Ellen Forney knows what’s what. She knew what was up years and years ago when she designed the remover-installer and all the surrounding artwork you saw in the stranger and on the posters and flyers on telephone poles all over Capitol Hill in the 90s.
I often look back on it and smile. If only I had that blue 20th anniversary edition, all my problems would be solved.
Over the past couple months I’ve been collecting scraps and watching a few YouTubes to improvise the fork swap on my new-used Poprad. Remover-Installers. The final piece of my multistep puzzle was the crown race installer: a scrap of 1.25” copper pipe that will slide over the steer tube and rest on a headset spacer to drive the crown race home on my new Surly fork. I know a guy that knows a little something about plumbing.
I could go to a bike shop and pay a real mechanic to do this. I could go to BikeWorks and ask them to use the real tools. I could buy the real Park Tool crown race remover for $365 and the real Park Tool crown race installer for $110 and the real Park Tool star nut installer for $30. But why would I do any of that stuff when I can stand around in my garage and ponder life's problems with a can of Rainier.
it's happy hour somewhere.
Note the half-ass star nut installer: a 1/2" socket with a star nut bolted on. Pound the shit out of it to around 10mm. Then enjoy a breakfast burrito with a red Rainier.
Today is the day I actually finally got around to the Surly fork.
the fork swap is done
with a crusty-old-man stack of headset spacers.
I need to actually ride it and tweak the tweaks.
my removers & installers got the job done but it was pretty scrappy and nothing to brag about.
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