Another late night wrenching effort has brought The Groundhog back to life. The Groundhog was my brother in law's bike for years; an entry level MTB that wasn't that crappy for it's time. Came with Aheadset and Shimano Acera stuff. When he got a new bike he let it weather under his deck for a year before asking me if I wanted to adopt. One look at those semi-horizontal dropouts got visions of single speed frankenbikes dancing in my head, and the deal was done.
"Why The Groundhog?" you ask? Well years ago my brother in law was doing about 20 mph down a road and hit a groundhog! Over the handlebars he went, breaking both wrists in the process. Ye-ouch! He's all better now and riding a nice flat-bar Giant road bike. Since adopting The Groundhog she's been built up in a few different single speed configurations. KR even worked the loan to own program on her last summer whilst waiting to be Re-Fueled by Trek warranty.
Previous Incarnations
Now the groundhog is a rigid 2X8 69er, baby! A hodge podge of parts bin relics adorns the 'Hog. Not bad stuff either: XT, LX, 105, Avid, Ritchey, etc. Franken-ness shines through on the:
- chain that was pieced together from about 6 short lengths and 5 single links that I've accumulated over the last decade of riding 8sp KMC Z-chains
- the 105 road front derailleur that needed grinding to fit into the 1 3/8 braze on adapter.
- the two lengths of spray-paint-can-lid I cut to use for shims to mount the front derailleur to the 1 1/4 downtube
- The scary part that makes her not quite ready for a test ride is this. Take a gander at how short the steerer on the fork is. Cutting a 1/2 length of tubing to fill the gap solves the tightening-everything-up-in-the-cockpit problem nicely, but I'm not looking forward to catastrophic failure of the 'Hog on Pig's Run. So what's a tinkerer to do?
Solution = trading out the star nut for a compression plug (ala Nashbar). Theory is that this puppy will hold the steerer extension tight enough to avoid calamity.
Current Setup - I'm afraid to put her on the scale. Gotta be at least 27lb!
Wish me luck;-)
oooh aaahh
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