1999 VooDoo Hoodoo: The Alleycat

...when I first got it; the yellow ones (1999) were all 1 1/8" headsets.

VooDoo's whole schtick was a build-to-order thing: You'd pick out the frame model and size, tell them what components you wanted, and they'd assemble the the thing for you. If you look at the BikePedia listings for VooDoos in the '90s, each model has about 20-100 builds, depending on what collection of components went into it. The 1999 VooDoo listings have 105(!) builds for the Hoodoo. Take a look; you may find one that matches yours exactly.

Although, you could just get a more modern-type fork - Marzocchi, maybe. I'm more retro-grouch; i like rigid forks :-) As you'll notice, you can put a 700c fork on the frame without making the geometry nutty, which I guess means you could get away with something like a 100mm travel suspension fork.

And it's the damnedest thing: I've seen a couple more of these in the wild recently. I saw one for sale at the ROMP/Cupertino Bike Swap at the end of April, and another one crossed me going down Market Street in San Francisco, as I was at a stoplight waiting to get on the freeway. Which means that half the VooDoos I've seen in action are 1999 yellow Hoodoos...eerie...

...for a chunk more than the guy was asking for at the swap:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/bik/1370898074.html

It's strange. I live in the SF Bay Area, former VooDoo Central. I've taken this thing over to Bent Spoke in Oakland, a shop that used to be one of the biggest VooDoo dealers (and a stasher of many interesting VooDoo tidbits; he has a shop banner, a few Canzo frames and a D-Jab frame, if anyone's interested), so the owner could gush over it.

But I have seen a grand total of three VooDoos in the wild:

- Bizango (the Reynolds 853 upgrade to the Hoodoo) ridden in by a customer at an LBS
- Dambala (aluminum 29er) with a guy slurping coffee on the patio of the 4th Street Peet's Coffee
- another 1999 yellow Hoodoo for sale at last month's ROMP/Cupertino bike swap.

Like I said to the guy with the Dambala: You'll always stand out if you're riding a VooDoo.

You might want to camp out by the foundling for awhile, or leave a note. If that doesn't get results, maybe try knocking on a few doors? Maybe a poor defenseless bike needs rescuing from a cruel world/indifferent owner.

...be posting the Bizango, so I can include it in the VooDoo cluster? I already stuck your Bianchi in the celeste cluster.

...it's not technically a 26er, and it wasn't born rigid. I have a '93 Marin Bobcat Trail beater that I keep as my haulin' stuff bike. That's an old school rigid 26er; this is not that bike.

Somebody 'round here is going to win a Virtual Anchor Steam if they call attention to the two really distinctive features of this build before I post them.

...Road fork with canti bosses?
...overkill stem?
...rear brake with U brace, cable shortener thing and V's that I can't completely figure out?

I tried. I guess no virtual beer for me.

WE HAVE A VIRTUAL WINNER!

It's the U brace, which is actually a Mavic Brake Caliper Adjuster, an oddball gadget that's been in their catalog for about five years, and got absolutely no attention until DirtRag wrote them up last October. In my 10-month search for the thing last year, I went to 15 different Mavic dealers. When I described the thing, every one of them looked at me like I was having a seizure - then they looked in the catalog, to see a part they'd never heard of (and couldn't imagine anyone using).

[Nelson Muntz-tone]HAH-ha![/Nelson Muntz-tone]

But nobody had it, and according to the Mavic distributor in Massachusetts, nobody was going to get it until the powers-that-be in France received them from Taiwan, and got around to shipping them to the US, for distribution to the deserving poor. In other words (the French being the French): Pour a glass and settle down, monsieur; you may be waiting for the rest of your life.

The last LBS I went into was Montano Velo in Oakland, CA. I repeated my sad story, and the kid says: Oh, you mean like these?...and pulls six of them off the back of a shelf.

More details of what it's for and why it's cool in the build description, which I swear I'll post today.

JonD wins a virtual Anchor Steam, exchangeable for a more tangible Anchor Steam (on tap) the next time he's out by The Bay, possibly at the waterside pickup bar about 50 feet from where the photos were taken.

Anchor Steam is delicious.
Sweet brakes, Paul is the greatest thing around.

...so it doesn't leak out your pores. Essential.

Yes, Paul brakes rule. It took me eight months to find two used MotoBMXes. And they are powerful enough to inspire fear.

You're still not at the key bits, but you're getting warm.

I suck @ reading.

Now, what makes that wheel arrangement work?