Here are the weirdest bicycles I own

this is my collection of completely absurd   bicycles and today I'm going  to tell you all about them first let's talk about the freak bike Fleet as a  whole why even own freak bikes if I'm not going   to actually ride them regularly these kind of sit  in the storage unit or sit in my garage like for   example this Swing Bike stays at Squatch bikes  if it wasn't for the novelty and the fun there'd   be no reason for me to have any of these but  not too long ago I was living in a city and   I did less mountain biking there and so I rode  my Swing Bike and my Half Bike and my unicycle   around in the street and it was really fun to do  so with that some interesting facts first of all   all of these bikes have Schrader valves except  for the Slingshot bike that's the only one with   Presta valves and it's also the oldest bike here  we also have a lot of wheel sizes here on the Half   Bike we've got a 20 inch wheel and then I guess  those are like four inch then we got a bunch of   26s we have 29 over here and the unicycle is  actually 27.5 plus so all main wheel sizes   are represented also despite the fact that I'm  calling these bicycles bicycle means two wheels   they don't all have two wheels Half Bike has three  wheels it should be called a one and a Half Bike   unicycle has one wheel but most people regard it  as a bike and there's also a bicycle here that   looks really normal it's the Kent travail  and I'll talk about that real quick first so as I said the canterville looks like  the most normal bike of the fleet and I   I could see why you would say that if  you didn't see how the sausage was made we made a lot of modifications this we drilled  holes in the side for cables to go through I cut   the kickstand Mount off with an angle grinder  and for the most part this bike just doesn't   resemble its original form at all we bought  this as a 400 Walmart bike and because we   upgraded the fork and the brakes and the bottom  bracket and the drivetrain it's actually quite   capable this is now a bike that I keep around  as a loaner bike it's a size large I'm a size   small and so I don't have much luck riding it  but couple of notable tidbits about this bike   first of all the chainstay got absolutely  massacred especially during our first runs   on this bike because there's no chain stay  protector on it and there was no clutch on   the derailleur so the chain was just flapping  everywhere and you can see what happens to a   chain stay if you just let it rip the other  thing we did a tubeless conversion on the   rear tire that is we took the inner tube out  and we filled it with sealant and pumped it up I still haven't been able to find a dropper  seatpost that will fit into this seat tube   and so the bike is always going to be  kind of limited in that regard but if   I do find a dropper post I actually can get  the cables inside the frame there's internal   cable routing in this bike which is amazing  for a department store bike and so the can   travail definitely deserves a spot in the  freak bike Fleet because it's kind of weird next up my Nimbus Oracle 27.5 plus Mountain  unicycle now this is actually the unicycle   that I learned to ride a unicycle on it still  can't ride it very well and I have fantasies   that like Someday I'm gonna spend some time on  the trails with this thing and get good at it but nah it's probably never gonna happen  so every once in a while I take this   out of the garage and I pedal it around and  I try some sketchy stuff on it and it's fun yeah this is actually probably not the easiest  unicycle to ride the smaller the wheel the easier   it is this is 27.5 plus and so it tends to do a  few things first of all the larger the wheel on   a unicycle the higher your gearing is so the  harder it is to do little Twitchy movements   to balance second this is a high volume tire  and it tends to squish down a lot and so it's   difficult to steer on pavement it's really made  to be in the dirt this unicycle also comes with   a hydraulic disc brake which believe it or not is  really really useful I can go down a pretty steep   hill on this thing and keep it under control even  though I can barely ride a unicycle something else   interesting about it and I guess this is the case  with any unicycle The Hub and the bottom bracket   or sort of One Piece over here you can see this  clamps down on this bearing over here and the   cranks go all the way through it and I guess  that would be kind of similar to how a penny   farthing drivetrain would work now one thing  I never really learned how to do well on this   unicycle was free Mount that is just stand in the  middle of a parking lot and just jump up on the   unicycle I have to kind of hold on to something  to get started or else it takes me forever but this is an item that I will never sell or  give away I'll always have it because it's just   so cool it doesn't take up a lot of space and  it's fun to just jump on every once in a while so this next bike I showed you guys recently  the Slingshot bike never intended to keep this   I bought this for a video and yeah here it is  now as an aside some bikes I have just because I   need to have them to run this YouTube channel for  example I have a fat bike and I never ride it but   sometimes for a video I need a fat bike and after  the Slingshot video it occurred to me sometimes I   need a weird 90s bike sometimes I need to show  weird 90s components and the Slingshot bike is   a perfect example of all of this first of all  the whole concept it's got this Flex point right   over here and then instead of a Down tube it has a  cable and it has a spring over here I demonstrated   in my video how that actually takes up some of  the bumps on the trails and offers early 90s   compliance this is before rear suspension linkage  became commonplace and manufacturers were coming   up with all sorts of weird ways to solve the rear  suspension problem this was one of them and it   actually rides really really smooth now on top  of being able to use this bike for demonstration   purposes in videos whether I want to show in  early 90s drivetrain or an early 90s fork or   just the geometry of the freaking thing I could  actually lend this out to friends and family if   somebody's visiting and we're going to do a  family Greenway ride maybe with a little bit   of gravel I don't really have to worry about this  thing snapping in half it's going to be fine it's   easy to ride this is a really weird bike it's  really dated but man is it cool and man is it   a great example of such a weird beast and so  will I hold on to the Slingshot bike forever   I don't know if bike values go back up maybe  I'll sell it on eBay but for now it lives here so this next one is the Half Bike and this goes  way back this is one of the first products that   was like sent to me by a company to review on my  channel I don't know what to tell you about this   thing it is not fun to ride you can't climb  Hills it's fun to watch people try to ride it   it looks like it would be really fun but it's  not fun now with that said it's subjective and   there are people who just absolutely love these  things there's a whole half by community and the   main thing that they say is that it's really good  exercise you're standing up on this thing it's   sort of a full body experience trying to make it  work and so I don't think there's that many people   who are using this as practical Transportation let  me show you why okay so you have this little crank   set here and then you have these little teeny  handlebars and they don't do anything and you   have to like tilt it to make it steer and then it  steers with the back wheels it doesn't steer sharp   it's not particularly maneuverable not if you  compare it to a real bike now despite all this   I still have the Half Bike because it's extremely  interesting so first of all this part over here   is actually made of wood and I guess it makes it  lightweight it gives it some compliance it makes   it more comfortable to ride and then the frame  dream is this big wavy part that's made of metal   and then there's all sorts of interesting Parts in  between there's this fiberglass reinforced nylon   for the bottom bracket it has three speeds you  don't see it it's got a Sturmy Archer Hub so this   is an internal gear Hub it's like a transmission  in there you can see the shifters right up here   you don't have to be pedaling to shift it and so  it gives you a little bit of range and it's got   these little tiny Wheels on the back with little  tiny tires and then it's got two sides of like a   caliper brake and the brake just kind of rubs  against the side of the wheel to stop it it's   really fascinating and you see these bikes on  eBay for a considerable amount of money people   want them and so I think my opinion about it  not being fun is just wrong hate this thing so my main criticism of the Half Bike is that I  don't find it fun this has the opposite problem   it's too fun you lend this to someone you're  never getting it back this is the Swing Bike   and as you can see it's got a pivot  point right here it's bent they all   do every Swing Bike ever made just bends  right there but it's fine still works well   it doesn't look like it would be fun it looks  like it would just be pointlessly difficult to   ride but actually it's quite intuitive and  once you get used to it it's just gangster you ride this bike down the street and you lean  into turns and you just whip it around and there's   literally nothing as fun it is amazing now this  bike has been living at Squatch one of their   mechanics was taking it to get pizza and he would  ride back from the pizza place holding the pizza   box on the Swing Bike swinging it around and he  could have taken one of many high-end mountain   bikes that are in the shop but he would take  the Swing Bike it is in fact single speed it   originally came with Cruiser handlebars but Pat  put some big straight mountain bike bars on it a   mountain bike stem and yes the Pivot Point here  just gets bent back you go off of curbs you jump   off some Ledges hit some doubles on it eventually  it starts bending everyone I've ever seen is bent   this is a bike I'll never sell I'll never give  away it's ridiculously fun it's gonna be something   I'm gonna show my kids how to ride someday I  share it with everybody who comes to visit you   got to take a ride on the Swing Bike this is like  the novelty bike to end all novelty bikes foreign bike and it has the largest standover height of  any bike I own now of the group this is the only   one that I actually built from scratch I tore down  two steel bike frames I cut them up I welded them   together painted the frame I kind of invented  this drivetrain system over here I even got   front and rear brakes working on it and that's  rare for tall bikes yes these are common you   see tall bikes everywhere and they're usually uh  kind of a hodgepodge you don't see many complete   builds with gears and front and rear brakes and  everything now like the Swing Bike this is also   way way way fun to ride it's much easier to ride  than the Swing Bike anybody can ride this thing   you literally just mount it and ride it around  like any bike just take your foot put it over   here I'm five foot four by the way and just get  on it and start riding it's extremely extremely   intuitive once you're up here it just just feels  like a bike I I also found out that if you ride   this uphill like even a slight Hill it just wants  to flip over backwards because a it's really tall   and B there's two bike frames here so you can see  the seat tube just keeps slanting back until it's   like over the rear wheel the center gravity is  all messed up on this bike so let me tell you   some other weird things about the tall bike so  first of all the tall bike has four bottle cages   because it's got two bike frames so of course  why wouldn't we install four bottle cages on it   and riding tall bikes would make you thirsty  in theory because you'd only do it in like a   tropical island or something this is not a bike  you want to ride if you really have some place   to go this is also one of the only freak bikes  that I keep in my garage at all times because   on lunch break or if I just get bored I grab  it and ride around the driveway with it and   if somebody visits I make them ride it they'll  be like oh I don't want to get broken off today   and I'm like no it's easy and they all admit it  once they get on it they're like like yeah it's   like riding a bike so hope you enjoyed taking a  look at all my freak bikes today these are not   bikes you see all the time they're not bikes that  I have out all the time like I said the Swing Bike   kind of lives at Squatch this only gets lent out  when people come over the Half Bike I never ride   and the unicycle I never ride but these bikes  are still a joy to own they're still really   fun I don't put that many miles on them  so they don't require much upkeep and if   you are a bicycle Enthusiast like me you  understand why freak bikes are something   fun I hope you enjoyed this video today I hope  you learned something and if you didn't I hope   you at least found this entertaining thanks for  riding with me today and I'll see you next time thank you oh now it's got dog doo

Channel: Berm Peak Express

Views: 467,506

Keywords: do it yourself, diy, tools, home, backyard, mountain biking, cycling, outdoors

Id: 1W0bjNq0A9M

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2023