Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - winter bike of doom

alright kids - i rocked all last winter on a track bike with 23c slicks. it was not too fun on hardpack and black ice when commuting (skidding is the ultrajam, though). so, i'm building up a winter destroyer for this year -- with 35c studded nashbar knobbies.

i need a frame (not surly) that'll handle 700x35C and that has horizontal dropouts - preferably with road geometry. i figure that i may be able to find something designed for 27" that has slightly larger than normal clearance. any suggestions and recommendations will be most appreciated. i'd like to go with a used frame and need to keep the budget relatively sane.

thanks in advance.

on one pompino, the new version has 120mm dropouts

something like this, perhaps? (http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2005/aug/JohnGonter.htm)

I'm working on a similar project, got an old Univega, thing has so much clearance I've got the Mafac Racer brakes pads set to the bottom of their adjustment. 700x37s with mudguards should be no problem.

This is exactly what I'm doing too. Luckily, I found an old Huffy with 1-piece cranks and 27" wheels. I'm going to throw some BMX cranks on it, and redish the wheel for single-speed use, until winter. Total investment: around $60. For winter, I'm building up either an IRO or Kogswell 700c wheelset for fixing it. It should be able to fit knobbies then, and I can use the wheels on another bike if I need to. /Me likes options.

prettymuch any garage-sale/thriftshop find from the 70s?

To make it even more doom-ified, bumbike the rear wheel. And run it brakeless.

put a ski on the front. saw it in a movie once, so I'm sure it works great.

it's definitely going to be brakeless.. i frankly find that proper skip technique is far better in the snow than any sort of rim brake, anyhow. and the snow tires should give me decent grip... i've heard decent enough things about them -- they seem like they'll be servicable.

i've run into some 27" setups that couldn't handle my 35s... it's usually a fork clearance issue. i'll see what i can come up with. i actually have a 61cm miyata that i could probably do up.

I'm planning on this too. I'm hoping to have it done before December. I already have the perfect bike for it, except I spent $200 having new gears and such put on it in January, and it seems like a waste to take everything off it now. In addition to it being slightly small.

Im building up an xc frame ive got for winter. 17 inch frame with skinny Nokian studs. brakeless fix and rigid.

alright kids - i rocked all last winter on a track bike with 23c slicks. it was not too fun on hardpack and black ice when commuting (skidding is the ultrajam, though). so, i'm building up a winter destroyer for this year -- with 35c studded nashbar knobbies.

thanks in advance.


Yeah Shants, I did the same last year and the 4 before that on a fixed roadbike with 23c tires. So I am goin to have to say that you are a ***** for building this stupid bike and not riding the Makino in the winter. Or maybe I am for moving to California, so I would not have to deal with that **** anymore.

My iro jamie roy got me thru the winter without any problems. Messenger tested and passed with flying colors. :)

i went to the lbs and found an old 1" mtb fork (for free) to swap with my tight fork for when it starts getting bad out there. i had some cheap mtb wheels laying around so i wanted to get some use out of them. i think this setup is going to work well cuz i can run fat knobby 26"ers when its snowy and then just switch up to the 700x35 nashbar studded tires i bought when its icey. best of both worlds and it cost me nothing. and i can deal with my bike looking like frankenstein for a few months...

I second the idea of finding some old crappy turdbike. I wouldn't want to get a new bike and then tear around slinging snow and slush on it.

put a ski on the front. saw it in a movie once, so I'm sure it works great.

i want my two dollars

hehe

"put a ski on the front. saw it in a movie once, so I'm sure it works great."

Theres a guy with one of those contraptions down in valley green; he's out every snow. it is actually pretty cool.

I've been told that norrower tires are more effective in the snow than wider tires for automobiles. Now does this remain true to bicycles?

Through the kind of winter we have in Chicago, I run thin tires year round. Last winter, 23c's. They slice through the snow pretty good and I'm not about to ride in a food of now if it's out there. I'm much better suited riding a MTB if I'm going to be doing any of that.

Chicago's salted pretty heavily so I'm not concerned so much about studded tires and black ice. The light days are dealt with relatively normally.

I'd go with a road conversion. I'm tentatively building up a Merckx road frame for this very purpose.

it gets pretty abysmal around where i live.

ahhh, i miss ol' columbus. gotta love the weeks it takes before one of the 20 snow plows the city owns gets to any of the side streets.

Here's my winter bike:

http://static.flickr.com/26/35249300_852eb8efc1.jpg

I've added some fenders, and I think I'm going to swap the mtb bars out for some road drops. The frame had 27" wheels and had center pull brakes, so there was tons of room for knobbies. I got the fork off eBay cheap and the Avid mechanical disc just in case.

I'm not about to ride in a food of now if it's out there.

Sorry, I don't live around any snow, but that's one of the best typos I've seen in awhile.

Here's my winter bike:


I've added some fenders, and I think I'm going to swap the mtb bars out for some road drops. The frame had 27" wheels and had center pull brakes, so there was tons of room for knobbies. I got the fork off eBay cheap and the Avid mechanical disc just in case.

Yours is like mine, but prettier.
http://www.wwmovers-africa.com/haro/fuji1.jpg

PS. how is your brake 'just in case' when you are running platforms :p

after i saw this
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2005/july/k_ekis.htm
i realized what i want my winter bike to look like, except with bad-ass knobbies

PS. how is your brake 'just in case' when you are running platforms :p

Hahaha. I'll be running it with clipless.

wouldn't a rear brake make more sense in emergency winter braking?

front-brake + slippery conditions = front-wheel lockup = oww

:)

Assuming you know how to use a brake properly, it would increase stopping power even in the winter. You've got your legs to stop the back wheel anyways.