I personally like to have at least one old bike that I have gone out of my way to make as crappy as possible. Bent wheels, bent fork, bent frame, marginal brakes, different sized wheels different junk pedals, rotted tires, bent handle bars, and of course lots of rust. My all time favorite was a cheap department store road bike with 24 inch wheels that was pulled out of an abandoned mine. It was wrapped in barb wire and had and old washing machine under it. Down farther there are several stuck vehicles wedged in there. Several of my friends used to go prospecting in there. They had to go through the doors on an old l40's truck and through the 1930 car to get in there. I never did this. I have been called crazy a lot of times, but these guys put new meaning to the term crazy. I was lamenting that I didn't have a bar bike and they brought me this rusty bronze colored frame. I put a 26 inch bent white stacked plate fork on it and used the original 5 speed gear cluster without the derailleur. The gear cluster was stuck but spraying it and soaking loosened it up, good enough for a one speed. That was in about 1980 and this mine now has all the secret entrances capped and filled. Better to have a worthless bar bike swiped than your $500 baby. It was swiped 3 times and I was always able to find it a few blocks from where I left it. The frame finally broke at the bottom bracket from too much salt from winter riding. I was sorry to see it go. Back then we didn't know about Rat Rods or Rat Rod Bikes. We simply called our old bombs, cars and bikes, "Maggots". I think Maggot defines a different attitude as we didn't appreciate anything. A maggot car would have rust up to the windows and when entering you stand on the ground. Of course many different colors of body panels, not all the same year. Mechanically it has to have major problems that you just figure out how to overcome, like if the oil pump doesn't work, you just stop when the lifters start to hammer, remove the valve cover and poor oil on everything. Or if the alternator is shot, you have a trunk full of old batteries so you can rotate batteries as they die. My last Maggot suv was red, white, blue, silver and rust. The floor was oilcanned so I had a sledge hammer to flatten it out when I rode over a stump or somthin. I used it for hunting so I had it jacked up high for ground clearance. When jacking it up we used a torch to remove the rusted shut bolts and flames got through the rust holes and the interior caught on fire. It took us a while to notice the interior fire but when we did we frantically ripped out the interior parts that were on fire. Someone gave me replacement interior parts but they were a different color, but worked. This vehicle was involved in 3 fender benders and also killed 3 deer. I was sorry to see this one go to.
