Drop that Karate Monkey!

I was pretty darn satisfied with my drop bar Rockhopper, which of course meant it was time to pull it apart and use the parts elsewhere. I've had a hankering for a drop bar mountain bike lately. I thought the KM would stretch me out too far, but the Tape Measure of Truth told me it could actually be a bit shorter than the Rockhopper, with the right stem. So time to get to it:

I'm in a fit of downsizing, so I'm also planning for my KM to take over my fixed gear duties. I don't ride fixed much these days, so this should be good enough:

Rockhopper Updated. Several Times.

Regular reader(s) might recall I picked up a '98 Rockhopper off CL this summer for just $50:

After fixing the various drivetrain issues, I rode it around more or less stock for a bit, but then I decided to try it as a neighborhood cruiser:

For some reason--maybe due to "comfort bike" factor of a suspension fork on a city bike, this build didn't really gel for me. That's when things got a bit more interesting. I enjoyed the way the frame rode, but wanted a bit more off road capability than the noodly Indy fork could provide. News flash: twenty year old elastomer forks don't work that well. Digging into my parts bin, I figured a non suspension corrected, high offset fork from a Singular Gryphon might make it into a workable 69er: