1x9

It's back to work on my low budget project bike. Thanks to my income tax refund I was able to buy a decent tool kit and a really basic repair stand on sale at the new Performance bike shop that recently opened just down the road from my house. Even though I've been riding since 1987 I'm a complete novice when it comes to maintenance. At least I've got the right tools now. The bike repair videos I found on YouTube helped a great deal. My plan has been to turn this bike into a 1x9, for simplicity more than anything else. I was focusing on the crankset today. I picked up some short chainring screws from Colonel's Bike shop here in Fort Worth. I removed the outer and inner chairing on a Specialized Strong Arm crankset I stripped from my old bike. I was then going to use the shorter screws to remount the 32 tooth middle chainring. I removed the cheesy Suntour crankset from my Kona and realized that the chainrings were bolted on but were riveted together.



I also discovered that the bottom bracket was some cheap Chinese cup and cone model. This thing would need to be replaced. I replaced the old bottom bracket with a sealed Shimano bottom bracket with shorter spindle to bring the single chainring in a little. I was told that I might be able to get away without having to buy a bash guard and a chain guide. I put everything together and found that the chain would jump to the inside of the chainring when I shifted to the two largest rear cogs. I'm going to buy a an unramped chainring, bash guard and chain guide and see how things go.

First Ride of the Year

The weather was in the 70's and beautiful on Saturday. I drove to Sansom Park on the the northwest side of Fort Worth for my first real ride of the season. My unsuspended Kona low budget project bike handled great.

Stripped My Specialized

Kona Smoke


I bought two of these bikes after reading some good reviews about them in a couple of magazines. They were affordable and have been great bikes. I ridden my Kona more in the last couple of years than my other bikes combined. It's nice to be able to just jump on a bike and ride off without having to hunt down all of your gear. Well, the suspension fork on my 1998 Specialized Stumpjumper Comp finally bit the dust. I built a pump track in my back yard this summer and I've been riding it with my Kona. I was actually impressed with the way this beater bike handled off road. I pulled the XTR derailleur, rear shifter, right brake lever and wheels off my Stumpjumper and transplanted them on the Kona. I'm hoping that after some more work I'll end up with something like this Salsa Alacarte.



Here's what I've got so far.