Why Cuda?

[willywill]

What was it about the Barracuda bicycle that "hooked" you guys? Was it purely aesthetic, performance, a combination of the two? Or could it have been something else all together?

For me it was an ad in a cycling magazine that lured me in to dreams of one day owning a Cuda. Growing up in the hills of WV I spent many hours mountain biking on old and abandoned logging and coal roads. I rode a GT Karakoram, my friends (I only had 2, kind of like today... ) Specialized Rock Hopper, and a Cannondale M500. We all drooled over front suspension, full suspension, and especially those bad ass Spin Carbon wheels!

spin-2[1].jpg

When I saw the pic of Lisa Muhich's rig with those sweet ass Aerospoke wheels (not quite as cool as Spin but close enough!) I was all like ,DANG! I gots to have me one of dem Berry-cuda bikes!

imagesCARK1V84.jpg

Plus none of my friends had one, plus I thought Travis Brown's sideburns were kick ass and since he lived in Durango Colorado, where these lustful bikes were made, they too must also be kick ass!

AP1068tn[1].jpg

But aside from all the above, there was one other major influence for why I chose Barracuda. I, like most individuals (as opposed to lemmings), want even more what I am told I can't have or can't listen to. My parents were quite the music censors growing up, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were definitely out of the question. I mean seriously, they wore tube socks over their weiners, how on earth could that be good for a young developing mind?!?

So of course all I wanted to do was get cool tribal tattoos, get ripped as a native american, run down the beach jiggling my pecs, and own a Barracuda bike, just like the one Anthony Kiedis was holding at a trade show in some old Mountain Bike magazine ad. Once I saw that ad, if I wasn't hooked already (too many fishing Cuda puns I know...) I was now!

Anyone remember that ad?

[mixalive]

The aircraft style oval tubing first grabbed my attention. I was riding GT at the time and was "endo-ing" too often down hills. Also getting "nutted" by the top bar. So when I started riding the Barracuda, I realized the length of the top tube helped my down hill and the height of the top tube helped prevent nutting. The configuration just worked for me. Being a Durango bike was also appealing. All that and the media blitz with Dos Equis beer cemented my interest.

[vpc66]

I thought the frame was bad ass looking plus the brand name was cool,but I rode a Cannondale road bike so I was thinking Killer V to stay with all Dales in the early to mid 90's. Few years past and I bought my sweetspot and rode that for a few when I thought about giving Mtb racing a try and at the time the thought was Hardtail for a Xc bike and the shop owner that sold the Cuda's stop using his to switch to Kona hardtails...after all Cuda's were no longer sold. Sorry I do not remember which it was but his frame was from what he told me a higher end model than my Comp but it was to big so I bought his wifes frame. I built my Cuda with the thought just to see if I like riding hardtails over Fs with the thought that if I like it I would build a REAL nice bike....and it was LOVE at first spin of the pedal.
Must say that even though I love the bike it took a few runs to change riding styles from the Fs to the hardtail..it beat me to death because I was use to being in the saddle more with the fs once I realized I had to be out of the saddle all was golden.

[Derek]

Mine I'm gonna say it was by accident. I live a life of feast or famine. I'm either earning $100,000 a year and investing in real estate, or sleeping at the Salvation Army. Tho I have leveled out now in my mid life.

I am a shopper, a bargain hunter. I get a little ill at the grocery store if I go over $50.00. I do like my toys tho- electronics, bikes, motorcycles and my classic Lincoln (leaves the driveway maybe twice a month). Oh, and sushi.

Being a chef believing in local, fresh, cage free, sustainable and organic foods - I decided a few years ago that driving should be an indulgence and not a necessity, so I sold my Park Avenue and started looking for an inexpensive bike. Came across my A2R on KSL.com, after doing some research, went for a test ride. Rode the living snot out of it, hence the A2MS build. And the rest is history. Point is it was a steal, guy didn't know what he had.

First mountain bike was a Western Flyer,http://www.livestrong.com/article/398581-western-flyer-bicycle-history/ purchased at the Western Auto Store in Haskell, Texas circa in '83? '84? That thing was a TANK. There weren't any mountains for several hundred miles, but I sure pissed off some cotton farmers.

[neo_pop_71]

So of course all I wanted to do was get cool tribal tattoos, get ripped as a native american, run down the beach jiggling my pecs, and own a Barracuda bike, just like the one Anthony Kiedis was holding at a trade show in some old Mountain Bike magazine ad. Once I saw that ad, if I wasn't hooked already (too many fishing Cuda puns I know...) I was now!

Anyone remember that ad?

Yep, I know it well... the previous Barracuda site had a section "IN PRINT" and Mark had a copy of the ad you're speaking about. Being a young kid from an LA suburb and coming up in the late 70's and early 80's The Red Hot Chili Peppers were a huge deal with me and all my friends! "HILLEL FOREVER!!!" was typical at every show after he passed. Hit up Mark, he may still have the ad but never posted it on this new version of the Cuda site.

I own one of Lisa's racing jerseys, I bought it from Dennis off the Durango Craigslist, the same guy I bought my daughter's A2Z that belonged to Eric Sakadinsky, the Cuda Team rider. When pee-wee rides her A2Z Cuda (or my A2L after she retires the A2Z), she'll be wearing Lisa's jersey... big daddy does it up proper!!!

When I first built my A2L, I had a SPIN wheel in the rear, it was definitely a sweet visual! However, truing up some second gen XT hub wheels proved to be much more practical. I did love the look of the SPIN wheels, big points for eye candy!!!

Great minds Willywill... great minds!!!

[willywill]

Nice one Neo, one Spin that is! Hhahaha, those are some attention grabbing wheels for sure. I said they were carbon, but they weren't they actually some kind of thermoplastic material?

How about the Rev-X Rocks?? Those were some sweet looking wheels too. I haven't ever ridden a pair but maybe one of these days I will pony up and pick up a used set off of FeeBay.

Or maybe I will jst make a pair myself. I acquired a used set of Zipp 303s back in September (before I knew I would be getting laid off) and one of the spokes pulled through the damn rim. I about puked. Then I about threw the wheel and truing stand through the shed window. Then I gathered myself and stoicly stared at the wounded wheel. I sent it off to Calfee and for $180 (would have been $300 but it took them forever) they repaired the section. Started building it up again, and the exact same thing happened, spoke began to pull through. This time my inner Buddha went into full swing and I sat contemplating the earth and all the external forces working on me and the wheel (literal and metaphorical wheel). At this juncture I said F*** this I can fix it my damn self, famous last words but true at least 40% of the time .

I had no idea how hard it would to find carbon fiber cloth locally. I knew I could get it online but I wanted to find it around Greensboro so I could get right to work. It was a step back in time as I made phone calls (what no IM chat with Customer Service??) yes actual dial the number phone calls to real people with real small businesses. I cant do the exchange justice on here but I talked to three good ole boys at body shops, each one directing me on to someone else down the food chain. Until eventually I got hold of the guy who had just done some carbon fiber layups on a Harley and had some extra cloth, resin, and hardener left over. He sold me his remnants and the lady and I got to check out a cool as hell body shop. It was awesome to talk shop with this guy, come to find out her had raced BMX back in the day and apparently had been pretty good. He had a BMX bike above his toolbox that he had welded together from scratch. The shop had a couple of cool cats (literal) they adopted and they hired some young guys to help out the veterans. And to top it all, my favorite aspect of this whole exchange (aside from the fact I procurred goods without going online) was that to sharpen the skills of the new guys, and to dress up the shop, they provided spray paint and the massive amount of internal wall space as a canvas for them to express their creative instincts through graffitti!

So as I mentioned I bought the CF and repaired my wheel. It holds all the spokes and I have logged about 300 miles on it with no problems. CF work is surprisngly easy, I would love to try and build my own lugs and tubes one day when I have more shop space. Oh the dreams...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Exotics/393801558351

[vpc66]

Love the look with the Spins on the bike but the rim I had dreams of was the Spinergys but I bought the king Hubs and had them laced up with Dt revolution spokes which in the end made a wheelset that had less weight and stronger...I did not have to worry about snaping carbon spokes. But I still love the look of carbon wheelsets.
....Yes I know....had the wheelsets built for me....would love to learn doing it myself one day

[Derek]

@Will - that fbook page is SUH-ICK. Not my style of auto but they obviously do good work. My faves are the Beemer with the split window veedub in the background (I have restored one) and obviously the eye candy chick laying on the floor. I'm not latino, but I'll stop and browse a Lowrider Mag once in awhile.

EDIT: thats not a veedub, its an American van, still groovy tho.

[Mark]

For me, it was the following image:


The Anthony Keidis page can be found on the "Print" page of the site.

[willywill]

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!

You the man Mark! I now remember that sweet Klein too! Did that FS model ever go to mass production or was it a custom team rig only?