Tonight was a chill night following a chill week. Tomorrow brings DB's wedding and again a chill day in the saddle. The ZM project (Surly Karate Monkey, here on out known as the Zombie Monkey or ZM) officially wrapped tonight with the first test session being had. I had very little light beeming out of my puny Cateye. Initial impressions lead to too high of saddle height (gotta cut that post 20mm more), 10mm too short of stem (sorry NS) and short wheelbase. Hopefully I can slide the saddle back a little more, and maybe even rake the front wheel out a little more.
A custom fork would feel amazing on this thing. 472-474mm axle to crown, and 47mm of rake. Just enough to kick that front wheel out there a little more, and keep the handling in the ballpark. I might have to throw the old On One Carbon fork on the ZM for Gnome Fest.
I can't even believe how well balanced and behaved this machine is. Everything that led me to get the ZM turned out to hit the nail on the head. I now truly believe that if one of Surly's sizes fits you, you should have a Karate Monkey in some form. If you love 29er's you owe it to yourself to own one or give one a shot. Mine was transformed into the ZM though liberal usage of purple ano and lots of slow planning and care. Zombie's dislike purple and black. Known fact.
Only a true Zombie Apocalypse transportation device would recieve this much planning preemtively. Most post Apocalypse machines have to be whittled together from the last remaining remanants of post Apocalyptic society.
So to all: Do your homework. Prepare your bike well. If zombies should come, you are going to need some form of transportation, protection, etc. It's not like it's really going to happen, but hell, in my case it got me to build a sweet new 29er.
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