[WickedPhatChance]

Kool Stop pads on this one.

...that's right...KoolStops...it's slowly coming back to me. thanks for clarification.

 

[First Flight]

Cleaned the bike up and made a few of the parts a little more "correct". The Ti Dye spokes are a little too new but they just matched the frame color too well not to use.
MOMBAT: 1990 IRD Stroker

 

[First Flight]

Go to the web page for all 15 pictures, but here are a couple of teasers:

 

[coconinocycles]

That is a "semi-stroker" it had 191mm arms and "only" if I remember a 75* ST angle. the "full stroker" had 221mm arms & a 78* ST angle.
I talked to Rod Moses last year & he said only five "full strokers" were ever made.
I know Absolute Bikes in Salida has one.......

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

 

[datawhacker]

here is Rod's bike with 225mm cranks. My favorite comment from a guy I met who was racing a Stroker back in the day was "your knees hit your chest when pedaling"

 

[coconinocycles]

here is Rod's bike with 225mm cranks. My favorite comment from a guy I met who was racing a Stroker back in the day was "your knees hit your chest when pedaling"

Oh Yeah - BB "rise" instead of BB "drop" as well - got a detail shot of the dropouts? are they Paragon on ones they made?

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

 

[datawhacker]

All the IRDS that I've seen had track-style dropouts because of the sub 16" chainstays

here is a semi-stroker

 

[coconinocycles]

All the IRDS that I've seen had track-style dropouts because of the sub 16" chainstays

here is a semi-stroker

Nope. those are not paragons. I thought they were these: www.paragonmachineworks.com - RearHorizontalRelieved70DegreeOpenerHanger
Which I use often.
I talked to Rod last year as he was looking to get his old F'building jig back together, but the parts were scattered in between Mountain Bike Heaven in Sedona which closed doors after 20yrs a few mths ago, and Joe Murray and Me, but I only have one piece from the original IRD jig, a 1 3/8" downtube block.........

Steve Garro. Coconino Cycles.

 

[uphiller]

Thanks for posting this!
I really love the spirit of experimentation in these bikes, the way they Rod had an open mind about everything that people just took for granted. "Bikes have 175mm cranks, a 72-ish seat angle and 70-ish head, and 18" chainstays (at the time)." "You have a choice of cantilevers, U-Brakes, or maybe rollercams. There are no other types of brakes." "Bikes do not have rear suspension." "A seatpost is a piece of tubing that you bolt a seat onto. If you need to put the seat down, get off the bike and adjust it." "Suspension forks have brake dive." Apart from materials, all of his stuff was totally out there. I would love to ride one of the long-crank bikes.
Apparently Zinn makes super-long cranks with external bearings. Maybe somebody would like to do a modern incarnation of one of these machines...

 

[coconinocycles]

Maybe somebody would like to do a modern incarnation of one of these machines...

A 29er one would be cool!

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

 

[jeff]

Steve,
Did you ever have any saddle time on one?

 

[uphiller]

A 29er one would be cool!

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

I thought of that- 15.75" stays, a shifted-forward seat tube, and a big rear wheel. Chainline is a serious issue, though. Back when drivetrains were only 6 or 7 speeds out back, more was possible.
Also, with the very high bb coupled with a 29er, your center of gravity would be HIGH.

 

[coconinocycles]

Steve,
Did you ever have any saddle time on one?

Just riding one around - Sean Gillis who owns Absolute Bikes in Salida, Co. was big into IRD back then & he had a full-stroker and a full suspention one and Wade from Vulture Cycles worked for Sean in Flagstaff at the time and was my roomate as well, we worked at competing bike shops. Wade really liked the stroker and rode it allot so I would pick it up from time to time to check it out but it seemed like you needed to ride it all the time to be eeerrr........ "safe" on it - not that it was sketchy - it was just *that* different from whatever else was out there, and at the time I was way into my Ibis bikes with different sized wheels (20x24, 24x26) or my Yo-Eddy so I was into a totally different vein..........it seemed like a better one speed then a geared bike to me, not much for high cadence.

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

 

[coconinocycles]

I thought of that- 15.75" stays, a shifted-forward seat tube, and a big rear wheel. Chainline is a serious issue, though. Back when drivetrains were only 6 or 7 speeds out back, more was possible.
Also, with the very high bb coupled with a 29er, your center of gravity would be HIGH.

Oh, it would take more then just swapping wheels - it would be 0 bb drop rather then BB rise, for example.......I would stretch the CS lenght to at least 16.75".......likely best as a one-speed.

Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.

 

[First Flight]

Or something like this with an 80mm wide bb, 15.25" stays, 16 bb height and 160mm rear hub.

 

[vulture]

It has been fun to read this thread and look at the pictures of the Strokers. Like Steve said, I rode one of these a lot, in many forms. It totally sucked to ride until I put some rise bars on it, the bb was super high like 14.5" and with long legs you have to imagine the seat height was in low earth orbit. I rode it mostly with 222's but they broke and i went to 202's after that. The bullseye BB sucked and required constant work, even with the IRD keeper kit. I had IRD ti forks and they were so flexy that I broke axles in front hubs until I went to a wide flange WTB hub. The rotary brake was cool in the desert(mostly) but once when riding in Colorado on(something) gulch outside of fort collins I had to disconnect the damn thing because small pebbles from stream crossings would get stuck in the cable groove in the brake and bind it up. When I moved to Bend I had it set up as a singlespeed with the 202's and the IRD remote seat QR, so it was funny to have a shifter on the bars but only as a singlespeed. The Stroker is why I started to build frames, I was talking to Rod about the bike in 95ish and he offered to sell me his framebuilding stuff. I wasn't in a position to buy it, but I had a friend who was and it all came to flag and I built my first four frames on the IRD jig. Because of the stroker, I will pass on super long cranks thanks, no bullseye stuff for me, Forks that bolt together don't interest me, but it did make me interested in building frames and experimenting. A great museum piece, but bikes ride so much better now.

 

[jeff]

Youngs Gulch or Hewlets Gulch. Both have dozens of crossings.

 

[rockychrysler]

It has been fun to read this thread and look at the pictures of the Strokers. Like Steve said, I rode one of these a lot, in many forms. It totally sucked to ride until I put some rise bars on it, the bb was super high like 14.5" and with long legs you have to imagine the seat height was in low earth orbit. I rode it mostly with 222's but they broke and i went to 202's after that. The bullseye BB sucked and required constant work, even with the IRD keeper kit. I had IRD ti forks and they were so flexy that I broke axles in front hubs until I went to a wide flange WTB hub. The rotary brake was cool in the desert(mostly) but once when riding in Colorado on(something) gulch outside of fort collins I had to disconnect the damn thing because small pebbles from stream crossings would get stuck in the cable groove in the brake and bind it up. When I moved to Bend I had it set up as a singlespeed with the 202's and the IRD remote seat QR, so it was funny to have a shifter on the bars but only as a singlespeed. The Stroker is why I started to build frames, I was talking to Rod about the bike in 95ish and he offered to sell me his framebuilding stuff. I wasn't in a position to buy it, but I had a friend who was and it all came to flag and I built my first four frames on the IRD jig. Because of the stroker, I will pass on super long cranks thanks, no bullseye stuff for me, Forks that bolt together don't interest me, but it did make me interested in building frames and experimenting. A great museum piece, but bikes ride so much better now.

the first image is cross-posted from 'vintage helmets'

 

[vulture]

Here is a pic of an old IRD catalog I found in the shop. Super funny and cool. First Flight, do you want it?

 

[coconinocycles]

Here is a pic of an old IRD catalog I found in the shop. Super funny and cool. First Flight, do you want it?

I have a 1983 one-off titanium one & a 1984 stumpjumper one as well & you can have those, too.
- Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles