I have long admired some of the wilder paint schemes found on bicycles at the hand-made shows, and I love the early bicycles of Dario PegorettiI. Unable to afford either, I spent a few months this winter (2024) hand-painting a prewar Schwinn Liberty balloon tire bicycle that came to me in yellow house paint. The result is "Klunker Dan." I've included a few personal images for friends and family: a leaf for my artist brother, David; a handlebar mustache for Charlie Dixon; a highwheel bicycle to commemorate James Allen's 1999 ride from San Francisco to Boston; apples and cherries for the trees I pick each year with my wife, Jeanette; "refrigerator men" for the artist Don Reitz; and of course a tiger for America's first Cyclo-Cross champion, Tyger Johnson. As our friend Dave Jacobs used to say, "You can't beat fun."

Klunker Dan ©Daniel Dahlquist