Transition Klunker – On the highway to hell
As soon as the cold autumn kicks in, you can snuggle up with your loved one in front of a cozy fireplace and enjoy a nice glass of red wine,
waiting for the winter to come. Take a little… STOP! Enough with the snob-stuff already! Anyone who cannot cope with the $%# profanity or is still mourning the passing of summer with nostalgic wanderlust, wishing to escape the cold grip of winter towards the south, should simply turn over the pages without reading – or, excuse me, slide over the pages.
Because – just as mommy has always preached – it is the survival of the fittest. Especially in the fall!
The battles for material possessions can be a real pain in the ass! Forever seeking the newest, best, and most colorful. What they really don’t get is that it is not about the material, but all about the rider. And the last off-camber slip was not because of a fault in equipment, but because of a riding mistake. Why the hell shouldn’t I be just as fast in my denim shirt as others in a multi-layer-soft-shell-gaga-membrane
-jacket? Because in real life “you can, if you can,” there is no place for “you can, if you have!”
We simply assumed that we can; and therefore we did what you shouldn’t do. At least that’s what they say…
In the early 1970s, a few two-wheeler-lovers and Californian hippies with names like Breeze, Fisher, or Kelly tried to reinvent the bicycle. With lousy steel frames and a couple of lugged tires, the guys drifted down the Californian hills, apparently helpless at the mercy of gravity.
How does it feel to hit the trails without riding aids, without a suspended chassis or safety belt? – Like shit! And that is exactly why we did it! Me and my bike! The mountain my only opponent, and not only on the downhills!
We imagined ourselves back in the beginnings of mountain bikes: the urge to recklessly plunge down steep mountains and to give the finger to the weird 26×1.35-inch-society. But in fact we did not find our bike at the junkyard or a dark basement…instead we were riding the all-new Transition Klunker. Heavy as lead, equipped with only a backpedal coaster brake and a single speed – these are the most basic of rides.
meters farther, we are landing – upper body first – on the wide and robust handlebar of the Transition. If you fly high, you fall hard. We are count the pebble stones in our lower arms and have a beer to soften the blow. Get up and ride on.
smoking around in front of us, not having to adjust to the restraints of bike groupies that are spoiled with milkshakes and energy bars.
Riding the Klunker uphill is simply impossible, which is why I am pushing and looking forward to the descent. The singletrack, building up in front of me, does one thing in particular: it hurts! Arcing around the first trees and corners, a steep rocky section becomes a disaster and the coaster brake does not really work as I was hoping. After a little blood was spilled and a few scratches decorated
my arm, I continue speeding down the trail and remember what riding is all about: fun – even with the simplest bike.
The lines are fading, the limits are breaking. What seems to be a piece of cake on a high-tech ride turns into a test of courage on the Klunker. Coolness knows no pain…or simply rolls to the next ice-cream shop. We did both –and had loads of fun doing it!
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Text: Patrick Sauter Foto: Robin Schmitt