit me up!
So that’s a wrap! Maybe someone at the show will read this and get some sick Klunkers on display in 2027.
And I’m serious about the stickers—promise to distribute them and they’re yours.
Took a glance at this for the first time . I wondered for years if anyone still Flatlands I see some pictures of the rider making the moves . It’s good to see. Not easy to do a true art kind of forgotten. Used to practice flatland in a Millitary airplane hanger on the property of Hamilton Air Force Base at Ignacio California Marin County. The Air Force just up and left the place with the Huge hanger doors rolled up completely and all that smooth concrete inside what better place to Flatland. Four or five hangers as I remember wide open. However the Coast Guard occupied one and some of the buildings but not many. On the abandoned Air Force Base some officers quarters were turned into condos one I bought in 1997 so I lived very close to the hangers about less than a mile. The whole base was like a ghost town. So after moving in and exploring the base my son and I got the bright idea to use the abandoned thousands of acres of the Air Base as a big BMX Theme Park. Nobody around to tell ya doodle and mostly had the whole Air Base to ourselves. Yes you got it a play ground for Klunker Bikes BMX Roller Blading and of course Flatland and can’t forget Skateboarding as well. Hard to imagine like a dream came true. There were some nice Speed Bumps where a handful of Coast Guard Resident’s lived shaped just right to use as high speed jumps perfect for a Klunker or a 24” BMXer . I went out and bought a Free Agent full chromo framed 24” BMX bike the model called Ambush and added their 180 three piece chromo hefty crank and a Odyssey Battle Gear chainring and a 24” Specialized Fatboy after surveying the grounds. I learned how to wheelie a bicycle in one of the Air Hangers on the weekends as my son did too on a Electra Seven speed hub Flyer Klunker Bike and their Bomber 7 Klunker also. My son had just turned 13 and the X Games were big at that time so the abandoned Air Hangers and the whole area was just a big unimaginable place to be for him and his friends that came by for the weekends and it was just down the street. To good to be true. After 21/2 years I bought a house in Novato the next town up the 101 and moved out of the Air Base. Well the Hangers were turned into Offices and the rest of the place was developed into track homes. This article sparked the memories of the BMX days with my kid and had my sight on the Kona Huma at that time that I test road. The Huma would of been the perfect bike to assault the streets and the dirt at the old abandoned Hamilton Air Base. During the sixties Hamilton Air Base put on some fantastic Air Shows with the Thunder Birds always showing up. A very active place during the Vietnam conflict the War is unfortunate to be involved but as a kid very exciting the air base as all the time living in Marin you got to see some fancy aircraft flying doing loops barrel rolls etc. Also breaking the sound barrier and window rattling in any building your in. Heck yeh the COOLEST PLACE to be. Never a dull moment in Marin at that time . Now it’s Just a Place For Up Tight Smuck’s and Elite Activist’s that are afraid of their own shadow and home for the Governor 💩💩💩💩💩who (Ruined California ) Hay but it’s a great place to ride a bike and now we’re talking.🤠 Forgot to mention a lot of famous rock bands were shacked up in Marin at that time in the Sixties. Santana up the Cascade Canyon Mill Valley the Grateful Dead etc. Good Memories. It’s funny how you see a article and suddenly it draws out those memories . Marin is a story that was to good to be true. If you did not live it the memory sounds like a tall tail. But all true. So what happen? One word (socialism). I watched all that fun being regulated or band like the Repack Event by the Elite up tight. So if you find a fun place to play don’t waste time use it. It is illegal to have fun in a socialist society as that is too American or Canada in the Old days. Had a friend that spent a year there in Alberta in 1969. He had a blast. He loved it . If you got a dollar to your name better buy that bike or what ever you have your site on because Governor 💩💩💩💩💩💩In California wants to raise the sales tax to 16% more. All blue states are the same beware as your favorite bike shop or other may close. Remember San Francisco? Well Governor 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 fixed that place up just pull it up on YouTube.
Like the show bikes / Lowrider bikes I did a Shwinn Legacy with the chrome lowrider wheels and a American made BMX Stem that looked like a cylinder of a revolver clamping down on a tall D style ape hanger handle bar over a chrome springer . Of course the Gangsta White Walls was a must on this bad boy and a chrome headlight sporting a visor was on par. No front fender but the rear I slammed over a 2.35 Fat Frank cruiser tire and that big white wall just gave it the look. I fabricated a polished aluminum headlight bracket to French it down nicely in between the forks just above the front tire finished up with a set of cast polished aluminum Sun Light pedals I did a little work on with the pearl blue paint as it came from a Target Store for a 125$ it all came together perfectly. A very fun project the Legacy cool to look at and was very rideable. The bike off the floor for only 125$ with the cool blue paint that really sparkled in the sun I had to see the image of it as a custom . Bicycle Art as shown in this section above.