Radical Rigs: Greg Heath of Donkelope Bikes, 2000 Toyota Tacoma SR5, and Many Purple Bikes – Paul Kalifatidi | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

For the next installment of Radical Rigs, Paul Kalifatidi presents a portrait of frame builder Greg Heath (Donkelope Bikes) alongside his 2000 Toyota Tacoma SR5 and various purple bikes…

People ride bikes for many reasons: their practicality, simplicity, exercise, and, hell, even for fun. Adding aftermarket details, tuning the bike to their preferences, and making aesthetic choices are all part of the joy of self-expression through these mechanical contraptions. Bikes can be a labor of love.

Many bike tinkerers possess an overlapping interest in vehicles. For many of us, cars, trucks, vans, and four-wheeled contraptions present a larger and more complicated playground to practice our problem-solving and creativity. Few bike repairs involve lying on freezing concrete and sending a tight fist filled with a cold ratchet at Mach 3 into the bottom of a steering rack.

Most bikes can be repaired without an obscure connection to an overseas junkyard. For those of us who appreciate unreliability and tom-foolery, we present Radical Rigs, with support from 1Up USA. Like the bikes on The Radavist, these rigs might be perfect. They also might be so far from perfection that they go full circle and become better than perfect. They might be dented and dinged, they might be muddy and marred, but they’re all radical…

The Rockshox Reverb is a lemon of a dropper post. It’s most known for a droopy saddle height and poor lever response. A Bellingham bike shop once had a box of them on sale for $10. I stopped by a few weeks later, and the sign had been crossed out and replaced with “just make us an offer”. Even then, they didn’t sell well. Nobody wants them. I have a friend who has spent more than the cost of a nice cable-actuated post in servicing his Reverb.

That said, I find it comical that the only person who likes the Rockshox Reverb and its leaky hydraulics is a man whose job is repairing the aging oil pipeline infrastructure of the PNW. So, I present Greg of Donkelope Bikes, his Toyota Tacoma, and his many Reverb-equipped purple bicycles.

Tool for the Job

I’ll admit: the first-generation Toyota Tacoma isn’t the most radical or ridiculous of rigs. Likely, there’s one down the block from you. What makes Greg’s special is that it is sitting on comically large yet minimally heinous tires and is still in immaculate condition. Most Tacomas, once passed to their fourth or fifth owner, are beaten. Toyotas are known for running, but that has nothing to do with the exterior. Greg’s is clean, and its metallic red glint catches my eye every time I bike by.

The Toyota Tacoma needs little introduction. Its name is synonymous with reliability, durability, and practicality. Introduced in 1995, the first-generation Tacoma was Toyota’s answer to the US and Canadian truck market, which wanted passenger vehicle comfort, safety, and on-road handling without completely sacrificing the capability and utility of their global market utility truck, the Hilux. The first generation had the most derivatives of the Tacoma, with the truck available in two-wheel drive models featuring smaller wheels and suspension for light-duty work, as well as two or four-wheel drive models with larger components for heavier-duty applications.

Greg’s is a 2000 four-wheel-drive SR5 variant, which stands for Sport Runabout, 5-speed, indicating that it’s equipped with a five-speed manual transmission. Funny enough, this nomenclature persists in Toyota’s vehicle lineup even though none of their vehicles use five-speed transmissions, manual or automatic. If you buy a Toyota off the dealer lot, you can still sport a runabout, but you can’t get a five-speed. It also has the coveted 3.4 L 5VZ-FE V6, known for going half a million miles or more.

Donkelope Bikes

Donkelope Bikes has been Greg’s creative outlet since 2002. By day, he listens to metal and welds large oil pipelines. By night, he listens to metal and welds small bicycle tubes. He started by making BMX bikes for himself and friends, but now makes every type of bike. When we did this shoot, he was building an ATB that will carry his BMX bike for rides from his home to wherever he might want to hit sick tricks.

He debuted this wild creation at this year’s Made Bike Show. You can check out John’s detailed photos in our archives. The attention to detail and craftsmanship in his bikes is visible, but only upon close inspection.

His bikes are lovingly simple. Tight and tidy welds connect perfectly aligned tubes; I couldn’t find any asymmetry or anomalies in his work. I’d hazard a guess that, of all the frame builders out there, Greg has done many more welds than most. He is a pipe welder, after all, and a master of his craft.

I photographed four of his bikes, all of them purple. We initially did this photo shoot outside of Bellingham’s civic center dirt jumps and skate park, where Greg can commonly be found jibbing. Afterward, he decided that he wanted me to photograph him at the Shire, a private jump line that he’s helped maintain and curate for years. At our first location, we documented his commuter: a bike he built for the 2012 Oregon Manifest.

It features an integrated bell, lock, lighting, and custom wooden fenders. The custom Swift Industries bag has developed a beautiful patina over the last 13 years. I frequently see Greg putzing around town on this rig alongside his ever-present sidekick, Kyber.

This bike has quite the story; at one point, Greg woke up on the ground with no memory of crashing or being hit by a vehicle. The next day, he woke up at home to find his bike, with a broken fork and front wheel, left in his yard with no memory of how he or the bike got there. His body was in significant pain. A glimpse in the mirror revealed extensive swelling in his neck. A friend delivered him to the hospital. Turns out, he had suffered a concussion, pneumothorax (punctured lung), separated shoulder, and six broken ribs. Since then, he’s recovered and fixed the bike up to its current state.

Greg’s other bikes are equally excellent and equally purple. True to his BMX roots, all of his bikes feature as many Profile Racing parts as possible. I don’t spend a ton of time around BMX or dirt jumpers, and am blown away every single time I hear a Profile hub. As previously stated, Greg has an affinity for Rockshox Reverb dropper posts. On his gravel bike, he even used a hydraulic conversion mechanism to actuate the dropper with the SRAM Force brake lever. His hardtail and gravel bikes are designed around a slammed dropper post, which makes for a bespoke and thought-out look at the seatpost cluster. His bikes also have his signature faux animal fur fenders that he makes with a friend.

I have the sense that Greg is adept at fixing things. His bikes aren’t beat, though it’s clear he rides them. His truck is perfect, though it certainly sees use. The bikes have just the features needed to do the things, and nothing more. They are a visible rejection of over-engineering. The Four Wheel Drive vehicle matches the two-wheeled rides he’s built; utilitarian, durable, timeless, and in a world of gimmicks and overly-complicated things, beautifully radical.