# Anyone have experience with the Transitions Klunker?



## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

I've got an old 80's Takara Highlander that I've converted to single-speed and it's a lot of fun. However, it has tons of wheel flop that makes the steering quite a handful. I've been aware of the Transitions Klunker for some time and I'm wondering if it also has a ton of wheel flop. I know it has the slack angles like my Takara but I can't find any information on the fork rake or the trail of the bike. If it's got a livelier front-end than my old Takara, I might be interested in buying one for my neighborhood flyer.


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## bing! (Jul 8, 2010)

dont know anything about Transition Klunkers, but I do know a little something about wheels flop.

1) Is your fork too short (a2c)?
2) Not enough wheel trail? Too little fork offset?
3) head angle too slack?

Good luck!


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

bing! said:


> dont know anything about Transition Klunkers, but I do know a little something about wheels flop.
> 
> 1) Is your fork too short (a2c)?
> 2) Not enough wheel trail? Too little fork offset?
> ...


Definately #3. My understanding is that most of the first production MTB's shared this trait and it's origins were in a batch of Ritchey frames with too-long forks that were built by someone else. These were the bikes that Charley Kelly and Gary Fisher sold to Specialized at cost and then Specialized had copied into the Stumpjumper. The too long forks resulted in too slack a head-angle and Specialized just went right ahead and copied that. I think by the mid-80's they had figured t out and made the head angles steeper.

How's this for slack?


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## Repack Rider (Oct 22, 2005)

The Transition Klunker is a Chinese-made one-speed coaster brake bike. It is in the style of a '30s ballooner, but it is made out of tubing, not plumbing. Looks the same, weighs half as much.

I went on a Repack video shoot with the Transition team, and they were awesome riders. They were so used to squishy FS landings that they kept blowing the tires landing huge jumps. My old Schwinn sled would never have survived a single one of those jumps, but since it was twice as heavy, those jumps weren't possible anyway.

Here's the Transition team out on Repack. They even brought the requisite old skool plaid shirts and jeans, but the full-face helmets gave away the show.


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## bitflogger (Jan 12, 2004)

Here's some good info in the Klunker. It's a two year old video but it still says a lot about the company and the bike.


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

Repack Rider said:


> The Transition Klunker is a Chinese-made one-speed coaster brake bike. It is in the style of a '30s ballooner, but it is made out of tubing, not plumbing. Looks the same, weighs half as much.
> 
> I went on a Repack video shoot with the Transition team, and they were awesome riders. They were so used to squishy FS landings that they kept blowing the tires landing huge jumps. My old Schwinn sled would never have survived a single one of those jumps, but since it was twice as heavy, those jumps weren't possible anyway.
> 
> ...


Did you ride the Transition version? How did it handle compared to the mass produced MTB's of the early 80's? I know the Breezers and your Ritchey's were different animals from the Stumpjumper and it's clones that followed (I read your book...:thumbsup: ). I tried some twisty-curvy single-track a few weeks ago and what you guys were doing in the 70's is much more appealing to me.


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## Uncle Grumpy (Oct 20, 2005)

corwin1968 said:


> However, it has tons of wheel flop that makes the steering quite a handful. I've been aware of the Transitions Klunker for some time and I'm wondering if it also has a ton of wheel flop.


Turn the fork around. Simple. 

Grumps


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

I went out again tonight and put another handful of miles on it. My version of singletrack is a standard width sidewalk that winds thru the greenbelt behind our house. Lot's of nice gentle curves with a mix of moderate curves and fairly sharp turns. Fun to ride but completely tame compared to real singletrack. I'm finding that the key to handling that front-end is to use my body more to steer the bike rather than the handlebars. I've always done this somewhat on my 700c bike but I find that exaggerating that body movement really helps on the Takara.


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## mainlyfats (Oct 1, 2005)

I have a Handsome Shop Bike. It's 71/73 in my size with a suspension-corrected segmented fork and can be run 26/650B/29er. If you're switching between bikes a lot and don't want to have to get used the 63 head angle (or whatever it is...) on the Transition, it might be worth a look.


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

Handsome's shop bike was one that I have looked at (I have a Devil) but finances limit me to use the wheels I have and that requires rim brakes and 135mm spacing. If I had the funds, I would definately consider getting the complete shop bike. Looks like a very run ride!


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## rev106 (Jul 9, 2009)

You could swap your fork for a straight bladed one, and that would take away some of the slack. Being that I ride nothing but slackfull bikes in a non-slacking manner I think one could get used to it.


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## Jak0zilla (May 16, 2010)

rev106 said:


> You could swap your fork for a straight bladed one, and that would take away some of the slack.


I think your universe has different laws of physics than the one I live in. Everything else being equal, a straight blade traces the same path to the dropout that a curved blade does - it just gets there via a straight line instead of a gentle curve. It just LOOKS different.


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

I'm starting to get used to the steering. Last night was a really good ride and I'm looking forward to getting out again tonight.


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## clockd (Aug 30, 2008)

Hi, I did have a klunker for a short time, it had the nu skool slack feel to it. I never had enough confidence to ride down a hill with it sorry. I also converted an 80s bike with slack geo to ride but there was no comparison. 
The klunker rides a lots better, if you have a modern long travel bike it is that same 'feel'. The moto style bars are really nice and the dh headset and kenda tyres etc give a lot more confidence. Hope that helps


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## Oldfatbaldguy (Nov 4, 2010)

There are a few places out on the web that have shared Joe Breeze's purported technical drawing for the old DX frames that the Marin guys liked best for klunking.







https://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr27/surly357/GetAttachment2.jpg

Then go to the transition site and check out the geo on their klunker. Unfortunately, Transitions doesnt give a couple of pieces of info I'd like to see about the fork/stem, but the rake looks like about 45mm (common) and uses a fairly short reach BMX stem.


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

clockd said:


> Hi, I did have a klunker for a short time, it had the nu skool slack feel to it. I never had enough confidence to ride down a hill with it sorry. I also converted an 80s bike with slack geo to ride but there was no comparison.
> The klunker rides a lots better, if you have a modern long travel bike it is that same 'feel'. The moto style bars are really nice and the dh headset and kenda tyres etc give a lot more confidence. Hope that helps


Thanks for the information! It does help. Now it makes me want a Klunker even more.


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## corwin1968 (Oct 8, 2011)

Oldfatbaldguy said:


> There are a few places out on the web that have shared Joe Breeze's purported technical drawing for the old DX frames that the Marin guys liked best for klunking.
> 
> View attachment 937332
> https://i466.photobucket.com/albums/rr27/surly357/GetAttachment2.jpg
> ...


You're right. I did some research today and found a blueprint that Joe Breeze did in 2012 that was an accurate representation of Breezer #1. I read an interview where he said the old blueprint that is often shown actually isn't 100% accurate to what he finally built.

I noticed that his bikes had a down-sloping top-tube instead of level or up-sloping and I've wondered about that. In the interview, he explained that the head tube size was chosen to match available Schwinn forks (forks were somewhat hard to come by) and the seatposts available in 1977 weren't long enough to put a level top-tube with that head tube length. His solution was to lengthen the seat tube (I think he said 4") to get the saddle to the right height with the short seatposts that were available and then to slope the top tube down to meet the head tube. Really fascinating stuff!


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## rev106 (Jul 9, 2009)

There are lots of cruisers on the market now, you should check out the vastness of the cruiser thread and see what is made ready to go and what people are building.


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