DIY Fixie help

hynesie

I recently got my hands on a Falcon Corsa frame which I've been thinking about using to make a fixie.
Does anybody know anything about this frame .... how old is it ..... is it any good ..... am I wasting my time with it?

Last night I tried to remove the forks, as per these instructions, but had no luck. They seem completely stuck. Is there something missing from the linked instructions?
All I've done is take out the bolt from the gooseneck and then try and pull the gooseneck out, but no amount of force will free it.
Have I forgotten something?

Would very much appreciate any help.

kenmc

usually with a quill stem you need to tap it downwards with a hammer to loosen it. Put the bolt back in, but don't tighten it up fully, then place a block of wood on top of the bolt and hit the block with a hammer. this will release the quill and allow you to remove the stem.

hynesie

I had no luck with that approach last night I'm afraid.
I've sprayed a substantial amount of WD40 down the fork last night so I'll give it another go tonight and see if it made any difference.

Karma

to get the stem separated from the fork, you need to soak the offending parts in a) cola b)disesl. i use cola and some heavy duty plastic bags and some rounded weights-smooth stones etc... to fill the space in around the frame. fill the plastic bags with water and SEAL them. put the bags, stones and frame(well headtube must be covered{will fit into a regular mop bucket} into your container and add you cola-cheaper the better as you will need about 8 litres and 2 days of soaking...
after this put a bar in the stem and a wheel in the fork and lock them in and you should feel the result, when you twist them against each other. Do check and add more cola over the 2 days.

a rubber mallet is handy for whacking time...

and measure the distance between your dropouts- various sizes 120-135mm

hynesie

Thats brilliant Karma, I'll give that a go.

Morgan

Did you follow step 2, to tap the stem-wedge loose?

hynesie

Morgan wrote: »

Did you follow step 2, to tap the stem-wedge loose?

I did. It didn't budge.

Morgan

Hit it harder!

hynesie

Morgan wrote: »

Hit it harder!

I'm a bit concerned now that I may have hit it too hard

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll let ye know how I get on.

By the way, has anybody any idea how old my frame is or any other info on when Falcon Corsa's were out?
I had a bit of a search online but can't find anything about Falcon Corsa's, just some info on Merckx Corsa's and Optima Corsa's (owned by Falcon) but nothing branded as a Falcon Corsa.

Morgan

Before you go ahead with the messy-sounding Coke thing, try turning the bike over and spraying a load of WD-40 up the steerer-tube. That might be enough to free up the wedge (which you can knock out with the stem-bolt) and maybe loosen the stem too.

flickerx

My guess is that the expander bolt nut is still down inside the neck of the stem (or the "gooseneck" as its referred to on that site) and hence stopping you from removing the stem. Someone else said you should put the long bolt back in, I'd second that.

Put it all the way back in until its tightened up (hopefully the nut will still be wedged down in the neck of the stem - hence expanding the width of the bottom of the stem, and stopping it from coming out). Then loosen it with only three anticlockwise rotations of the bolt. The bolt should still be in the stem, with just a bit of looseness, with its head poking out of the top.

Now give it a hard whack with the hammer.
If the stem doesnt come out, turn the bolt again only one full rotation anticlockwise, so its pokes out a bit more, and whack it again, hard.

If there isnt any tightness in the bolt when you screw it back in, its likely that the expander nut has fallen down towards the forks, and then the stem is probably just stuck with dirt, rust and other crap - thats when you'll need the oil or coke route.

This entire process is just to remove the stem first though - when you've done that, you'll need to take off the headset so the forks drop off.
My main question after all that is though - why are you doing this, if you're just doing a fixie conversion? Is there a problem with the existing handlebars and forks? If there isnt, just leave them where they are.

hynesie

Thanks flickerx.

flickerx wrote: »

My main question after all that is though - why are you doing this, if you're just doing a fixie conversion? Is there a problem with the existing handlebars and forks? If there isnt, just leave them where they are.

There's a fair bit of grinding when the handle bar is turned so I was planning on putting new bearings in. All the WD40 I sprayed in last night did help a bit but not quite enough.

Morgan

hynesie wrote: »

All the WD40 I sprayed in last night did help a bit but not quite enough.

How did it help? Is the stem rotating?