1996 King Bike Co. Liberty

The best bike to ever get overbuilt

This King has a pretty long history with me and has made it's rounds and remains rock solid.

Back in 1996, i was employed at one of them large mail order houses. Stuart King and Steve Inge of Poor Boy had just launched King Bike company and the frames were supposed to be amazing. They were not due in stores for a couple or three months yet, but there i was with a broken Holmes at an important shop and my boss was real tight with steve and sold boatloads of his clothing line. A couple weeks later, I was building my yet to be released King frame in a slightly duller black than all the ones to follow (its been repainted at least a few times since then, but this is close). Like an idiot, I sawed into the drop outs to accept a Gack hub, tossed some also brand new Castillo bars into the neck of my Superforks, and had the sturdiest, most painful bike i'd ever ridden. After about six months, I retreated, got a new O/S Holmes, put on my 36's and lent this out. Eventually, Holmes broke (i guess) I got this back, put it together with some milled Tank headset cups and a pitchfork and said 36's, and rode it good and hard for a good long while. We were good and did great things together but when S&M put out came out with the NG Challenger, i scooped one up with 990's and never thought about 8lbs frames again. This got lent out again, didn't see it for a number of years, then turned up with a friend who had painted it pink, for his lady I think. The headtube got milled to 1 1/8 along the way, and some new dents are here and there, but by golly, I got her back after nearly 10 years.
Built with a few parts that would have been on it at one point, but mostly old junk that i've taken off more modern rides, this will be fun to cruise around on, and if I feel like some mean roof drops, i know it'll take it. Maybe I'll even use the King pegs on things that don't rhyme with meat.