Originally Posted by
Ultraspontane
...The cromoly frame and fork are waaaay overbuilt. The front fork spacing is 1mm wider than it needs to be, so I attempted to close the gap 0.5 on each side as per Shledon method by bending fork blades. They wouldn't budge no matter what. I tried levering it between wrought iron posts for extra leverage, standing on it, jumping, ect. It didn't budge even a fraction of a mm. I've done this before with relative ease on a few road bikes, but this one...impossible without a bench vise and breaker bar to slip over the blades for extra leverage. I love the frame with the looptail rear end and double wishbone stays...
of course it is overbuilt...for god's sake - it is a mountain bike.
i had a stout & loved it too...for mountain biking. it was great out on the trails, rigid singlespeed is a hoot & occasionally i threw on a tomicog & rode it fixed. but that thing was terrible on the road. even using it for stair, platform or curb jumping did not make up for the fact that it is so damn heavy & long & has awful road gearing. putting smaller cogs on did not help much & chainstay clearance limited how big a chainring it would take.
your statement about hipster tax on the urbis is bs. your bike was cheap because it is from almost 3 years ago & they did not sell well back in '09. if you want an "urban assault" bike jenson has an eastern that's pretty decent for only $400.
glad you like your bike, good luck & have fun but unless you do an awful lot of real mtbing...well nuff said.
btw...if you would like some landing gear (a longtime se bikes trademark) decals for your fork, i have some i'd like to sell.
anyway, here's my old stout the morning my buddy bought it off me:
edit: i just noticed in your later pics you took off the rear brake? on a single speed? or did you covert it to fixed?