Hopefully this doesn’t come as a surprise to anybody but our bikes work quite well in snow, if fact they can be damn fun when taken out on snowy trails. The pretty little watermelon bike went out and had a fun little adventure in the snow this weekend. Singlespeed in snow is a great exercise in smooth power application. Oh yeah, it’s good times…all provided for you by Clark Custom Cycles.

The yearly thanksgiving tradition is here. It’s time to get back out west and ride in the yearly El Tour De Tucson. It’s a great race/ride around Tucson and draws about 9000 people each year. Worst case scenario it’s a time to see some family, get in a good long ride, and show off a couple bikes for 109 miles on the road, and best of all a couple great friends are coming out for this year’s festivities.

Wanna come out for a ride, check out the site for this year’s El Tour De Tucson.

Mom & Pop, get ready here we come…

Add in the S&S coupler kit and this thing can go anywhere, particularly good if you are spending time in both the Czech Republic and the Mid-Atlantic region. Happy little bits from Campy, Fizik, Ritchey, and a hand-built Chris King wheelset complete the package.

This particular bike is bike #7 from Clark Custom Cycles. And it’s got a Jack Daniels Lucky #7 inspired paint job to match. That and a white paint job on a cyclocross frame is just asking for a bunch of good muddy days…

Classic geometry makes this thing an object of affection for a long time to come and a S&S coupler kit keeps it mobile between the Czech republic and the good ol’ US of A. And as a special touch it’s even got sliding rear dropouts for easy singlespeed conversion.

This particular one is setup as a 1×10 (Cory, correct me if this isn’t the case) with a bunch of thompson, fizik, campy, and alpha q gear to boot.

Ain’t she pretty…

Planning is underway for the second and a halfth annual Czech Single Speed mountain bike National Championship. The next race is likely only a few months away, planned for late December 2009. We expect this one to be a kinda low key smaller deal, but to set the stage for many years to come of great single speed events in the Czech Republic.

All single speed races (to most likely be held on Prague’s south side) will be of the less-traditional non-sanctioned race in the style of the Single Speed World Championships, recently held in Durango, Colorado, USA. The aim is to promote Single Speed biking in the Czech Republic in general, to get SS bikers together for a fun event, and maybe to convince some Czech riders into going to upcoming Single Speed World Championships. (2010 SSWC in Rotura, New Zealand Oct 22. 2010 & 2009-10 SSCXWC in Portland, Oregon, USA Nov 7. 2009) Races will not be sanctioned be the UCI,  ČSC, or ČEMBA. This is a friendly competition to fill the gap these official institutions leave.

This race is for everyone who likes to ride bikes with one gear, not just those who would ever race at an elite or even advanced level. The only requirement is to show up with one gear and be willing to ride. (It will help if you are willing to drink beer or rum, too, cause it will be cold!)

There is a certain satisfaction in taking something that hasn’t been used in a while and turning it into something beautiful. Or at least usable, functional and reliable. We love to convert old road frames into singlespeed or fixed gear rides. And we’ll even do our own custom paint job, hence the name. These aren’t what we would consider show pieces but they are great fun to ride.

So the custom paint is the down and dirty rattlecan spray paint job that is as good as the surface and prep work we put into it. It’s cheap, down and dirty but gets the job done and you back on your revamped wheels quickly.

Custom rear dropouts, singlespeed or fixie conversions. You name it. No brakes, One brake, flat bar, whatever…As always, color choice is all yours (as long as it comes in crylon) and we’ll even throw in our own hand scrawled graphics for you. ]]> http://www.clarkcustomcycles.com/2009/10/rattlecan-racer/feed/ 0 http://www.clarkcustomcycles.com/2009/10/the-humble-little-shop/ http://www.clarkcustomcycles.com/2009/10/the-humble-little-shop/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:03:40 +0000 clarkcustomcycles http://clarkcustomcycles.peteresko.com/?p=23

Damien and Becky started Clark Custom Cycles to fill a void both in the local economy where there needed to be some local frame builders and in our own lives where outside jobs have very often wore us down with little reward. (definitely not a void in our free time which neither of us ever seems to have.)  Now we work long hours because we love the work.  I mean come on we get to build bikes and then send them to people who are thrilled because they just got a brand spankin’ new custom bike, made just for them.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

Don’t get us wrong though, building custom bikes is no cakewalk and it isn’t exceptionally quick. Even with frames costing over a thousand dollars, there isn’t a huge pile of money in the bike-building market.  But we are cautious, hard working and determined to bring beautiful, hand crafted bikes to those who will ride them.

We would be glad to build you a bike, and from our experience you’ll be glad too.  So don’t hesitate, give us a call at 301.432.8454 and see when we can fit you in, and soon enough you’ll be riding on your very own Clark.

So this site isn’t about blame, it’s about bikes. However the Clark Custom Cycles fascination with 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Myron Billy. He’s a mechanic out of Tucson and just as capable on a bike with a wrench as on a barstool. But that’s nothing to hold against him, we consider it a good thing actualy.

There is all sorts of talk as to what a 29er really is. Here’s the fun part, it can be anything you want. A 29 inch wheel is the same as a 700cc wheel. Which means you can swap out a road wheel for a mountain wheel for a cyclocross wheel and have a good ‘ol do it all bike in a single frame. Go figure. This particular frame has been ridden in everything from a cyclocross race, to a mountain ride, and as a full blown road bike, all in the same week. Jack of all trades master of all we like to think.

The Myronicus is also available in a geared version or with track drops, or Paragon Machine works sliding drops. It is also available with brake bosses and whatever braze-ons necessary. It’s all custom, so let us know what you need.

Damien likes bikes…lots and he’s been working with metal since he was a kid (Thanks dad, this is all your fault.) Following up a degree in art (sculpture to be precise), Damien went to the United Bicycle Institute in Portland to learn all the finer points of frame design and construction.

As a general rule of thumb, Damien’s bike may very well be beautiful, but they are meant to be ridden, hard, and crashed. He doesn’t really consider them to be art as they are functional and as a good former art student would tell you art has to be for it’s own sake. These are for the freakin’ fun of riding.

As to riding hard and racing, to quote the man himself, “I can’t make bikes go fast, but I can make bikes that go fast.” He’ll leave the making bikes go fast up to all you racers out there who want to win races for him.

So here is the first Shootout road frame. Finished at just about the wrong time of year for a road bike but hey. Things don’t always come to fuition right when conditions are ideal. This beautifully lugged piece of steel is equiped with an S&S coupler kit for easy packing and travel and as with all custom bikes from Clark Custom Cycles is tailored like a Savile Row bespoke suit. It just fits right…