Studs: Duds

Well, bummer. Turns out Surly makes a 10x1 cantilever stud *and* a 10x1.25 (which I actually had seen when I started looking online for them) and my frame/fork take the 10x1. In a previous post I mentioned that I found 4 of them at a local bike shop, and was excited to get them for a decent deal. However, when I tried to install them, this is all the further I got before I would really need to crank on them to make any more progress.

I wondered if I just needed to man up a bit and bring down my full manly wrenching abilities, but before I did that, I emailed Surly to get a green light. Good thing I did, the rep emailed back and basically said: "DON'T DO THAT. You most likely have the wrong size and will damage the threads if you force them." Whew....close call.

So, the rest of the bummer is that I had to order them online, pay $4 a piece, and $10 for stinking shipping. Almost $30 later, just to hang my brakes. And the brakes are another story entirely...but I'll save that for another post.

Making Some Progress!

Another productive evening of building! Installed the Shimano UN54 bottom bracket into the KM, and it fit perfectly. The KM takes a 73xwhatever bb, and I went with a 73x110 for this build, figuring it was a fairly safe middle of the road size spindle. Then I yanked the FSA cranks and chain ring off the 925, and put them on the KM to see how they'd fit, and they worked out just fine.


The did need a tad bit of tweaking though. I'd heard that the chainstay on the KMs kept the chainring options limited because of how it bends out towards the cranks, and sure enough when I first tried to put on the crank and chainring, it wouldn't go as it bumped right up into the chainstay. Fortunately, I was able to flip out the ring to the outerside of the cranks and as you can see in the picture above, have plenty of room for the ring to move freely. Yahoo!

I then went to work on the rear wheel, which I can see from the photo below still needs to be cleaned...it's exactly how I got it from the seller, mud still on it, so that will need to be dealt with before final photos and maiden voyage.

I've really got a hodge podge of spacers on the rear hub to fit the single speed sprocket on there. As I mentioned, I got the lockring for free from the bike shop, but I needed to pick up a few more spacers to be able to lock everything into place. I've got some ugly grey ones from a torn apart cassette, a black one in there, and a couple of purchased silver metal spacers too. Ugly, but seems to fit nicely in there. I don't know that I'm entirely alligned behind the bike, but the chainline *seems* to look pretty good. I haven't done any actual measurements for an official ruling yet.

Here's a top down view of the whole assembly for the evening - UN54 bottom bracket, FSA cranks and chainring, SRAM chain, no-name (I think) rear sprocket, and mismatched spacers. Now I pretty much just need brakes and bar tape, and it'll be ready to ride!

A Couple of Great Moments This Week

First off, Surly proved themselves to be a great company this week when I found myself with a question about some apparent missing parts needed to secure the cantilever brakes to the frame and fork.

These cantilever studs come on the frame when you buy it new, but since I got mine used, they were long gone, so I emailed Surly to find out what I needed. Not only did they respond back within a day, they also mentioned they would just send me some if they had some sitting around in the parts bin, and also poked out here to look at the build in progress and made a few comments about the bike. Cool!

Now, thanks to John from Surly, I knew I needed 10X1 cantilever studs, and set out to find some. I poked around the internet and found some at different dealers, made to fit the Karate Monkey, but all ranging from $4 to 10 each! Ouch....as much as $40 JUST to be able to mount brakes on the bike...oh momma!

On a whim, I popped into a bike shop downtown while I was checking on a cell phone next door and lo and behold, the guys at Santiam Bicycle not only had 4 of them sitting in a parts bin, but sold them to me for $4....total! Sweet! I am still a Cycleworks lover for sure, but it was great to have that kind of luck at another bike shop too. Score another one for the local guys!

Back to the build!

Mission Accomplished: Headset Installed

Quick update to the post from yesterday below. Went ahead and wrapped up the headset install last night. Measured the steerer tube, measured again, and measured one more time, then went ahead and made the cut the same way I did on the seatpost. A little bit of sweat and prayer, and everything turned out just fine.

Next task, figuring out how to wire and set up brakes. Will the madness never end? Actually, it's been a lot of fun and very rewarding so far!

Weekend Parts and Production

It was a very productive bike weekend. When we last left off, I had some unassembled parts I had gathered and put around the bike for a nice looking photo, but that was about it. I wasn't really sure the best place to dive in, so I held off for a bit, and continued to hunt for more parts, and also start reading up on some of the tasks I would need to do.

First task at hand, that actually made me a tad nervous, was installing the headset. I'd heard many horror stories about people not being able to get the bearing cups (those are the silver rings above and below the headtube in this next photo) lined up properly, as they are amazingly snug and need a special tool to get them in. Following the advice of a few BikeForum threads, I whacked them in a bit using a hammer and 2x4, then took a huge bolt with washers and a nut on each end to tighten the cups down into each side. Click here to see what I'm talking about.

I haven't installed the star fangled nut (yes, that's actually the name) yet as we haven't made a final decision about stem height yet, but you can see how nice the bearing cups look below on the frame. First task out of the way!


I'm gonna give a go with these moustache bars, and am still working on optimum height, since I've never used them, so they're kind of just in there for now, but when I figure it out, then I'll have to cut the top of that steerer tube to finish the headset install.


The wheels came with some Panaracer Rampage tires, that were just monster big for the single speed, since the bike had previously been built up as a mountain bike. I took those off and decided to get something that wasn't too skinny for a 29er wheel (on the advice of a BF member) and picked up some inexpensive Forte ST/Cross K tires for an all around decent little commuter type tire. We'll see how they hold up.


Since our last update, my wife has actually taken to the road with me for a couple of rides, including her last one on my 12 mile loop! I'm so proud of her, and I'll be the first to say she looks amazing in her new bike shorts and pink jersey. But I digress...since she's starting to use a Jamis Coda Comp we had in the garage, we updated the seat to something just a tad more comfy, and pulled that seat on to this build for now. It's a Selle Royal Freccia - I know nothing about it, but hey, it's a seat, and it came off another bike we had!


While up in Portland over the weekend, we hit up the Community Cycling Center, on Alberta, which aims to educate, inform, and help people with all aspects of cycling. They have a cool recycling program where you can donate a bike and they get it all built back up and sell it inexpensively. Anyway, in their parts case, I found a couple of single speed rear sprockets, a 16 and an 18, for $4. Figured at that price I couldn't go wrong. Here's the 18 on the hub, however, I need a few more spacers to get this locked down.

On another cool note, I was shopping at another bike shop in town that's not my normal LBS (I was on a single speed, and it was 5 miles closer to just stop in), to get some cables to build out a brake. I happened to ask if they had the lockring for the end of the freewheel hub, and he dug around and said 'I don't have anything new, but you can just have this one if you want.' So cool!


In and effort to get some practice in for the steerer tube cut that will be coming up, we cut my sons seat post down in the vice using a hacksaw, and a clamp as a guide. Worked great. The cut isn't entirely perfect in this picture, but the younger mechanic wanted to take a turn at the saw. :)
And if you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed the sexy stand holding up the Karate Monkey. Yeah, broke down and bought one. I saw one on CL for $90, and couldn't pass it up. I just cleaned up the garage today and we have 9 bikes in there. It will come in handy many times over, I'm sure. It's the Spin Doctor Pro G3, which is normally $199, on sale for $159 right now, and I got it in essentially new condition for $90 from a very nice family in Portland, so I'm thrilled. Hopefully it will serve us for many years as the kids continue to grow.


After working on the bike today I built an overhead bike rack on the outside wall of my office that's in the garage. No picture yet, it's still a little messy over in that part, but I got 4 bikes up off the ground with a custom framed up, hook system in the garage. It's been a productive Saturday...and now I'm ready for some coffee and kickin' back!

First Parts Update

Earlier this week I picked up my Karate Monkey frame and fork, and launched into a build project to make it my first single speed project. Since then I've picked up a few things -- new parts, used parts, and free stuff. Here's the overview shot of stuff I have. Not in love with the bars, but I'll explain after the photo.

From my previous list, I was shooting for the 'around $300 range' to complete the build. My initial stab at parts needed, and potential costs had me at $310 without a seat. Here's a quick update of what I've put together in the past few days, with some notes and prices.

$0 - Seatpost. I had to replace a seatpost on a Jamis roadbike because it was too tall for our son, so this was sitting around.
$0 - Surly Tugnut Tensioner. The seller of the frame mentioned he had one of these when I got the frame from him, and I was able to snag it from him this week.
$0 - Alloy bars. I have no idea what brand these are, but these came leftover from another purchase as extras.
$0 - Tektro brake and lever. Again, extra 'stuff' from the previously mentioned purchase.
$20 - Aheadset threadless headset. Broke down and just purchased a cheap, but solid headset locally.
$100 - Xero XSM 29er Wheels. The original seller mentioned he had some wheels, so I ended up snagging these from him. They have little use on them and are in great shape. They also have the freehub on the rear wheel, so I think for the SS project I'll first go with a sprocket and spacers, rather than spending money on a SS freewheel.

I don't think I'll go with these bars longterm, or even the brake, BUT for my initial build, they *could* be used if I need to make the budget work. Who knows, maybe I'll like them. Here's the picture with the breakdown of what's what and prices. (Click on the image to see a readable, full size image.)


I'm heading up to Portland for a couple days and hoping to hit a few bike shops while we're up there. Performance Bike has three locations up there and may have the Shimano UN54 bottom bracket I'm thinking about for under $25, as well as a basic tool kit I'm looking at. By the way, I'm not including tools or items like grease in my build cost since we have 6 in our family and the bike collection is growing -- those items will just be part of the cost of having bikes.

I'm actually looking forward to hitting more of the local bike shops than Performance though. Portlandians on Bike Forums have recommended City Bikes, Sellwood Cyle Repair, The Recyclery, and A Better Cycle. I also have a bid in on a stem that comes with some drop bars, but that won't end until after I make my run, so we'll see how all the timing works out.

On another note, there's a possibility this project may turn into more of a commuter/road type bike for the woman I live with, but the jury is still out on that. More later...but for now:

Build out component parts total: $120

Building My First Single Speed

Well, actually my first bike of any kind, to be honest!. I picked up this used Surly Karate Monkey frame and fork yesterday and thought it'd be a great first bike to build out. Since the frame is touted as being incredibly versatile, I figured it'd be worth trying a single speed build on.

I posted this list of items that I think I need to one of the BF single speed forums:

Handlebars - $20 - I prefer drops - many on ebay.
Stem - $20 - tons of Dimensions in this range.
Headset - $25 - not anything like a King, but saw a bunch in this range.
Brakes - $20 for front and back handbrakes
Wheels - $100 - CL listing..29er wheelset. Shimano XT 32 hole disc hubs (6 bolt) laced to WTB Dual Duty rims with Wheelmith 1.7/2.0 stainless spokes.
Tires/Tubes - $40 - set of Kevlars like I have on my roadbike on ebay.
Seatpost - $10
Pedals - $10
Chainring - $10
Cranks - $30 bulletproof
Bottombracket - $15 shimano un54
Chain - $10
Seat - I realize this is wide open..just going to leave it open right now.

Without a seat, I'm at $310 if I was to just start ordering and buying stuff off Ebay/Internet, with the one CL item. Of course, shipping will kill me if I don't order from the same seller where possible. My question is, in general am I on the right track here, or am I missing anything big? I picked up the KM because of it's reported versatility, and thought it'd be a great frame to start tinkering with, without screwing up my daily ride. I'd rather learn a bunch of this stuff than always feel like an idiot when it comes to the mechanics of my bike.

And someone pointed out that I'd also need:

brake levers, chainring bolts, star nut, headtube cap, brakelines, housing, freewheel, bottom bracket, grips or tape

as well as......

...spoke cards, knickers, half-a-pack of unfiltered Lucky Strikes, Me-Too Antiestablishmentarianism, and a painfully self-conscious sarcasm. Oh, and spoke cards.

and..

Rim tape.

and...

grease and lube.

and of course I had already thought of tools, but I didn't include them in my list as those are something I'd probably end up with to work on my other bikes for the long haul anyway.

So, if you have any input, or any parts I might want/need, let me know! I'm going to keep updating here!

Thanks.