My name is Andy Stevenson and I’m the person responsible for the mess that is Stooge Cycles. I do everything – designing and prototyping, working with my manufacturers in Taiwan, right down to taping the boxes for dispatch. Stooge was formed in the summer of 2014 with a single frameset, the MK1. This was my idea of the perfect rigid bike and was a response to nothing being available on the market that got me excited enough to buy. I’d nearly been killed by a Trek Sawyer when it landed on my head, nearly been killed again when a Salsa Fargo I was riding failed to take a corner and sent me flying through the trees. So damn, it was time to design a hot bike that allowed me to rip the trails without fear of death by metal. My early years were spent riding and racing BMXs all around the country, digging trails in the Welsh countryside with friends, building ramps and jumping over cars, and other such idiocy. I never grew out of this shit, just grew up a little, and now build bikes that would’ve blown me away back in those early days
So Stooge has now been running for a few years and i’m still here, dedicated to making perfect rigid bikes for people with the vision to ride such things. I could talk all day about the very special requirements of rigid geometry as opposed to full suspension or hardtails, but that would be boring, on this page at least. Stooge is still a one-man-band in an industry full of corporate nonsense and I view this as a good thing. Sure, it would be nice to have hundreds of thousands of pounds to create a full line-up of bikes all at once, but the Stooge ‘one limited production run at a time’ model means that every frameset is a special thing.
The Stooge mission remains the same – to create beautiful bikes that stand outside of any trends or fashions, that handle wonderfully and challenge the common perception that a rigid bike is a lesser bike. All my bikes are true trail weapons that are more than capable of embarrassing many a full-sus rider. The purity of handling is something you quite simply don’t get when 6 inches of travel is constantly altering your geometry.
Future plans for Stooge include not taking any of this too seriously, working hard to not get bogged down in the latest trends and standards that regularly swamp the industry, promoting the beautiful simplicity of the 1 1/8th headset and the straight steerer, using colours to make bikes nicer, PLUS tyres, did I mention PLUS tyres? Skinny steel tubes. Radical rigid geometry. Always twin or triple top tubes. Simplicity. And the joy of life on a bike that beguiles and seduces.
Warranty Info
Warranty info can be a real hotbed of legal mumbo, so this ones real simple:
Steel Stooge framesets carry a warranty of two years to the original purchaser, so if something goes wrong, please get in touch. The damaged frame will either be repaired or replaced, this will depend on the nature of the damage, but i make it my priority to do the right thing for my customers. The warranty doesn’t cover damage caused by accidents and crashes, or indeed, hucking your Stooge off 15 foot drops, it’s not designed for this kind of stuff. Should you experience a problem after two years of ownership please do get in touch, if the frame is repairable then i am happy to facilitate this at cost price. For all warranty issues the cost of returning the frame to Stooge is to be covered by the customer, Stooge will pay for the return carriage.
SEATPOST INSERTION – This bit’s important. The MK series of frames require a mimimum seatpost insertion of 150mm. The Scrambler, Dirtbomb, Rambler and all non MK series frames require a minimum insertion of 100mm. Ignore what it says on the actual seatpost, that’s there to protect the post not the frame. Failure to observe the above can cause damage to the seat tube junction that will not be covered by warranty.
The paintwork and finish on the steel frames carries a warranty of one year but excludes scratches, dings and rust caused by the aforementioned, this kind of damage is considered normal and cannot be warrantied against. Mountain biking is a dirty business and steel frames need love, especially in cold, wet climates. A little bit of love goes a long way – remove the seatpost occasionally and regrease, remove the ebb and regrease periodically. It goes without saying, but don’t leave your bike covered in a thick coating of damp mud for weeks on end.
Titanium Stooge frames carry a warranty of five years to the original purchaser. The frame will be returned to the framebuilder for repair of replacement at their discretion, but in most cases a flawless repair will be executed.
All Stooge handlebars carry a warranty of one year to the original purchaser against defects or damage caused by regular MTB riding.
Off road cycling puts a lot of stress on bicycles and their components, and while every effort has been made to design and build a frameset that will lead a good, long life, it’s a sad fact that everything has a finite life cycle. Steel will last a damn site longer than alloy, especially if you look after it with regular cleaning and rustproofing and a smooth riding style, but all metals weaken through fatigue over time and this is something that all riders should be aware of, no matter the steed.
If you feel you have a warranty claim contact me via the contact page in the first instance and i’ll get right back to you.