Welcome to Klunkers

What am I doing here?

What am I NOT doing here?

Both good questions. Not sure if I have good enough answers for you. But here goes.

My new obsession with Klunker bikes came from a need for simplicity in my life. And maybe a bit of whimsy too. I already loved bikes, but for the past four years I’ve been trucking around on a Surly Big Easy—a steel-framed long tail cargo e-bike with a Bosch motor.

I love it. But it’s the furthest thing from simplicity. (Maybe a little whimsical though.)

Through Surly, I discovered first the Lowside. I couldn’t explain why, but I was instantly drawn to this thing. It just screamed fun. Retro. Throwback to a time when riding bikes was the ultimate freedom.

No gears. No suspension. No fine tuning or custom fits. Just bunny hops and wheelies.

Now, I know the Lowside stretches the definition of what some would call a Klunker—it’s officially a “single speed mountain bike,” but it’s Klunker adjacent. It’s got that Klunker essence.

I didn’t buy it. Maybe it didn’t quite fit. But it also reminded me of a bike that caught my eye years back—the SE Big Ripper. I’d never seen a bike like that before and I thought it was so cool.

Again—not a Klunker per se. But in the KCU. (Klunker Cinematic Universe.)

And my research deepened. The Redline Monocog. The Priority Bikes Sauce. Some of the other “big BMX” bikes by Redline and SE. And Haro.

That’s when I found my Klunkerson. This was it. This is the bike I’d been looking for. God damnmit—even the marketing video was perfect.

But what’s in a name? Klunkerson? My hyperfixation continued… what is a Klunker?

I’ll get into that in a future post, for anyone still searching for a definition. In essence, they were the first mountain bikes.

Now, they’re almost a novelty bike… but not quite. A cruiser when you’re hitting the breweries. A BMX when there’s a bowl nearby. A mountain bike on the trails.

All of the above and none of the above. It’s a bike built for fun. A bike built for GenX’ers like me who watched flicks like Rad, and dreamed of owning a Hutch.

It’s a bike I can ride with my toddlers, and have fun alongside them. It’s a bike I can lock up outside a bar and not have to check on it every 10 minutes.

It’s a bike. And bikes are fun.

But as fun and relatively commonplace a Klunker is—there doesn’t seem to be anything more than an unofficial Reddit subthread and a few random articles.

Where is my Klunker community?

Maybe it’s here? I hope so. And that’s what I’m doing here.

Oh—and back to my second question… what am I NOT doing here?

I’m not trying to swoop in and steal something that’s not mine. I’m not trying to stuff this page full of Google ads and affiliate links. Honestly, I have a good job. I don’t see this as anything other than a creative outlet and a place for Klunkers like me to kill time.

If you’re reading this, welcome.

Let’s get into some analog bikes for a digital world!