The rustbucket strikes again!

[Zen]

I think that's a Brooks...

[malkin]

The droopy handlebars look so sad and frowny.

[Zen]

I think they wilted

[mayanorange]

Well, I tried torching and it's still not budging. hmmph. I'll give it a few more tries, but it might be time to give up soon.

[tzvia]

Sometimes, things move with a little 'finesse' that won't budge with all the wacking in the world.

Secure the bike someway so it doesn't move around. Then use a good fitting wrench with a long (may have to be several or more feet...) sturdy metal pipe over the handle. Slowly apply pressure to the far end of the pipe (this is called using a 'breaker-bar'). The extra leverage should break the rust providing it's not too far gone to come apart.

I just replaced the crappy Race-Face cranks on my MTB with XT. The Race-Face crank/spindle just would not go no matter how I wacked it with a mallet. So I used my old (back from square taper days) crank puller by putting a sturdy washer inside the crankarm, against the spindle (to cover up the hole). Then I screwed in the old puller, and with a few simple twists of the handle, it pushed against the washer which pushed against the spindle and it all came out. It took a fraction of all the energy of all those mallet wacks...

Good luck!

[Zen]

thought I'd re-post this so all those comments wouldn't seem like non-sequiteurs