Monkey Shines

In an effort to shake things up a bit, I decided to whip the old Monkey into shape (I'm talking bikes, I swear!) and try it on my commute next week. The Karate Monkey, which is officially my backup commuter, hasn't been in rotation since my neck and back issues started preventing me from using a backpack or messenger bag.

This will also be the inaugural trip for my Old Man Mountain Red Rock Rack. I was looking for a rack on a bit of a budget, and one that would work with a 29'er. Since the OMM racks are designed to fit on bikes that aren't designed for racks, it seemed to be my best bet. I could have went the bling route and got something like a Tubus or Nitto, but they would have required major kludging (Major Kludging, didn't he lead the troops to victory in The Big One?) to get them to fit properly. I measured my bike and looked at the dimensions of the rack on the OMM site, and it seemed it would fit. One thing I hadn't counted on was the solid plate in the center of the rack sits about a quarter to a half-inch lower than the rail, which effectively makes the rack about a half-inch lower than the actual dimensions.

The rack went on relatively headache-free (a zero-Excedrin job), I just had to add a couple washers on the non-drive side to get the railing to clear the disc-brake mounting tab. But, because of the lowered center plate, the clearance between the top of the tire and the rack is very tight. I think it will be fine, but would not recommend it for trail riding, as twigs and stones could easily get wedged in there, causing an abrupt halt to your fun. Also, the option to add fenders at some point is no longer on the table. I was a little concerned that once I inflated the tires to the proper PSI, it might be a little too close but there is still maybe a quarter inch between the tire and rack.

As I have mentioned before, the Karate Monkey has some sentimental value to me. Not because of the bike itself, but because of the parts. Almost everything attached to the frame came from my Trek 7.5 FX. And though I hated that bike, it was my first commuter and got me started down this path. After I got the Cross Check, the Trek was relegated to backup duty, but whenever I had to ride the Trek it felt like I was being punished for something. Eventually I decided to get the Karate Monkey frame and transfer all the parts over. I still think of this as my first commuter, since all I did was switch one part — the frame.

I will do a trial run on the weekend just to make sure I have enough heel clearance with my pannier on the rack. Hopefully it will work out better than the last trial run I did after doing some maintenance. If that works out, next week will be the KM's first trip to Hollywood!