In our last shipment we got some "giraffe extension posts" for extending
the height of the Nimbus performer giraffe.
http://tinyurl.com/zo7su
On the weekend I sat down with a performer giraffe, a bunch of tools
and parts and figured out how to convert it from a 7ft giraffe (6ft 10)
into an 8ft giraffe (8ft 2).
I was wondering how high people have extended their performer? Has
anyone taken them up to 9ft?
My experiences when extending it to 8ft mode are recorded below, they
may be of use if you want to try this yourself.
I already had a 16" extension post so I just needed some 8ft chains. I
decided that it was best to extend the 7ft chains rather than assemble
a separate set of 8ft chains. My logic was that if I used connector
links I could still shorten them back down to 7ft length fairly easily,
without the need for a chain tool. Also I didn't want to have to cart
around 3 sets of chains when travelling. In retrospect I could
probably have used one of the 5ft length of chains as my source of
extra links, as in 5ft mode I could probably get by with using only 1
chain.
It turned out that it was not too hard to buy the extra chain I needed
to extend each 7ft chain. Two standard bmx chains (1/2" x 1/8"😉 from my
local bike shop did the trick. I used about 2/3rds of each chain. The
bike shop could have added the extra chain in for me but I figured I
might be experimenting a bit more so I bought a park chain tool: Model
CT-5, mini chain brute: http://tinyurl.com/pqlu5
The first thing I discovered was that not all chain tools fit all
chains. BMX and single speed chains are fatter than normal MTB or road
bike chains. The chain didn't really fit in the tool I purchased ,
although with a bit of creativity I got it to work. I would have been
better off buying something designed to work with the fatter 1/8"
chain, eg a CT-2:
http://tinyurl.com/kgjkw
I don't think many bike shops would stock this product though.
It took a couple of goes before I put together two chains of the right
length. It turned out that after I removed 1 outer link to break the
7ft chain, I needed to add in a length of 63 links (plus an additional
two connector links). Mounting the longer chains was a bit fiddlier as
it was hard to keep them from twisting. Putting the chains on would
probably be a lot easier if you had two people to do the job. I got it
sorted in the end after dropping the uni on my head a few times.
It rides nicely and feels good and solid. It idles smoothly although
dismouting puts a lot of force on your feet! I will try and get some
photos of it this weekend.
--
peter.bier
-Peter Bier
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