Rabeneick Fancy from 1998 - A story of abuse

The use as a bicycle for school can already be a challenge in Germany. A satchel weights about 9 kg. Currently most luggage carriers are rated for 25 kg which seams to be much higher.  However, this assumes normal use. As a child I raced with the satchel in the basked around corners. Due to the speed and high point of the weight it put quite some stress on the luggage carrier. It was not unusual that the satchel flew out of the basket. Often the basked came of as well. This meant that great stress was put on the clamp from the luggage carrier.

When cycling, be it to school or on any other occasion I liked to drift with the bike. This not only took its toll on the outer tire and coloured the street black. Drifting meant a great sideways force on the rear weal as well.

Something else which I did was pulling different things attached to the luggage carrier of the Rabeneick Fancy. With a bigger hand made wooden handcart attached I cycled across the field and through the forest. I also tried to pull tires with the rims in order to flatten out molehills.  However, I where not able to bring up the force to move the tire. Therefore I resorted to pulling tires without the rims.

The first years the bicycle got used as a mountain bike on a daily basis as well. When doing so the basket regularly hit a tree and got torn off. I cycled over tree trunks laying across an elephant trail, too. Often the chain guard hit the trunk and broke. Crossing a river via a log and slides similar as seen in the video below were no exception either. After a storm the crown of a tree was laying in the path. I cycled straight through it, chopping the twigs with the spokes. The thickest twigs had the size of my thumb. As my hand grew, it is hard to tell how thick the twigs have been in cm or inch. Something else I did was cycling though a river with the Sachs Pentasport 5 hub under water.

Another use of the bike was to catch one of our dogs when he had escaped. This was a rather light challenge compared to the others as it only meant cycling across ploughed fields. Occasionally the bicycle was used in snowy and icy conditions as well. In all this circumstances the bicycle performed great. The low centre of gravity was a huge advantage in those situations as it reduced the risk of losing the balance. In addition the wider tires allowed for good grip. In this context I found it most impressive that I where able to cycle up a hill covered in ice and snow with slick tires where as pedestrians where continuously slipping.

Through out all the tests the only maintenance the bicycle got was fixing or replacing the inner and outer tires. It also got cleaned with a garden hose and one time with a high pressure cleaner for tractors.

Of course there where also some accidents. Most of them are negligible when looking at the other challenges. However, one crash was more significant. With approximately 60 km/h i cycled in the back of a car which had suddenly stopped.