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

Many bike tinkerers possess an overlapping interest in cars. For those people, 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 rad.

For the next installment of this new series, Paul Kalifatidi presents a portrait of Bellingham trailbuilder Flynn alongside his 1997 Mitsubishi Delica and Raaw Jibb. 

An important thing you must know before buying a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) vehicle is that you will most likely spend more time at the hardware store than at the auto parts store. You are forced to get creative when parts must be imported, cost an eye-watering amount, or simply don’t exist without an obscure connection to an overseas junkyard. On one particular occasion, I ended up at the local hardware store in search of bar stock to fabricate the rusted-out square nuts that secured the radiator in my 1996 Toyota Prado. Where would I park? Next to this Mitsubishi Delica, of course.

I suspected its owner would likely be on a similar mission. I carefully left a note asking if I could photograph the Delica and its owner under a wiper blade that is likely only replaceable through a Japanese order and duty tax. It turns out that the Delica’s owner, Flynn, works as a full-time trail digger for the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition, our local trail advocacy group. The shoot was on. I now present Flynn, his 1997 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear, and Raaw Jibb.

The Mitsubishi Delica (named by contracting delivery and car) has been in production since 1968 and could be configured as a pickup truck, cargo van, or passenger van. Flynn’s is a 1997 Delica L400, commonly called the Delica Space Gear, and is the fourth generation of the vehicle. Learning the naming conventions of Japanese market cars and how they are named elsewhere in the world is part of the charm. Space for your gear – I see no problem with the name. The Chamonix trim package features accessories suited to a dirt- and snow-focused lifestyle for “Outdoor Players”. Weather-resistant rubber carpeting, fog lights, and a reinforced bumper bar make this a desirable trim for a PNW trail digger. Unfortunately, it was never sold in the United States market.

Previous to the L400, Flynn owned an L300. The L300 is the boxier and potentially funkier-looking of the previous generation Delica. Flynn bought the L400 on Vancouver Island for a stellar deal. After driving it back to Marin County, where he was living at the time, he’s made multiple trips up and down the West Coast. From snowy excursions back to Vancouver Island to daily trips up our local logging roads, it’s proven a reliable source of memories. Remarkably, it hasn’t even broken down.

JDM imports are popular in the Pacific Northwest, given our proximity to Japan and the ports through which these cars come. We have a number of L300 and L400 Delicas putzing around town. They stand over 6 feet tall but don’t have the girth and unruly presence of many American vehicles, so they’re hard to miss. In that regard, they are practical and usable; a stock Delica is actually narrower than a Smart car.

Flynn put wider wheels and tires on his – a wise upgrade for a tall vehicle that spends time on uneven terrain. It has a road presence that is uncommon, tall but not wide, capable but not flashy. They’re endearing and practical, perhaps what many of us would consider the most lovable aspects of a vehicle. His bike isn’t too different.

The Raaw Jibb is as functional, utilitarian, and uncommon as his Delica. Given Flynn’s job, the bike has likely had first hits on many of the berms, bumps, humps, jumps, and lumps that everyone in Bellingham now gets to enjoy. Like the Delica, it’s understated yet still very different from the rest of the rides we see around town. It’s clear that it gets used – the send-o-meter o-ring on the fork was at full compression and the cranks are finished in a silver only achievable through innumerable pedal strokes.

We’ll call them passively polished. John Watson likes to use the Grant Peterson-coined term beausage – beauty through usage – to describe an appearance only achievable through miles and mud. This bike has beausage in spades. Flynn lauds the Jibb’s ability to ride way outside of its numbers. I’d argue that the Delica is the same beast: 4×4 capability in a package that initially appears too tarmac and tame.

On the morning before we met up at the Port of Bellingham, I was driving to work and saw a JDM kei van pulling into Trader Joe’s. It turned out that Flynn was in his other vehicle: a 1997 Subaru Sambar Dias, another (much smaller) Japanese van. Shortly after passing one another, his brake pad retention spring called it quits, the pad ejected itself onto Yew Street, and Flynn had to engine-brake it into a gravel lot. He got a lift back home and drove the Delica back up to Galbraith Mountain to dig all day. During our shoot, he took a call from the tow truck driver, who was stoked to find out he was going to be towing a goofy little van. We don’t choose these vehicles because they are reliable; we choose them because they are fun and quirky and give us something to tinker with. Second takes at stoplights and smiles on passing children are just some of the reasons we choose these radical rigs. On that note, I’ll leave you with a teaser for one of our future subjects.

Oh, car people.

1997 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear Chamonix

• 2.8 L 4M40 Turbo Diesel Inline-4 Cylinder motor
• 3-speed automatic transmission with overdrive
• Rear wheel drive with select four-wheel drive
• Wheelbase: 3,000 mm
• Length: 5,085 mm
• Width: 1,695 mm
• Height: 2,070 mm
• Curb weight 1,690–2,170 kg (3,730–4,780 lb)

Raaw Jibb

• 135 mm travel rear, 150 mm travel fork (Flynn fitted a 160 for our PNW chunder)
• 35 mm BB drop
• 77.5º effective seat tube angle
• 65.5º Head Tube Angle
• Geometry that splits the difference between the trail bike and enduro bike categories

What’s next for our Radical Rigs series? Stay tuned for more automotive heat from the Radavist. Many thanks to 1Up USA for the continued support of our Radical Rigs series.