Previous photos here

Tue, 24 Jan 2006

I put the rigid fork on my bike last nigh.
It's a Kona Project 2, previously described here. I only ride the bike on the road, so I thought I'd replace the suspension fork with a rigid one, in the interests of lighter weight and more precise steering. I bought the Kona because it's suspension-corrected, meaning that it's taller than usual, so it will be the same height as the suspension fork it's replacing. When I actually measured it, though, the Kona turned out to still be about an inch shorter than the Manitou suspension fork it's replacing. That means the handlebars will be about an inch lower, and the steering angle will be a little quicker. Anyway, I did the swap pretty easily, and found that the bike fits just fine. If anything, it seems to be more comfortable, which is odd. I just did a quick test ride around the block, but I think the bike is ready to ride to Wednesday's hash, which is located close by. The next change is to install the 53/39 road crankset I got off eBay recently. Oh, the old fork weighs 1454 grams, as opposed to the 792 grams of the new one. And that's before I cut a couple inches off the steerer of the new one. So that means I dropped 662 grams, or more than 1 lb 7 oz from the bike. Not bad.

posted at: 07:18 | permalink |