Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Sold My Car. Picked up an Aerospoke.

So a couple weeks ago I sold my car becaue I moved to a place closer to my school and job. Its been great riding everywhere, and the only problem is the groceery store, I can only carry so much. I love it though. Anyone else recently ditch the car?

Also, today I stopped by the local bicycle recycler and bought an aerospoke and 650c fork. I was a bit weary about going 650c in the front...but it was such a good deal I thought i'd give it a try. The wheel is tubular and came with a couple extra tires. To my surprise the tire on it holds air. It runs straight and smooth and only cost me $45. ANd got a neat aluminium 650c fork for $12. I keep wondering if there is some catastrohpic problem with the wheel, but there are no cracks that I can see; just normal abraisons from use.

I just finished installing it all, I had to switch back to a threaded headset and I had never done my own work on a headset before so I hope its safe. a question, how many psi should I inflate a tubular to? I can't find any info on the wheel, so i just filled it until it seemed about the same as my normal clinchers.

ohh wow, i want to buy a new fork but i'm deadly afraid of installing my own fork. i am more afraid of having my dumb ass lbs install the fork. tell me how it goes.

I took it for a quick spin and it didn't fall apart on me, but it wasn't as smooth as usual either. I thinks it is because I don't have any grease. Ill prolly buy some or take it by a shop to get it checked out. I am just super excited about the wheel, its so smooth.

I havent totally ditched my car, but am trying to rely on it less as far as riding to school and work. As far as the tubulars i would think 100-120 should be fine.

Installing a fork isnt too bad, just slather the thing in greese, slide it in and with a threaded get the stem on first then tighten up the headset cups and cap. With threadless tighten up the topcap a decent ways, then secure the stem and back off the top cap a lil.

congrats, you bought the heaviest front wheel ever. ride spokes. much lighter....

congrats, you bought the heaviest front wheel ever. ride spokes. much lighter....
I have heard about the new aerospoke ones being heavy (i think they are the aluminium ones), this is old carbon I beleive. So its light to me.

congrats, you bought the heaviest front wheel ever. ride spokes. much lighter....

I dunno, Mike. With him being that aero, he need's to have his weight shifted to the front for stability.

Small front wheel + weight weenie= squirelly ride.

Wait you put a 650 wheel and fork on a frame intended for 700? so your seattube is like 80+ degrees now? Did you tell the people at your "local bicycle recyler" what you intended to do with the fork and wheel?

Wait you put a 650 wheel and fork on a frame intended for 700? so your seattube is like 80+ degrees now? Did you tell the people at your "local bicycle recyler" what you intended to do with the fork and wheel?

Don't be such a wet blanket - he's not the first person to put a 650 wheel on a 700 frame. At least he swapped out the fork, too.

Swapping out the fork just makes it worse.

And after complaining about getting groceries it seems like he's moving in the wrong direction.

Also the type of person who installs a headset without any grease is generally not the type of person who considers the implications of shifting their weight over the front wheel while dramatically increasing HT angle and probably lowering the bars substantially.

I wondered if anyone had bothered to explain it to him.

Also the type of person who installs a headset without any grease is generally not the type of person who considers the implications of shifting their weight over the front wheel while dramatically increasing HT angle and probably lowering the bars substantially.

I wondered if anyone had bothered to explain it to him.

i am sure that you read the entire park tools big blue book of dutret knowledge, but the rest of us sometimes screw around and make mistakes before we realize that we have to do next time. it's called trial and error, and it works. sometimes, the "trial" that you don't attempt because you think you're too smart works so damn well that we end up with something awesome. sometimes, the trial fails so miserably that we want to die. just let us have our fun and build ridiculous bikes. if we don't know that we have to use grease, tell us to get some grease on there right quick or else it will grind up, don't be a jerk about it.

You missed my point. Everyone has done stupid things because they didn't know better(You should have seen the first hub I ever repacked.) However, a person lacking the knowledge that bearings need grease probably doesn't understand what dropping the front of a bike over 5cms does.

In my experience there are two basic types of people at bike recycling places; Those who want to make cheap utilitarian bikes available to anyonewho wants one and those who want to make 4 frame tall bikes. The former would have probably explained the implications of what he was doing... the later would not have. As I said I wondered if he realized what his modification would mean to him when trying to ride home with a bag full of groceries jabbing him.

As far as groceries go get racks and baskets or those grocery panniers.

I just wanted to try out a 650c front setup. Ill ride for a while and decide whether or not I like it. I knew that I was supposed to have grease, I just don't have any. I can't leave my bike in pieces cause Im riding it to work this morning, so I just used what I could to make it work. I realize this may be a stupid move but I will just take it slow today.

Thanks for defending me fix. I just thought it would be cool to try something a bit different.

Here is a pic. I had to take off the tape to put the bars through the different stem blah blah blah.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/g0balistik/DSCF0986.jpg

Dude **** the guys who give ****. That looks great. Really great. Sorry if you already said it, but what frame make is that?

I really like your bike.

650s on a 700 frame are fine, even looks good in many instances, and the best determination of whether or not the geometry is going to work for you is to put the wheel on and then get on the bike. One of my favourites from the earlier FGG is a friend of mine that put 650s on because she loved the frame that was a bit too large for her, she rides brakeless, so on go some 650s and voila, fit her to a "t".

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/moeuf3.jpg

And yo congrats on losing the car, you'll have $$ to rent one when you need one, $$ to taxi when you only need to move you & a date, & you'll still come out ahead with $$ in your pocket, better bikes and no payments, insurance, general having a car hassles

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/g0balistik/DSCF0986.jpg
That's hot!
The fork could do with a repaint, though, and the saddle angle looks very suspicious.

It is a KHS flite 100 frame, size 60cm. I rode to work and all worked well, it did feel a bit different. It was sure fun though.

Yeah I bought the fork with the wheel yesterday and I will b repainting it soon.

The seat angle is funny, I have been messing with it lately. It may also look funny because that seat is actually cracked in half at the middle. It was a great dumpster find though, arione fizik or whatever.

It is a KHS flite 100 frame, size 60cm. I rode to work and all worked well, it did feel a bit different. It was sure fun though.

Yeah I bought the fork with the wheel yesterday and I will b repainting it soon.

The seat angle is funny, I have been messing with it lately. It may also look funny because that seat is actually cracked in half at the middle. It was a great dumpster find though, arione fizik or whatever.

You have some good finds.. I wish I was so lucky. I need a front wheel currently still. Your ride looks SUHWEET though!

The seat angle is funny, I have been messing with it lately. It may also look funny because that seat is actually cracked in half at the middle. It was a great dumpster find though, arione fizik or whatever.

it looks supsicious because the nose is so far down, you can't tell it's broken from the picture. I'd set it back to level and start over if it looks like that. your wrists are going to hurt real bad if you ride more than, say, 5 miles. good luck, though. and if that honestly works for you, do it up.

-jason

One of my favourites from the earlier FGG is a friend of mine that put 650s on because she loved the frame that was a bit too large for her, she rides brakeless, so on go some 650s and voila, fit her to a "t".

Two 650's are very different from one. They will change the ride alot less then just putting one on will(excepting pedal strikes of course). Except for the near meaningless metric of standover height taking 5cms off the wheels shouldn't effect fit at all.

GObalistik really needs a deep drop stem on that bike I can see alot of space between his drops and his tire.

Two 650's are very different from one. They will change the ride alot less then just putting one on will(excepting pedal strikes of course). Except for the near meaningless metric of standover height taking 5cms off the wheels shouldn't effect fit at all.

GObalistik really needs a deep drop stem on that bike I can see alot of space between his drops and his tire.

OH NOES!!!!

:rolleyes:

Fire ze missiles

good job loosing the car now as far as groceries get an old 3-speed and put baskets on it thats how I do it and I haul alot I also have a big bag that I can carry a weeks worth of groceries in if I have to

good job loosing the car now as far as groceries get an old 3-speed and put baskets on it thats how I do it and I haul alot I also have a big bag that I can carry a weeks worth of groceries in if I have to

Baskets are the best in the world.

Love them.

i just switched to a 650 fork & front wheel and 700 rear wheel too. havn't road it yet though, i hpoe it ok :/

thats a 650? it looks the same as the rear^^^

Two 650's are very different from one. They will change the ride alot less then just putting one on will(excepting pedal strikes of course). Except for the near meaningless metric of standover height taking 5cms off the wheels shouldn't effect fit at all.



Sorry I used the word fit, didn't mean to confuse you into stating the obvious. Standover height is important to some people and what she wanted to change, though I'm sure as you said it's nearly meaningless to ?

i just switched to a 650 fork & front wheel and 700 rear wheel too. havn't road it yet though, i hpoe it ok :/


Well its been good to me so far. Go for it!

Sorry I used the word fit, didn't mean to confuse you into stating the obvious. Standover height is important to some people and what she wanted to change, though I'm sure as you said it's nearly meaningless to ?

I was commenting on how switching to 2 650 effects the trail some and move your COM directly down but otherwise leaves the bike the same. Switching to one 650 and a 650 fork leaves you with hardly any trail, a really steep headtube and shifts COM way forward and slightly down.

One of them will result in slightly more responsive steering but depending on what you started with still within common geometry ranges(except with an abnormally low BB for any bike). The other will result in a bike far outside the norms of bike design and will probably ride like ****(and have a fairly low BB to boot). There is a reason you don't see bikes with 80 degree ST/HT and almost no trail.

The comment about standover just relates to my annoywance regarding people thinking standover is the most important part of fit.

The steering does feel different. I don't know how to describe it, but I guess its a bit squirrely. It feels different around corners. I understand what trail is, but how does it affect traction and turning? Is it unsafe to have little trail?