What The What? Donhou Hack Bike Klunker

This, is a Hack Bike, built for the Hack Bike Derby. What is a Hack Bike? What is a Hack Bike Derby? Read on..

This selection of images was sent to us by Thomas Donhou of Donhou Bicycles of London. They are apparently of a hack bike built under very strict rules in order to compete in the Hack Bike Derby.

We get a lot of emails from a lot of people containing some very strange bike related things but this gave us a genuine WTF moment. So much so that we’ve decided to add an official WTF category to the site. This is WTF story No. 1.

We asked Tom for some more information on WTF he was doing and this is what we got back.

“ built this wonderfully idiosyncratic machine to race in the recent Hack Bike Derby, but the bike itself has been much longer in the making than that. The rules of the Derby are simple: participants all turn up with their own custom-made, klunker-inspired mountain bikes, build a course and then race them. 26″ wheel only, no disc or V brakes or professional paint jobs are allowed and all bikes must be running the same rubber – in this case Bontrager 2.35 Team Issue. As you can imagine it’s a great recipe for mud, mayhem and fun.

Tom had been looking for an excuse to go back to his early DH routes, when home brew bikes weren’t uncommon and create a rough-and-ready “suspended” klunker – the Hack Bike Derby provided the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. The ‘hack’ spirit meant he could really revel in the freedom to freestyle the design as he went through the build process. Business and time constraints meant he had to draw the line someone, so it went hard tail rather than fully suspended. Can always add that on later though!

The bike combines some pretty out-there features with, what is at its heart, a very ridable geometry based around a 4x or dual setup. The tubing is a ‘Frankenstein’ mix of Reynolds 725, 853 and 631 – essentially anything that was lying around the workshop. Tom engineered the leading link suspension fork himself with 4130, mild and stainless plate, various stainless bolts and 1inch headset locknuts to secure the shock. The addition of a coaster brake at the back makes things a little more fun – although perhaps not the safest choice when in the thick of the racing action (as Tom learnt!). The saddle is maybe the most ‘hack’ part of the whole build – being made from plywood, foam and duct tape…

The bike’s built as a good times, get loose trail bike, getting back to simple pleasures. The purpose was always for it to be ridden after the Hack Bike Derby as well and it’s been built tough with enduring use in mind. It’s comfortable and fun enough to take out time and again, and it is most certainly one of a kind.”

That certainly coloured us intrigued enough to check out the links to the Hack Bike Derby, where we found this..

If you are going to jump a fire make sure you scope out the kicker properly first, yeah?

Mud, bikes, beer and fire. Sat night at @hackbikederby was rad. Full video by @alex_rankin to be premiered at @bespokeduk in April… #HackBikeDerby @ridebontrager @break_fluid @thebicycleacademy

A video posted by Hack Bike Derby (@hackbikederby) on Feb 9, 2016 at 1:38am PST

Notice the unmistakable sound of ‘NOOOOOOOOOOO!’ in slomo.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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