Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - I want a fixed gear bike. How Much will it cost me.

I have nothing, no frame, no nothing. I am thinking of building a fixed gear bike. How much can i expect to spend on a regular nothing to fancy fixed gear bike. I probably have pedals, and a seat. And the garage sales by me or non-existent.

Can spend anything you want.

I did mine relatively cheap - cost about $700, largely because I splashed out on bearings (hubs - Suzue Pro Max, headset - decent FSA unti & BB - Phil Wood). Could have easily knocked $250 off with lower spec kit.

Got an old frame & fork off ebay for $120, there are plenty of deals on wheels and there are a lot of cheap alternatives in components - most of the best seem to be the lower end Shimano ones.

What kind of frames are good?

........or, go to ebay under 'fixed gear' to just take a look to see what's out there. I see alot of conversions at reasonable prices. If you have absolutely nothing to begin with, this may be the route to take for your first fixie.

Pretty much the only diff between fixed and regular bikes is in general the rear wheel (hub) Cranks? OR do you just take the other rings off? and you need a frame with vert drops or a chain tensioner. How much is a tensioner.

If you want an absolute bargain, chuck's looks good, but check out kogswell.com. The Real Steel Steal Deal really is a real steal: hubs, frameset, cog and lockring for $419 including shipping. Plus they throw in a t-shirt. I'm actually super happy w/my road conversion, but those are awfully pretty bikes, despite the goofy dropout spacing. (OK, I admit, I'm w/Sheldon on the whole fork ends drop-outs issue, but this is a bargain and then some.)

Billy Magic

searching "track" in cycling on ebay works pretty well too.

you can get a complete track bike like the bianchi pista, or the KHS flite, or one of the fujis for between $500 and $700. the fujis might even be cheaper.

i rode my friend's fuji (silver and black) yesterday and it seemed like a pretty good ride. it was fun. she put some DIY bullhorns on it and she seemed to be really stoked on it. i've never ridden a bianchi or a KHS (aside from the aluminum aero track), so i can't really give an opinion on those...a lot of people seem to prefer the bianchis over everything else though.

My brother recently got an old Windsor road bike for cheap (because the rear derailer was shot)... replaced the rear wheel, took off the shifting junk and outer front chainring. Slapped a new chain on, bingo, cheap fixie.

My advice is to get a real fixed rear hub. Dropouts need to have a good 1 to 1.5" of space for adjustment in the horizontal direction. Tensioners are for single-speed (where there's never pull on the bottom side of the chain).

get a cheap road bike with horizontal drop outs. Shouldn't pay more than fifty bucks. Strip it and use as much of the existing stuff as possible. If it is in decent shape all you'll have to do is slap on a new back wheel.

Then buy a rear fixed wheel, can get them all over the net for a decent price.

I bought a Schwinn bike and used rear wheel for under $100. I am building up a better bike not that was good for my first fixie.

1970's 10 speeds make great fixies and cost very little.

I am going to go Garage Sale hunting this weekend or next and hopefully i will find something decent.

You can buy a complete Bianchi Pista for about $500.

How much does a stock pista weigh?

Originally posted by djbowen1
How much does a stock pista weigh?

I'm wondering the same...anyone?

I have a Pista. I have never had the slightest curiosity how much it weighs. But, FWIW, track bikes like the Pista aren't as light as you would expect. Thay are built to handle the high lateral stress experienced riding on track banked curves and to handle sprinting stress. So the frames tend to be a little stouter than bikes marketed for general road use.

So your saying pretty heavy.

What do you consider heavy? It is a steel frame and fork, so going to weigh a bit more.. less then alot of road bikes since does not have alot of the parts, but is not going to exteremly light due to being made of steel and designed to handle streseseds of track riding..

track bikes aren't tanks or anything...the frame is a *little* heavier, but on the whole, the bike is lighter. think about it: no derailuers, no brakes, no levers, one less chainring, one cog. pista might weigh between 17 and 20lbs. one of my bikes is down to around 17, steel frame and all.

they're usually a lot lighter than road bikes in the same price range...and a lot more graceful feeling too.

yea, even though track frames are typically steel, it's hard to build them up heavier than 20lbs. my track bike weighs about 18 lbs, even though i wasn't picky about component weight when building it up. my fixed gear road bike is heavier because the frame was a mammoth.

all in all, track bikes are much lighter on average than road bikes. the fuji track bike weighs 17.5 lbs, and i assume the bianchi weighs about the same. a $1k road bike typically weighs about 20-22 lbs, and a 17lb road bike will run you $2k or so. if what you want is less weight for less money, track bikes can't be beat :)

A discussion on weight? Hrmmm...

As far as the weight of the Bianchi Pista, I have a bigger 59cm one, and it weighs 19 lbs. I can pick it up and carry it up stairs or whatever with no problem, so I consider it to be light (or at least light enough).

-Jason