In the six or so months that I’ve owned the Stooge Cycles Mk6, I’ve heard it all…

“What the f*** is that thing?”

“Wow, you’re brave…”

“Is that a klunker?!”

“You can’t ride trails on that…”

“You mad bastard!”

But to pigeonhole the Mk6 – or anything that Stooge produce – as a mere klunker would be a horrible reduction. Yes, it has a fully rigid steel frame, big moto-style bars and a single gear (although that’s up to you), but the geometry is bang up to date, it runs disc brakes, Boost axle spacing makes room for fat tyres, it fits a dropper post… I think the blend of old-school and really quite modern is probably what makes it so fun to ride.

This isn’t a review – more detailed thoughts on the bike itself are still to come. But for now, here’s how I have it built up after half a year of ownership.

Frame and forks you already know. I’ve almost completely wrapped it using offcuts of Invisiframe (industry perks!) - I’m not overly fussy about riding wear and tear, but the olive paint and funky tube profiles are handsome and I want to give it a fighting chance of survival. Likewise, a set of short RRP ProGuards keeps some amount of mud, grit and water off. Headset is an FSA Orbit MX – if I win the lottery, I’ll fit a Chris King.

27.5″ ain’t dead, so it’s rolling on a set of Bontrager Line Comp 40 wheels, with a 108 POE upgrade kit in the rear for maximum ratcheting pleasure. They’re not top of the line wheels but they’re fine enough, the hubs are dead easy to service and the 40mm internal width rims give a really nice profile to the 2.8″ Schwalbes currently fitted – dependable ol’ Nobby Nic (Addix Speedgrip) out back and the venerable Magic Mary (Addix Soft) up front. Both are Super Trail casing, which is tough enough for around here without being horrendously hefty. Oh yeah, and Peaty’s valves – nice.

“You have three gears on a single-speed: sitting, standing, and walking.”

Drivetrain is about as simple as you can get. Shimano XT bottom bracket and SLX cranks are the pinnacle of price to performance (why pay more?), and a OneUp Switch chainring gives flexibility to easily play with chainring shape and size (I’m oval-curious). Currently installed is a 28T round ring which, combined with the 22T Surly cog out back, give a gear ratio at least vaguely suited to my local winch-and-plummet rides. It’s mountain biking, not road riding, and nobody cares about your single-speed ratio anyway. Chain is a 9 speed SRAM job – cheap to replace at regular intervals, and not nasty. Chain tensioning is taken care of by the frame’s eccentric bottom bracket shell. Pedals are the same well-loved set of Burgtec Penthouse Mk4s that I’ve had for maybe 6 years and show no sign of quitting.

The OneUp Components dropper post was an easy choice – I wouldn’t run anything else nowadays, aside from maybe BikeYoke. Slamming a 180mm OneUp puts me at almost precisely the correct saddle height, so that’s perfect. Perched atop that is a Fabric Scoop Elite Gel Radius (rolls off the tongue) which was cheap and fits me fine… a surprise because I’m usually picky when it comes to saddles. It does creak when it gets dirty, though. Seatpost collar is a Nukeproof one, simply because it colour matches the odd gunmetal of the headset.

Bars had to be the Stooge Junker Bars really, with a whopping 85mm of rise. They fit with the general aesthetic of the frame and give a high, confident front end. My wrists seem to enjoy the 20 degrees of backsweep. I’ve left these at full 820mm width despite initially expecting to chop them – the extra leverage has proven welcome when honking out of the saddle. The bars are 22.2mm diameter so stem selection is pretty much limited to BMX bits – I picked a Vocal Flathead because I like the way it looks and fits, and it was a good second-hand deal. Top cap is a politically-charged titanium number by Bentley Components. I guess the use of a Torx 30 bolt makes it extra punk.

TRP Slate EVOs take care of stopping. TRP are the best mainstream brake manufacturer and I will die on that hill. I’m breaking all the rules and running them on Shimano SLX rotors (they’re designed for thick 2.3mm rotors) – 203mm front, 180mm rear – which work just fine for now. There’s no need for big-boy DH-R EVOs on this bike, no matter how much I loved my old set. Bolted onto the left-hand lever is a OneUp Dropper Remote V2, on which I don’t have much to say other than I like the position it sits in and actuation feels nice. On the subject of feeling nice, I’m running Shadow Conspiracy VVS DCR push-on grips – cheap, comfortable, good bar feel… glue and wire them on and they aren’t shifting, even in UK winter weather. The bar end plugs make overall bar width about 835mm, which is hilarious. Rear brake and dropper cables are heat-shrunk together because neat cables are a sign of an attentive (or maybe anal-retentive) mechanic…

And that’s about it. A short OneUp EDC Pump containing an EDC Tool (both of which I have owned since they released them however many years ago) sits under a basic Blackburn bottle cage, which itself sits on a knock-off Wolf Tooth RAD plate to get it lower in the frame. Bivo bottles have quickly replaced Fidlock as my favourite beverage dispensers, the Peaty’s Tool Wrap is fantastic, and an Alpkit Bilbie frame wedge in Multicam really ties the room together, man.

tl;dr – I’m riding a rigid steel single-speed with beefy 27.5+ tyres and a smattering of BMX inspiration. It’s weird and I love it.