Blast from the past: the Stutterin’ Prick

Editor’s note: I dragged out this post from our old forums about our founder and publisher’s legendary singlespeed, the Stutterin’ Prick. Note, this was written a decade ago, in 2002. The bike remains virtually unchanged to this day.

By Maurice Tierney

The real story of my one speed, named after a Joe Peshi line in what movie?

Here’s the deal: The story from 24 hours of Canaan this year (2002) is the story of a ten-year-old bike that has not passed its prime: Stutterin’ Prick.

Stutterin’ Prick is a 1989 Team Stumpjumper, Specialized’s top of the line steel bike for that year. Just like Ned and Lisa rode. Came with Tange Prestige tubing, full XT group, Biopace rings. The works. And fortunately, most bike companies, like Specialized, had by 1989 given up on the under-the-chainstay U-brake.

My second mountain bike, it was. Served me well. But over the years, it fell by the wayside. For purposes of spiritual revival and megatrend research, I had some track dropouts installed by Ted Wojcik for a one-speed conversion. Ted was then asked to paint it whatever color he had laying around. Make it ugly, I said. Maroon it was. What a maroon.

The full XT group is long gone, replaced by a minimum of parts, namely Paul Hubs, brakes and levers, Salsa 1″ quill stem, WTB Ti bar in 24″ width, an old Ground Control Umma Gumma 2.5″ tire for the pneumatic suspension up front, a skinnier, knobby Geax tire in back for traction, WTB Powerbeam rims (Laced three cross by Scotty at Dirty Harry’s), stainless steel King cages, and Bullseye 190mm cranks. The Bullseyes are a key feature of this bike as the 190mm length allows me to put down a load of torque when I need to. I ordered the Bullseyes with a 34-tooth chainring, and put a 20 on the back. This choice may be slow for flat sections, but it’s great on hills.

Screw the trendiness. Ten years later, and this machine has raised my consciousness, my self-esteem, and the level of my riding skill. We just got back from 24 hours of Canaan, where Stutterin’ and me rode 2 laps with an open team from NYC that I found in the lodge looking for a rider. My 1:37 day lap was comparable to what I’m usually capable of on a geared bike, suspended or not. It’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it. Prick was able to ride probably 90 percent of the course, especially the long grind up the road. A couple of really steep uphills were conquered on foot. This offered relief for my back and legs. Downhills were handled amazingly well, the precision of the rigid fork offered total control. And the rigid-fork beating was not that bad.

I don’t know why, but this baby rides like a dream. Uphill or down. Could be that the geometry chosen in 1989 is still valid today. 71/71 angles, 16.9″ chainstays, 11.6″ bottom bracket, 23.75″ top tube and 1.65″ fork rake.

Maintenance? Well the low-end model Ritchey 1″ headset did come loose a little, but that was easily cured once I was able to find a pair of 32mm headset wrenches. That wasn’t easy. The only other requirement was chain lube.