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The Delicious Commuter
Here is my newest concoction. A Surly Karate Monkey in Red. I've waited a long while for this frame to arrive.
It features;
1. A single speed drive with a 36 X 17 ratio. Lots of hills in The Hills District.
2. RaceFace Deus 175mm cranks, a Surly single ring; no ramps or pins and bigger teeth, and Crankbros Eggbeaters.
3. Surly spacer kit and sprocket, also with no ramps or pins and bigger teeth.
4. Sram 'cheap as chips' PG 830 8 speed chain.
5. The wheels are Mavic TN719 rims, Shimano XT M756 6-bolt hubs and Sapim nipples and DB spokes and Shwalbe Marathon tyres in a 32.
6. Shimano Deore hydraulic brakes from 2007 with RT75 rotors.
7. Hope stainless steel BB in gunsmoke. RacFace Deus headset.
8. RaceFace Next carbon post and bars and Deus 100mm stem, Hope spacers and Hed Doctor, and Titec carbon ends and Pro grips.
9. The seat is a Specialized one I knicked from my Big Hit. I pinched the bell from work.
10. For the unfamiliar, the frame is of 4130 chromoly.
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This is my dream commuter!!!
pop on 29" nobblies and then its ready to go offroad too!
ahh one day!
a bl$%dy nice bike! well done.
Bernd
bike mate. Interesting mix of parts you got
How much does it weigh?
Tom
that looks great. by the way, you'll be pleased to know i'm keeping the enduro. pulled out of a potential sale at the eleventh hour and am very happy i did. please slap me if i advertise it for sale in the next twelve months!
It weighs a whopping 13.5kg. However my scales could be inaccurate as they are old and crappy. I'll try again tomorrow at work. Those scales are most definitely accurate.
In any case, I weighed them with everything in the photo and also with my Hope LED lights with battery and a small tail light as I'd just been for a spin. It feels nice to ride regardless. We get up hills happily enough, even if, on paper, it's heavy.
I'm pleased to hear that. A good rule of thumb here is if there's any doubt in a decision, don't go ahead with it. That's a paticularly special bike that one. There's no pro carbon this year and word is the won't ever be. Don't be too bothered about the riding that you percieve you are not doing at present, as from time to time there'll always be a ride when your Enduro will fit best. Short travel bikes have a pretty narrow focus, and just aren't as fun.
I'll get hammered over that one. Rob, your server is about to get hot.
that many of us ride short travel bikes anymore mate, only the hardcore roidy ones like christine on her podium winning epic.
i've decided that i'll make a concerted effort to ride the beauty at least once every two weeks, which means that i might be posting some long, hurty, epic kinda northern beaches rides soon!
Good news - Gazza is keeping the Enduro...
Keep flying high! This bike suits you...!
__________________
There are two paths you can go by but in the long run........
In the top photo, in the background is Junkie, staring off into the distance, all melancholy, wishing he had a carbon pro enduro.
And wishing he could wheelie.
Peter, nice choice of bike. I like the red but I need the blue bike so the missus stays in the dark.
13kg sounds heavy. I thought mine was 12 something and that's with suspension forks and bulkier wheels.
what happened Delicious? "That's a paticularly special bike that one.."
sorry mate, i couldn't resist the opportunity to point out this particular spelling/typo hiccup
My ongoing quest for English language perfection hits a snag.
It was always going to be you that would be the one to catch me out.
I've just weighed my KM on the very accurate scales at work. They show 11.48kg including things like mudguard, lights pedals etc. and this mornings rain drops that are still attached.
I could shed weight by removing those items. Also I could easily fit lighter tyres and a lighter seat. For now though, all is good for me.
Nice bike Peter perfect for comuting in this rain I hope you chuck some big tyres on it and go offroad at some point.
11.48! thats brilliant being steel and all!
This is soo my next bike, either this or the unit 29-er...... so these wheels are fitted with 700mm road tyres? I'd get it with front suss though and then when i'm doing non technical trail riding i'd just do a tyre swap....
problem i guess is road and dirt ratios wouldnt be the same
either tough as hell trail riding.. or super spinny commuting.. hmmmm
do you plan on taking this puppy off road delicious?
Lozza here is one solution for you: get a flip flop hub with a small fixed cog for commuting and on the other side a bigger freewheel cog for off road
A fixie for commuting will be good training!
Tom
You would need to fore-go the rear disc brake if you went flip-flop.
The rear sprocket takes about 30 seconds to change or alternatively have a second set of rims.
That definitely would be the best solution....
a set of 700s and a set of 29ers with their own ratios on each. Possibly 2 chains as well, depending on whether the movement in the rear wheel is enough to achieve the tension required for each combo.
But yeah, thats a pricier option. Cant go flipflop as I wouldn't want to forego the discs!!!
I'm no roadie
either way, its a fictitious bike at the moment anyway
The day will come someday when I'll have a go at off road on this however there's no way I'm going there without a suspension fork. I'm just not that hard. At present I have more pressing needs to blow my cash on...
Lozza, changing ratios and tyres isn't hard. Tyres you'll know about. With ratios, use a regular cassette hub and a Surly spacer kit or something like what Paul has which is a Hope singlespeed and trials hub ( which has more engagements than a regular hub ) and its spacer kit with Surly sprockets. Being a mountain frame use a regular 4 bolt mountain crank and fit a Surly 36T ring, which is the most teeth available in that 4 bolt type. Lots of teeth while single speeding is good in order to get lots of happy engagement with your chain.
At the back, a 17 is good in order to get up pretty much any hill you'll meet. Off road, use an 18,19 or bigger to reduce the final drive. You won't need to change chains but you will need to shift your brake caliper around when you pull the wheel back with the smaller sprocket when commuting, and the KM frame allows for this, for just this reason, which is why it's popular. I don't believe other frames are so versatile.
So, in practice, come home Friday arvo, pop of both wheels and swap tyres from skinnies to knobbies, and swap that rear sprocket. It's no harder than when you remove/replace a cassette. Then, back off the caliper bolts, pop wheels back in, pull wheel back, line up caliper and nip up those bolts. When the weekend is done, reverse this procedure, ride to work Monday.
And thankyou for spelling 'definitely' correctly. You are one of the few.