Two Wheel Blogs

It is almost done! (It still need a rear caliper).

Today I took the family out to the pumpkin festival and had a lot of fun. Basically my wife and I wore the kids out with October fun. When we got home, the kids took a rest and I headed to the garage to build.

It was a good thing I did too, because my bikes were in need of some maintenance. The front brakes on my MTB were SHOT! I installed a new set of pads and got started on re-building the bike that made me passionate about MTB riding.

The Surly Karate Monkey was a favorite the moment I hopped on it the first time. I bought this frame and fork used from Peat, but I treated it with love and it returned that love ten-fold. Earlier this year, I had a custom frame and fork built and retired the KM. For months the KM sat in the garage waiting its chance to love again...quietly, and patiently.

I have been re-acquiring parts for a few months now, and finally I can rebuild this bike to do some of the Trials and FreeRide-inspired riding I have been wanting to get back into. Essentially this type of riding is a lot like Freeriding and Trials--only much tamer and smaller scale moves (I am getting a little too old to go big, and this frame may not deal with big hits well).

OK, so on to the nuts and bolts...The dimensions of the build and my custom are VERY similar. The bar height from the ground is identical, the distance from saddle to grips is nearly identical, but the TT is much shorter, and the chain stays are much shorter on the KM. This will result in a greater rear bias, and hopefully make it easy to loft the front end. The geometry (head tube angle in particular) is quite different between these bikes...The KM is much more relaxed angles (good for Freeride-type stuff).

Here are some pictures...but the angles sort of distort what I tried to show (the distances are similar)...you will have to take my word on this.

Once I get some rear brakes I can ride it and report the differences...I would assume that while the bike FIT is the same, the RIDE will be anything but similar. I will let you know!

Actually, now that I look at the pics again, it is apparent that the bars are lined up (grip to grip) and the saddle noses are lined up...but you can see rearward bias of the KM (foreground)....I am expecting the KM to manual much easier!