have had some very fun excursions on rail trails , disused railways turned into pedestrian/bike paths. The trails typically go through very beautiful areas and rarely do you have to concern yourself with motorized traffic of any kind. Reader Will appears to be interested in rails as well, but he wants to ride on them - literally. Check it out - Will included the following text - A rail-bike is a bicycle that has been modified to be able to ride on the rails of a railroad. The front wheel has a device attached to it so that the bike won’t steer off the rail while an outrigger is used to support the bike using the other rail. I used conduit, cut up “razor” scooters parts, one bike fork two bits of steel and numerous nuts, bolts, washers and retaining pins. Nothing is welded. The hardest part is getting the spacing right so that friction and play are minimized. A lot of person hours certainly went in to this working model and the details are pretty amazing. [Keep re
I reside in Japan and recently obtained a Kirk revolution MTB in excellent condition, minimally having been ridden it appears. Some interesting aspects about the bike is that it has the Araya brand sticker on the head tube, and is the "Muddy Fox" model, as they called it, not to be confused with another frame that went by the same name, probably a steel frame. It has a sticker on it that says, "Kirk Precision", though it is the Revolution model. The bike is in original and excellent condition, and I currently use it as my daily commute bike to my workshop, among other courses on it.
ReplyDeleteI have ridden it a lot in the past weeks since adding components, and the only issue that I have had is that when I obtained the frame, the dropouts were loose, one barely and fortunately still attached, the other easily taken off. I cleaned and reglued with a strong epoxy, but after a relatively short time, the drive side dropout loosened up again. It gets a lot of pressure from the quick release lever. I reglued and added two small screws with nuts, to give a permanent attachment, and it is fine now. The frame seems quite stiff to me, I haven't at all noticed a tendency to flex, although I don't ride very aggressively off road, am mainly a street rider. The fork is a Tange make, an oversize one, and appears to have been on the bike when first sold. I am very much enjoying the ride, set up for single speed, my riding preference generally. A very cool design I think as well.
I am interested in the connection between Kirk and Araya. I do see some mention of these bikes in Japan with the Araya badge, on the web, so at least a few made it over here, probably at a later point in their manufacturing, is my guess.
Is Frank Kirk still alive? Do you have a contact address for him. I have taken some good photos of the bike. It would be cool to send them to Frank if he is around.
Thanks for all the informative information that you have put up about these bikes.
After having ridden the kirk frame for some time now, I have to change my original assessment on the flex. It is a very whippy frame along the length, particularly so along the top top, or it;s more like a rail. That is where the crack seems to most show up, from photos that I have seen. It is particularly noticeable when you have a lot of weight on the back, where I have a rack for sometimes carrying things, like my wife! I don,t mind the flex so much, since I normally ride on the street, where it isn't so apparent during normal position riding. Riding with your hands off the bars with no pressure up front, sometimes sets up an ever increasing oscillation that can get pretty radical if you allow it. i ould consider the Kirk to be dangerous for off road use where aggressive riding might be the case. I still think that it is a cool frame though, and lit is fun to ride.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant top tube in my earlier post. Thanks.
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