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| Wooden steering wheel |
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| Thessaloniki seafront |
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| Wooden seat! |
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| Gears |
When we thought up of our first review of a certain vehicle, we thought that, as a car blog, we should review cars... obviously, A review of any car, even a Hyundai Getz, I dare say. But, there are a few obstacles. I haven't got my driver's licence yet and I've only driven two times. Sooo, since it's a beautiful, sunny day in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece), I've decided to rent a bike, cycle by the sea and search for some barn finds. To my surprise, along with all the normal bikes, there were city bikes made out of wood. No joke! For 3,5 Euros/hour, I said "Fuck it!" and got the wooden bike. It is stunning to look at. The best part of the design, in my opinion, is the seat, because of its complex curves. And of I went to search for some barn finds and review this bike. The steering wheel is wobbly and requires your hands to be placed at the edges of the handles, for a smooth steering feel. The gear are integrated in the hub of the rim, what could be best described as a 2-speed automatic tranny. You brake in the rear by counter-pedalling. The front brake is squishy but smooth even for "performance cycling". In the wet, the wooden handles would probably make your hands slip around. But in the dry, the handles don't bruise your hands from extensive use like the rubber ones do. Since the roads in Greece are worse than those in " Mad Max", I got to feel the lack of suspension travel... cause the suspension is made out of wood. The wooden seat turned my private parts into Marmite. The small bumps found in the asphalt and the sidewalk don't upset the bike's ride quality.
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| E30 and old Opel |
After 15 minutes, I took a small detour to test the bike's off-road capabilities. There's was a very thin trail, on a mini-hill. A guy on a mountain bike didn't manage to go up trail and walked it off. I breathed-out and pedalled like a mofo to go up the hill, just to get enough momentum for the descent. The Coco-Mat bike OWNED IT because of its enormous rims and tires, Impressive!
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| E30 and skoda in the back |
Shortly after, I arrived at the lot with the cars. There was a blackish E30 sedan with an M-Tec wing and, presumably, BBS replicas. A white E30 with real BBS rims was hiding in the back next to a Skoda, In the front, there was an old Opel from the 60's, I think. No way to get in from the front cause the door was locked to the fence. I went to the left side of the property ,and an old man, who works in an old-ass mini-golf course next to the lot, wanted to know about the bike. Post-explication he let me take pictures of an effed-up Jeep. Filled on the inside with random shit, wood placed on the bonnet, inaccessible driver's door, knackered grill and collapsed axles rotting to the ground. To the remember this cool adventure, the old-man let met wrestle out the Jeep's old Thessaloniki licence plate. I'm guessing the Jeep was either a CJ2 or a CJ3A, but for obvious reasons, it's hard to tell.
With new blog material in hand, I finished of the day with ride to the park, on the hill, by the sea, There was still plenty of sunlight left. So I put on some Thelonious Monk and chilled by the sea. As for the bike, it got loads of attention by passers-by. I briefed three different groups of people on the bike's construction and drivability (ridability?). A couple who was taking pictures at the park, took a few more on the bike! The Coco-Mat wooden bike could be best described as a Bmw i3 with Delorean levels of coolness. And yes, it the ultimate hipster bike.
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| Effed-up Jeep |
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