Alternative Spoke Wrench

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motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
421
17
18
United States
I've been going over my Genesis Onyx 29 before riding it and to work all the bugs out before motorizing it. All the warnings about dry bearings and loose spokes are not exaggerations.

In the process, I've discovered how lacking my tool collection is for working on bicycles. Since the bike is new, I don't want to chew up the fasteners with the wrong tools, but I also don't want to wait for them to get here from Amazon, or Ebay.

What I discovered is that a castle nut makes a pretty good spoke wrench.

Now if I could just find a good substitute for a cone wrench. I looked through all my saved motorcycle tool kits for a thin stamped steel 15mm box end and came up wanting. My LBS doesn't sell them and they were out of spoke wrenches.

Also, everything I can find online about this bike says it's a threadless headtube design, but it has a big hex nut on it with a normal looking sliding wedge handlebar stem. Does anyone here know ? I'm kinda fugnorant on bicycle stuff.
 

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shwnrttr

Member
Dec 2, 2009
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titusville, florida
i think the reason they say its threadless is because its 1 1/8''. most 1 1/8''headsets are threadless. but these particular ones are 1 1/8'' threaded.
i have one too on my genesis terra 700
 

shwnrttr

Member
Dec 2, 2009
336
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titusville, florida
you can get 1 1/8'' threadless forks , but you have to have different bearing cups and cones. you would also have to get 1 1/8'' threadless stem also. i had a set of campy spec seald bearings i was going to see if they fit in the frame, but someone stole them out my garage. geuss il never know now.
 

motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
421
17
18
United States
I'm in the dark about a lot of the mechanical aspects of bicycles, but I'm also intrigued. In some ways, it's like turning the clock back several decades because many of a bicycles systems haven't change much.

Wait till I have to move the cranks outward for clearance.....I'll be driving you guys nuts with questions.
 

shwnrttr

Member
Dec 2, 2009
336
0
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38
titusville, florida
just a warning about the wheel bearings in theses genesis. im already having front wheel bearing problems and i have even put an engine on it yet. although i do ride 30-60 miles a day, yah i know im crazy. i started getting a popping noise from front hub. upon further inspection i noticed small flat spots on the ball bearings. im looking in to converting the unsealed hubs to sealed. il make a thread if have any success
 

Nashville Kat

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2009
1,501
55
48
Jacksonville, Florida
Just a thought on suspension forks- Most 26" forks will take a 700c wheel- maybe not if the tires really big- you have to use a caliper brake in the center hole- the cantilevers won't work-

and the calipers have to be fairly short- but not extremely so- usually the normal reach brake of the past 20 years or so. the one shock fork I have on my cruiser (1 inch threaded) even has a 27" wheel- which is bigger still- but 700's are easier to mount front and back on bikes built for 26"

I just picked up a dual suspension bike frame out of the trash Sunday that had a one inch suspension fork- selling new on e-bay for $28 shipped otherwise- AND it had a headset on there too..
 

motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
421
17
18
United States
What's killing me right now is a few months ago, I sat my son's abandoned full suspension mountain bike out at the road with a "free" sign on it. It was a cheapy WalMart special with no front wheel.

I robbed the rear shock and a few other bits from it, but it had a 1 1/8" THREADED suspension fork ! It didn't fit anything I had at the time and the wife was iin "if you haven't used it in the past 2 years, get rid of it" mode. My garage was looking pretty shabby, so I acquiesced.
 

motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
421
17
18
United States
just a warning about the wheel bearings in theses genesis. im already having front wheel bearing problems and i have even put an engine on it yet. although i do ride 30-60 miles a day, yah i know im crazy. i started getting a popping noise from front hub. upon further inspection i noticed small flat spots on the ball bearings. im looking in to converting the unsealed hubs to sealed. il make a thread if have any success
I have a set of 36 spoke rims from a Genesis 29er mountain bike. When I get some money saved (not from turning in pop bottles BTW), I'm going to have them laced up with heavier gauge spokes and either add a second disc or put a moped drum brake on the front. I also have a Sturmey-Archer S2C rear that I'd like to have laced into the rear one for 2 speed shifterless pedaling.

I doubt any of this will make it onto the Onyx, but I have a couple other frames for future projects that would look good with bigger tires. I'm thinking 48 spokes with friction drive and front and rear rim brakes will be good enough for a first build on this one. The friction drives and rim brakes don't stress the spokes like hub brakes and drives do.

I'm going to my LBS for a set of grips today, I'll take the Onyx front rim with me and ask them if they have any better bearings that will fit it.

If your Genesis is an Onyx and you're not planning on using the rear fender, would you care to sell it ?
 

motorhedfred

Member
Jul 31, 2009
421
17
18
United States
Just to try to keep this thread on track, the castle nut size that works best on my Onyx spokes is 7/16 fine thread. I bought a short bolt which I'll Loctite into the castle nut for more leverage.

The answer from my LBS was no bearings sealed or otherwise for the front hub. It's a really small mom and pop type business (except without the mom), so his selection is limited. Maybe there's better balls available that don't flat spot.

He did find a cone wrench while I was there today....$5.30. So it wasn't a wasted trip.

Tonight I'm going to try to knock together a DIY repair stand out of 2X4s and pipe fittings. If it's worth a hoot, I'll tell you how I did it in a seperate thread.
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
In a pinch i'll just use my teeth.........I got tough teeth....grrrrrrrr! As we know, spoke nipples come in various sizes, so when on the fly I'll atleast carry a tiny 3-4" Cresent (adj. open-end) wrench too tighten or loosen spokes if needed. The castle nut is a great idea and if you strip the rim of tire, tube and rimstrip you can usually just use a flatblade screwdriver.

I wouldn't use my teeth on anything but food.....they're not that tough.....

laff