The Playa Marauder remains my favorite bike Burning Man. The sheer size of it continues to strike fear into the hearts of the citizens of BRC. 🙂
For 2016 I made a repair and a modification to the beast. During the 2015 festival I lost a couple spokes on one of the front wheels. I thought I’d simply purchase a couple new spokes and install them. Wrong!
As you may or may not be aware, typically when a spoke drops out of a rim while moving the spoke will tangle around the rotating axle tightening against itself until it brings the bike to a complete stop …unless discovered immediately and stopped.
In my case I was unaware of the dropped spoke until the Marauder was slowed to a halt each time. At that point I was forced to dismount the beast and unwind the steel spoke from the axle in order to proceed.
What I was unaware at time and did not discover until I attempted to replace the spokes was that the weight and momentum of the Marauder wrapped the steel spoke so tightly around the axle that the entire front hub twisted.
Here’s a shot of the torqued front hub.
Pretty gnarly, huh?
So, my thought of a relatively quick and easy spoke replacement turned into sourcing a new front hub and a complete re-lacing of the wheel. Â [Given the unique size of the wheels (32″) this was not an easy task.]
You can be sure that I tightened the spokes on this re-lacing quite tight. And I’m happy to report that not a single spoke was dropped during the 2016 festival.
—
The modification I made was to make a new set of front fenders utilizing the original rear fenders from the Genesis Super 32’s. Â Because the rear fenders are longer than the front fenders, using them in the front really lowered their profile (see photo below).
As you can see I modified the rear fenders in the same cow-catcher style that I had used on the original front fenders.
Above is a photo of the Playa Marauder in its element at Burning Man 2016.
I’m always thinking of new builds for the playa. Â Not sure what I’ll build for 2017’s festival, but regardless the Marauder will accompany me as well.