The operating table |
Well, as I posted my Minus Ten Reviews, I was looking for an image, and found one of that old Karate Monkey in its heyday. (See yesterday's post) That pushed me over the edge, as I was not going to ride to work Friday in the sub-zero windchill, and I knew the repair schedule was pretty open. My boss at work is into challenges like stuck bottom brackets, so I knew he would be okay with me doing this in the dead of Winter. So, I hauled in that hulk of a Monkey and fastened it securely into my repair stand. The game was afoot!
There is one image of the process I did not get that I wished that I had. First, a bit of imagery description to help out here. I had purchased a large, 1 1/4" combination wrench which fit the Shimano bottom bracket tool quite nicely. That was all affixed to the non-drive side bottom bracket cup, (the drive side I managed to remove in 2015), and that big ol' wrench was hanging out there quite a ways. More leverage than I thought one may need. I braced myself, grabbed the frame in one hand and the heavy lead mallet with the other, and smacked away as hard as I could. That didn't work, so Andy stepped in to lend a hand, but to no avail.
By now my boss had come out and he decided that three of us could do the job. Two folks bracing the frame, me whacking the wrench with the lead mallet.
Nope.
My boss stood back and said, "Where is the fork straightener?" I knew exactly what he was on about.
The fork straightener comes from a less litigious, a less carbonated time, when forks were steel and people were willing to take the risk that a mechanic's bending a fork back in plane was an okay thing to do. Nowadays it's main usage is for cases that require extreme amounts of leverage. Times like this ......
Todd had wandered in about this time to see what all the fuss was about. Then he was employed into the process. Four grown men, heaving on a four foot long lever of steel on a 1 1/4" tool affixed to a splined interface. We were pulling so hard that the big combination wrench was deflecting about two inches. Finally, it moved! We all stood back in self-congratulatory stances, as only men can do after accomplishing manly tasks. Not that women couldn't have done it, but we men have a special air about us. I think everyone knows what I mean by that........
Anyway, it wasn't loose. We broke off the splined interface!!!
Yeah........that's just awesome. Now what?!! |
The BB-UN72 bottom bracket cartridge. |
Yeah.....that's all I had to do.
There was only one way that was coming out. Remember, I had no tool interface, the piece was already missing a bit of its outer dimension which we had sheared off, and getting a chisel in that tiny space was almost impossible. I tried the chisel route, but it was not really very effective. I was going to have to hack saw that bugger out of there, and in doing that, not ruin the frame! We didn't have a jab saw, so I had to disassemble a standard hack saw, pass the blade through the bottom bracket shell, and then reattach the blade to the frame of the hacksaw. Tedious, but not impossible. Now, on to cutting!
I made three, very calculated, careful cuts. Two close together, and one roughly 90° from those two. Then I used a standard blade screw driver that I had sharpened a bit as a chisel to start to split the collar at the cuts I made, and then to drive the blade under the collar, hopefully prying up the smallest bit of the circumference of the collar first. It was a slow, tedious process, but I could see that the edges were working up. Finally, it snapped up off the bottom bracket shell! Then the two larger pieces came right out as well.
The two larger pieces of the collar show how rusted they were into the frame. |
I got the bottom bracket out, and cleaned up the threads of the bottom bracket shell with the bottom bracket thread chaser. Whew!
That was close.
And it took entirely way too long to reach this result, but at least now I have a frame that I can rehabilitate and rebuild into a working bicycle once again. No more hang ups. Nothing to stop forward progress anymore.
Now what.....
You know, back in 2013 I thought maybe I would put the KM back into the (mostly) original configuration that I had it in back 2003. The thing is, that configuration was short lived, and I actually liked it best in the 2005-2008 time frame when I had a Midge drop bar, leather saddle, and a pretty stout gravel grinding gear set up on the bike. I got to thinking, well.........why not do that?
New KM's are much more capable off road machines than my '03 is. |
Plus, as I looked at the old, worn frame, it occurred to me that I might be able to use a specific, "old school" style wheel set I picked up from Mike, a Trans Iowa/Tour Divide veteran a few years back. It's an XTR hubbed, Salsa Delgado rim brake style wheel set which comes right out of the same time frame that the 2003 Karate Monkey does. You may remember also that '03 Monkeys could run cantilever brakes. Plus, the Shimano SLR levers I have on the bike should pull linear pull brakes well enough, and even if they don't, I have a pair of Tektro long pull levers sitting around that will.
I figure I'll set up a fresh pair of Bruce Gordon Rock and Road skinwalls on that, and my Velo Orange leather saddle. That along with a new handle bar, stem, and a TruVativ, outboard bearing single speed crankset, and Surly cog with a 9 speed chain driving it all, and I should be sitting pretty well and have a great single speed gravel travel rig.
So, no bike project is worth doing without a goal. This bike is being resurrected at the perfect time for me to reprise the first Guitar Ted Death Ride course. The Karate Monkey single speed was the bike I used on that first GTDRI, and as we're doing the same route, why not use the "same" bicycle?
All righty then......its on.
1 comment:
Nice! Glad to hear you got that troublesome BB out and are breathing new life into this "classic" frame!
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