Another enjoyable evening in the garage tinkering with my bikes. Lubed the chain and cleaned my Kawasaki KLR 650 ready for work tomorrow and set about fiddling with the toys.
The Cruiser didn't need much doing to it. The chain guard needs a bit of alignment because it's not the original crank set and I had to jigger a bracket to make it fit at all. It needs setting to with the tin snips but it's not urgent. Other than that I'm just enjoying it. Loving the Boxkars stick shift. Adds a level of enjoyment.
Dog exercise, leisure rides and cruising by the bay.
My 'Scrambler' has been de-scrambled ... again. The knobby tyres were seeing too much tarmac/too little dirt and I wasn't enjoying the vibes off them, then, when I put the balloon road rubber back on the buckles and bows in the wheels became really obvious - so I tried truing them myself - and promptly broke a few corroded nipples. I didn't like the wheels anyway - they were mismatched. One was replaced a while ago - destroyed by removalists when we shifted house and one had had some big hits and was really out of whack. I could have bought a whole new bike with what I've thrown at it recently, but now it has new Rockshocks forks and, as of this evening, new Halo Combat wheels that are much wider and will accommodate the 2.125x 26 rubber better. Happy with them fo sho.
I'm still waiting for a front disc brake kit to arrive by post. (That I ordered from the same shop at the same time as the wheels - which arrived three days ago. In mostly empty cartons). Frustrating much? When I started this project nobody was marketing 'hybrid' bikes. Now it seems I'm gunna have a nice one. It started life as a basic Kona MTB.
It's the 'grocery getter'.
The Kos Kruiser has a new Redline 'old school' chain ring because I bent the original 40t stocker and then fitted a 44t which I didn't like much. BAck to 40T. Also a new lay-back MTB seat post fits better. Lightweight 606 alloy. And some new stickers (very important dontchaknow). Loving the feel of the Hookworm rubber and the light simplicity of the bike.
It's for doing stupid stuff and I often spend a session just jumping off all the gutters and driveways going 3 times around the block - just for the hell of it. The Oxford saddle is very comfortable for such a compact unit too.
I'd still like a 29'er as a new project, but I've blow the budget on forks, wheels, brakes and shifters for a while. Which means I probably should stop carrying on about my bikes and do some work now
Dave.
The Cruiser didn't need much doing to it. The chain guard needs a bit of alignment because it's not the original crank set and I had to jigger a bracket to make it fit at all. It needs setting to with the tin snips but it's not urgent. Other than that I'm just enjoying it. Loving the Boxkars stick shift. Adds a level of enjoyment.
Dog exercise, leisure rides and cruising by the bay.
My 'Scrambler' has been de-scrambled ... again. The knobby tyres were seeing too much tarmac/too little dirt and I wasn't enjoying the vibes off them, then, when I put the balloon road rubber back on the buckles and bows in the wheels became really obvious - so I tried truing them myself - and promptly broke a few corroded nipples. I didn't like the wheels anyway - they were mismatched. One was replaced a while ago - destroyed by removalists when we shifted house and one had had some big hits and was really out of whack. I could have bought a whole new bike with what I've thrown at it recently, but now it has new Rockshocks forks and, as of this evening, new Halo Combat wheels that are much wider and will accommodate the 2.125x 26 rubber better. Happy with them fo sho.
I'm still waiting for a front disc brake kit to arrive by post. (That I ordered from the same shop at the same time as the wheels - which arrived three days ago. In mostly empty cartons). Frustrating much? When I started this project nobody was marketing 'hybrid' bikes. Now it seems I'm gunna have a nice one. It started life as a basic Kona MTB.
It's the 'grocery getter'.
The Kos Kruiser has a new Redline 'old school' chain ring because I bent the original 40t stocker and then fitted a 44t which I didn't like much. BAck to 40T. Also a new lay-back MTB seat post fits better. Lightweight 606 alloy. And some new stickers (very important dontchaknow). Loving the feel of the Hookworm rubber and the light simplicity of the bike.
It's for doing stupid stuff and I often spend a session just jumping off all the gutters and driveways going 3 times around the block - just for the hell of it. The Oxford saddle is very comfortable for such a compact unit too.
I'd still like a 29'er as a new project, but I've blow the budget on forks, wheels, brakes and shifters for a while. Which means I probably should stop carrying on about my bikes and do some work now
Dave.
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