Croatan Flat Bar Mafia
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
It certainly is unprecedented times. My two boys and I had been preparing for the Croatan Bucky Fifty for many months, and looked forward to spending a long day in the North Carolina woods with some good friends on fantastic gravel roads. This year we also decided to make it a family vacation, and rented a beach house for just our crew the week leading up to the event. To make a long story short, the race was ultimately cancelled to help increase social distancing and slow the spread of COVID-19. However, before leaving we were able to spend a few days on the course, in small distanced groups, as well as on the beach and as a family.
I’ve done the 150-mile Buck Fifty two times previously, but this year was talked into not only doing it on a single-speed, but joining the Rodeo Labs “flat bar mafia”. The Mafia is a informal group of Traildonkey users who have re-purposed their older-model Donkeys into single-speed, flat bar gravel bikes, complete with rattle-can paint jobs of their own design. Since my TD 2.0 more or less became my spare bike when the TD 3.0 came along, it’s wasn’t much of a decision to put some life back into the older bike. The biggest question was how was I going to paint it? I’ve really been digging the bikes coming out of Squid these days, and very interested in their spin-off paint company Spray.bike. I also happen to have six incredibly talented kids in my family who tend to spend every waking moment drawing, painting, or creating something. And so the idea of the Graffiti Donkey was born.
Jonah had a set of Posca pens his sister gave him for Christmas, so one Friday night I stripped the frame of parts and put it on the dining room table. The next 24 hours I stood back and watched the magic of creation.
I’m proud to say I didn’t do any of it, other than two coats of Spray.bike top coat for protection. The result? You’ll have to be the judge, but I think it came out pretty well. Jonah did the bulk of the drawings, but everyone has something on there, somewhere. Every time I look at it I seem to find some new doodle I didn’t see the time before. And the best part? It still rips as a bike, proven with 100 miles of Croatan gravel the day of the race after it was cancelled.
Bikes are art. But bikes are made to be ridden. I’m going to enjoy this one for many more years to come!
