Ladies Cruiser Bike HELP!

[easty]

Hey Guys

I have just got my hands on an old step through frame with coaster brake for the girly. The plan is to build it up together so we can cruise around together (me on my fixie/single speed that im almost finished building). Im a mountain biker but more recently been on the roadie training for triathlons and have become addicted.

Anyway, I tried to take the forks off today and it seems they are one, from stem to fork end? Does this sound right? I cannot for the life of me figuire it out, to the point its making me feel like a dumbass. Is it simply one peice and I am over thinking it? Do i need to chop it? I plan on replacing almost every part except for the wheels and crank.

I dont know how to post pics, but i have undone the main head bolt (long one), undone the bearings/headset. Just appears to be a threaded one peice.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me without pics.

Chris

[Hodaddy]

Easty
I am not sure what you were expecting and not sure what you mean.
The old school forks were one piece and I thought the new ones were as well.
Anyway the fork normall has a shaft attached at the top.
This is passed though the steering head of the frame and is held in place with two opposing bearing races sandwiching the frame in place. The bearing races are as follows. The bottom race has a half that is a press fit to the fork shaft and is located right down against the fork head(just above the front wheel) then there is a bearing with the top guide pressed into the steering head of the frame. The top race is an inversion of the bottom one exept the extremity is threaded and this allows you to screw it down the threaded section of the fork shaftuntill the required tightness is achieved.

I am afraid That is all I know, but if you are ever looking for good info on bike parts and how they all work, you should try sheldon brown's site. Below is a link for headset details
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ha-i.html#headset

Regards
Hodaddy

[easty]

Thanks for your help.

I just read my post, realised i wasn't very clear, apologies for that.

To clear things up - I am trying to remove the forks, so I can strip and paint them seperately to the frame...and also I want to replace the headset/BBs before I put it back together, however i cant get the handlebar stem off...so therefore I cant slide the forks through the frame. Is this possible?

Cheers
Chris

[Mulger bill]

G'Day Easty.

First up, POSTING PICS
Is it something like this?


I hope you didn't remove the bolt entirely. If the wedge that the bolt screws into is corroded into the fork, you'll have trouble. You shouldn't have undone the headset yet either.

Anyhoo...
Do the headset back up.
Try to get the bolt back into the wedge but don't tighten it all the way, leave some of the bolt sticking up above the stem. Now give the bolt a gentle tap or three with a rubber mallet or a hammer using a lump of wood to protect things. With a bit of luck that'll free up the wedge and you should be able to pull/twist the stem to get it out of the fork.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers
Shaun

[Mulger bill]

G'Day Easty.

First up, POSTING PICS
Is it something like this?


I hope you didn't remove the bolt entirely. If the wedge that the bolt screws into is corroded into the fork, you'll have trouble. You shouldn't have undone the headset yet either.

Anyhoo...
Do the headset back up.
Try to get the bolt back into the wedge but don't tighten it all the way, leave some of the bolt sticking up above the stem. Now give the bolt a gentle tap or three with a rubber mallet or a hammer using a lump of wood to protect things. With a bit of luck that'll free up the wedge and you should be able to pull/twist the stem to get it out of the fork.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers
Shaun

[easty]

Your a legend.

[Mulger bill]

It worked?
Brilliant. Love to see the finished bike.

Cheers
Shaun