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Am swapping some forks around for winter, need to remove the crown race from my forks and swap to another.
Is this pretty straightforward, will I just be able to pull it off by hand or is there a technique I dont know about? I dont fancy the idea of trying to hammer and chisel it off.
Ta
It'll need to be hammered off. CK crown race is pretty wide iirc so the lip of it should clear your fork crown...given this, I would just turn the fork over and use hammer and wide-ish centre punch to knock it off rotating back and forward 180deg after each strike (it helps if you get someone to hold/rotate the fork while you do the hammering). This method will minimise potential damage to fork...worse case (and you really shouldn't manage to mangle it) is that the CK race is damaged but that's only a tenner to replace.
IME, CK crown races are one of the tightest to get off. Just using a hammer and flat screwdriver is likely to damage the crown race a bit (if that bothers you).
Last one I took off I used stanley knife blades, tapped between the race and fork until you get a big enough gap to get a chisel in and work round the race and gently prise off.
I've now split the race so switching between forks is loads easier.
You could try one of these.
http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/38/e251/ice-toolz-crown-race-remover.html
I found the shoulders of the fork interfered with the tool though when I tried to use one.
big flat screw driver and a nylon ended hammer
Cheers, I'm going to buy a spare one, leave it as is.
a complete and utter nightmare, no amount of swearing, shouting and hammering could seperate mine from the fork! I gave up and took it to a bike shop! I had a complete nightmare with my bike last night and my hands hurt this morning!