I’ve been building up a pile of parts for the new build. Above you see a free Surly Karate Monkey fork and some flashy cork Ergon grips I picked up in Melrose, SA. In the next photos you’ll see a mix of parts I had in my garage and several used parts I’ve found. Highlights include an almost new crank, very new-ish hydro brakes, $20 tires and the saddle, seat post, pedals and chain from the M2.
About an hour into a two-minute pedal swap I came to the realization that I had a seized pedal axle. The 8mm allen head on the pedal axle was stripped, my vice grips wouldn’t grab the axle, and I was running out of options. I tried penetrating oil, heat and large blunt objects. Nothing was working.
As a last resort I put the crank arm, pedal axle and attached vice grips in the freezer and went to bed. The next morning the axle came right out. I would not have guessed that freezing a steel axle in an aluminum crank arm would have helped, and it may not have, but in any case the axle is out.
So if you haven’t guessed, I’m bulding another bike. This time it will be a fully-rigid singlespeed 29er built from as many used parts as I can find. Over the next several post I’ll share the build process and show the (hopefully) nice used parts going into the bike.
First, I found this “used” Kona Unit 29er frame at a very reasonable price. The frame is butted steel, has nice-looking sliders and came with both singlespeed and geared dropouts. The frame looks new and has perfect paint. Not a bad start.