“Who needs suspension when you’ve got attitude?” Tony Corke
“Holy shit…THAT…IS…PUNK!!!” Tony’s reeling back on his heels and cackling in front of the finished bike. Normally he looks half-dead – thanks to his habit of night-time training and racing – but right now his face might as well be on fire. Last year he decided he needed something super aggressive to ride at the 2009 Single Speed MTB World Championships; but he didn’t rate any of the frames out there, so designed his own. We got involved as soon as he showed us the drawings. Punk has to be one of the most aggressive looking frames you’ll ever see, demanding some radical feats of engineering from the builders. Over the last six months there’s been a lot of talk about this bike…it’s bespoke everything, with over 100 individual artworks making up the frame, so we give it a week before he crashes it into a rock.
Vollebak talks to Tony Corke
How would you describe your riding style?
You say ‘bull in a china shop.’ I say ‘if the china gets in the way, it gets broken.’
Which riders do you rate?
My rating system is biased towards originality. Dave Zabriskie’s moustache got a pretty high score… as did the dude I saw yesterday on the folding bike with the full face helmet and over ambitious saddle height.
Can you remember your favourite crash?
Jonny Young launching off our homemade BMX ramp when we were 10, landing on the back wheel and using his nutsack as a brake pad for five meters. I cried with laughter – it ended our friendship.
When you’re not on your bike, what are you doing?
Preparing to get back on my bike.
Tell us about single speed MTB racing.
Now then children, gather round, who here likes lactic burn, alcohol poisoning, burst blood vessels and scabs? All of you! Fantastic let’s have a race!
You’ve got 12 hours to live. Where do you go riding?
The Sidlings. Haha. It’s a track that drops off Blackdown in the Somerset Mendips. It’s a super fast boulder field of a sweeping track that has taken me out a few times. Because of the high speed / technicality / boulders, and the fact that it usually comes at the end of a ride, when you go down on The Sidlings, you STAY down. It would be a great way to go.
Why a titanium frame?
Let me answer this one by medium of Cake (mp3)
What’s with the integrated seat post?
Flip Mode. What’s with stopping to put the saddle down on the descents??? LAHOOO ZA HERRRRRR.
Why did you get Punk built in China?
Communism is dead… as is the notion that the Chinese can’t create. Eat my PUNK.
Ever passed out while riding?
It’s usually my bike that passes out on me. Another explanation for my attraction to titanium: I was holding 2nd place on the last lap of SSUK07 when my chainring bolts snap?? WTF When does that happen to anyone!!???
So how does Punk ride?
Try and follow me down the trail – then you tell me.
As a frame designer, where do you get your influences from?
Everything and everyone… there is a lot of cool custom stuff going on at the NAHBBS. My vision for bike design pushes custom to the next level – where designers aren’t restricted by standardisation of individual parts. If you look at bike design before mass production pre-1950s you can see such amazing creativity. So much so that it’s now almost impossible to create anything new on a bike, because someone already did it back in 1928. People croon over a diamond carbon frame with wiggly tubes these days. Check your history books. Get radical!
Do you use a ruler?
No way man, tape measure… always.
Complete this sentence: I am…
…the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“Monkeys don’t need guns…have you seen what they can do with shit?”
Tony Corke
What were your hopes for Punk before it existed?
That the bike would somehow encapsulate the influences in my life so far – ideas, people, places, feelings, philosophies that have touched me – the end result being some kind of rolling homage of inspiration. The kind of bike that makes you wail on it every single pedal stroke, smashing yourself up as it insists that you do no less than tear the legs off the competition. When it’s over you’re left dripping and grinning like a punk in some kind of righteous mash up Fugazi gig! Props out to Heath Robinson (the devil’s in the detail), Tom (taught me how to ride), Steve (taught me how to think), Nick (made it sing), Mom (taught me how to live).