Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Made the switch 'Bike Porn'

Pretty much finalized the conversion from geared to SS on my daily commuter. I was riding around in single geared mode a midst all the gears anyways, so figured id shave off all the weight. was running 44x13 mainly when i was geared and now its at 52x16. Left the braze-ons. not sure if i am going to hack it up.. i have an old vintage italian that im building up right now that will be a fixie... but i for some reason... like this one since it was my first true road bike... even htough i havent owned it for more than 4 months... all my other bikes have been bmx or mountain bikes.

http://home.pacbell.net/fwmn65/El_Toro2.jpg

this is how i bought it, sans the vittorias, threw those on asap
http://home.pacbell.net/fwmn65/El_Toro3.jpg

I like "before" more than "after"
sorry

I like "before" more than "after"
sorry
little bit..

full bars and white seat were lqqkin gewd

but welcome to the club!

Are you running SS with only a front brake?

That's a pretty bike... I'm glad you didn't chop it up. Why'd you ditch the canti's though? They are underappreciated in my book.

Also, 52-16? You are a BEAST.

Are you running SS with only a front brake?
i noticed that as well :O


Also, 52-16? You are a BEAST.
srsly.

anyway, i'd say throw your old drops back on or get some new ones. other than that it's a really pretty bike.

now repeat after me: when i say, "i will live forever," now you say, "i will live forever."

Totally unrelated to the subject-at-hand, but doesn't your sig imply that the person being spoken to will repeat, "when i say, 'i will live forever,' now you say, 'i will live forever'" instead of just repeating "i will live forever"? I mean, you preface it with "now repeat after me:", indicating everything said after that point should be repeated.

:)

I really like that frame. The gearing seems crazy tall, but if it works for you...

now whyd you go and do that.. the original bike is super nice

A+ on doing something (SS) that is realy underappreciated these days. I mean SS gets no cred whatsoever. I'm in fact holding onto a bike right now that I'm thinking of SSing and using the derailer on another bike.
It looks funner to ride (though less functional and traditional) in the AFTER than the BEFORE.
I'd be kinda scared if I was sprinting on those bullhorns and all of a sudden I was in a traffic situation wher eI needed to brake. If I were you, I'd suffer the scorned looks for having brakes as bar ends on the bullhorns and do it anyway. I mean how often do you find yourself riding with your hands by the sem anyway?

f-ing conversions...when will you stop ruining perfectly nice bikes in the name of ghetto SS/fixed. Leave the braze-ons for the day when you come back to your sanity and restore that bike to its original beauty.

To be honest, the frame was in good condition, the components were pretty much shot. The rear cassette had chipped teeth as did the original bio pace rings i had on it. The brakes were the suck, adjusting those things was a major pain the ass.. so it was either spend big bongo bucks on overhauling the whole bike with parts i liked, or just getting it fun and riding it everyday care free which is really why i did it. Worrying about shifting issues and all that junk was no fun.

As far as the drops, i loved the originals, i still have them as they were, just pulled off the entire system so i could switch back if i wanted. the plans i have are to get a white preforated flite and some pista drops.. all in due time..

and yes only a front brake on a SS. Im usually in and through traffic so i rarely get into a sprint unless for some unfathomable miracle i catch all greens flying down sunset. And the horns are small enough that if im on the horn ends, i can catch the brake with my hand relatively quickly without doing some crazy chuck norris manuevers.

thanks for the crits and praise :)

f-ing conversions...when will you stop ruining perfectly nice bikes in the name of ghetto SS/fixed. Leave the braze-ons for the day when you come back to your sanity and restore that bike to its original beauty.

im pretty sure i wont hack the braze-ons off this one and will leave the fix for the ganna which is already nice and bare. i have all the og parts sittin in a box... if i ever do decide to put crappy low end jap parts back on it.

f-ing conversions...when will you stop ruining perfectly nice bikes in the name of ghetto SS/fixed. Leave the braze-ons for the day when you come back to your sanity and restore that bike to its original beauty.
in response to the ss/internally geared (not sure which choice yet) conversion I plan on doing:
I'm holding onto a Schwinn Le Tour. It sucks. The components are crap. I just want a dependable backup bike to back up my geared bike s(which back ups my fixed commuter) hehehe.
To me it is much less frustrating and time consuming and easier to service something without a derailer. Yes it's only 15 more minutes fudging with two simple screws, but I also value the aesthetics. I also value doing something less common and if I go the internally geared route, it is def. a new rewarding experience. Nobody said they were destroying frames or derailer hangers.

for example: Right now my road bike isn't ridable. It has play in the hub (which I need to work on today actually) and the derailleur is being a pain. If I adjust one screw, it's banging into the spoke guard. If I adjust the other, it won't catch the smallest cog. I think I can save all this trouble but fo rthat I need to retension the cable, but really I need a new cable in general. Ugh. All that trouble that a SS would save; trouble that a beginning-mechanic like me could avoid for now.

what a ****in cool bike. i love old steel italian frames and older cross frames in general. let me know if you're ever interested in parting with that frame :)

and yes only a front brake on a SS. Im usually in and through traffic so i rarely get into a sprint unless for some unfathomable miracle i catch all greens flying down sunset. And the horns are small enough that if im on the horn ends, i can catch the brake with my hand relatively quickly without doing some crazy chuck norris manuevers.
... but why did you lose the canti's on the front? Just got sick of the cable hanger or what?

Damn, how tall are you, like 6'8"?

there's a sweet old miele SS conversion parked on the rack i park on every day. bright orange with a chrome fork. so nice looking.

... but why did you lose the canti's on the front? Just got sick of the cable hanger or what?

One of the arms was slightly tweaked so adjusting the toe was just a horrible experience. So it was kind of like i just half assed it every time because i didn't want to deal with it. I had a set of Campy Chorus monoplaners so i just threw it on. I like it better personally. The canti's had great stopping power though when they were tuned correctly.. But the calipers just take much less time and hassle to get going smooth.

And yea i'm 6'5. the frame is 61cm

im so dissappointed everytime someone writes "bike porn" and then theres no naked people in it WTF this isnt porn!

Totally unrelated to the subject-at-hand, but doesn't your sig imply that the person being spoken to will repeat, "when i say, 'i will live forever,' now you say, 'i will live forever'" instead of just repeating "i will live forever"? I mean, you preface it with "now repeat after me:", indicating everything said after that point should be repeated.

:)

it's from a movie...me and you and everyone we know...it makes more sense if you've seen it. good movie.

the canti's are the ****.. is there any clearance for knobbies on that thing?

nope.. its a road touring bike. unless they are really small knobbies.. but i wouldn't want to put knobbies on it anyways, i left the knobs for this guy:

http://home.pacbell.net/fwmn65/IMG_0159.jpg