Take 17 bespoke framebuilders, get them to knock up a retro-inspired ‘hack’ bike, add an English mudbath, copious amounts of beer, set stuff on fire and you’ve got the Hack Bike Derby. The goal was simple: build a steel bike with a serious nod to the Klunkers of the formative days of mountain biking, and take part in a series of events over a weekend in Somerset. The rules are strict, the bikes are rigid, but the vibe is far from it.

– Frame and forks must be made by the rider from steel, specifically for this event.
– The bike must be made cheaply (under £300, all in)
– Dropouts must be made (“hacked”) by the rider
– The bike mustn’t be painted but it can be clear-coated, raw or painted using pens, paint brushes or rattle can, by the rider (basically – no expensive paint jobs!)
– All bikes must use the same tyres (and hence wheel size) Bontrager have provided 26” x 2.35 XR4 Team Issue tires for every rider
– The bikes must also be built according to this year’s brief; 1 x gear, 2 x brakes (1 x front + 1 x rear, no hydraulic or disk, ideally not V brakes), and the bike must look like a klunker. This is how Charge Bikes went about it…

No matter how advanced our bikes are now, how easy they are to ride, there’s still something just indefinably cooler about these machines, and the obvious fun to be had riding them. And, those helmets!