Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Prized Conversion Frames?

So, the other location of the LBS I work at is literally 3 floors of junk. Several rooms stacked to the ceiling with rims, and several rooms packed to the brim with frames and bikes, along with the entire basement. It's a mess. By mess, I mean it looks like two tornados had a threesome with Hurricane Katrina for 6 hours in there.

But that means SERIOUS conversion potential. Theres an awful lot of Ross bikes (never heard of 'em), and a ton of old schwinns to. A Nishiki here and there, and a Peugeot here and there. We're talking 200+ frames/bikes

What are prized frames/good alternatives to convert to fixie? I can find nearly anything in there with enough time. I'm just looking for the frame, everything else is gonna get put on. Preferably something that'll take modern cranks, and 27"/700c shouldn't matter, since I'm gonna run a 700c disc fork up front. I'll live with the geometry difference.

Man, the above makes me feel old.....

Anyway, here is something on Ross bikes. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=39115

I think finding something that fits you well is more important than exactly what the frame is. If you have a lot of options with good geometry, then just go for whatever is in good shape, looks good, etc.

I'm just trying to avoid a Hi-Ten beast. There's a lot of those. I was hoping you guys could help narrow down my search a bit. For example, things like "avoid ______ like the plague", "_______ frames tend to be pretty solid", "black frames go faster than red frames", etc.

Look out for bikes with nice tubesets - Reynolds 531, Columbus SL and Columbus SLX are some of my favourites.

I'm just trying to avoid a Hi-Ten beast. There's a lot of those. I was hoping you guys could help narrow down my search a bit. For example, things like "avoid ______ like the plague", "_______ frames tend to be pretty solid", "black frames go faster than red frames", etc.

Well, avoid the Varsity, duh.

vintage japanese bikes are usually very high quality lugged steel, some have forged dropouts, most will take a standard BB and headset, and they made a gabillion of em, so plenty of good ol "nihonjin" bikes out there ready to be "fixed" and ridden.

good conversion potential to me and I am currently looking for a 53cm-54cm (hint hint) :D (miyata? fuji?)

3renshos make decent conversions, but you'll be restricted to 700x28 or thinner tires.

One simple rule of thumb is that anything with a sticker that says Reynolds or Columbus on the seat tube will be made of nice butted steel and probably nice in other ways too; another is that anything with dropouts that say Brev Campagnolo is also likely to be nice. Of course, lots of nice frames won't have these characteristics.

Make sure the frame you find can take a readily available bb and headset size, and above all pick the right size.

Just a heads up, if you find a particularly nice road racing frame, you might make old cycling dudes with beards cry if you install a disc fork on it on top of having converted it to fixed.

bianchis are nice... hint hint

i've poked around in the new wheel a couple times before and just ended up with dirty hands. once i found an eighties bianchi frame/fork, and dave sold it to someone else after i pulled it out of a heap.

This is nice:
http://riemun.huuto.net/auctionimages/6/f4/988cc1417e370cec6f5ec917af31d-orig.jpg

Things you want:
Forged dropouts
made for 700c wheels (otherwise, your pedals will be too close to the ground for comfort)
high bottom bracket

For that last one, you may need to take a wheelset and start measuring stuff.

pick it up. if it weighs a ton it ain't no prize. tubing (as said above) is probably the most important thing you can look for in a frame when digging through piles like that.

i would steer clear of peugeots and other french frames, as their BBs and headsets are not standard.

when i'm looking for a conversion frame, i personally like one without any (or as few as possible) braze-ons. a good conversion frame is one where all the cables clamp on, and the clamps can be removed to leave a nice, clean tube. nothing ruins a nice clean fixed gear for me like those dang shifter bosses

Other things to look for (or not look for) are braze-ons and eyelets. Do you want eyelets for fenders? Do you want TT cable leads for a rear brake?

i converted a khs winner and nishiki olympic and love em

Something that isnt boat anchor status and is lugged will be your best bet. Be careful of stuff from the "bike boom" era, like, 60s and early 70s I believe, as there were a lot of bikes made essentially out of gas pipes. I think old lugged road frames are sex. If you find a nice ish one in a 54cm ish size and its cheap, you should let me know, I want to try and re braze the back end of a road bike to make the rear end tighter in geometry and add track dropouts. :D

P.S. I like how everyone immediately starts asking for frames. myself included.

my friend found a ross frame once in a run down building and he's been riding on it for like 6 months and seems to like it a lot.

I'd watch out for nut-rippers and protruding shifter bosses. Also, you'll wanna do some more research once you find one you like. Conversions can turn out to be a complete waste of money if you pick a ****ty frame. Between funky-old-weird-sized BB's, headsets and stamped dropouts there are many pitfalls.

Then again, probably everyone here has gone through that at least once. Learning experiences...

Just go to Sheldon's conversion page (http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html) and read up. Do not fear the beard.

I'd watch out for nut-rippers and protruding shifter bosses. Also, you'll wanna do some more research once you find one you like. Conversions can turn out to be a complete waste of money if you pick a ****ty frame. Between funky-old-weird-sized BB's, headsets and stamped dropouts there are many pitfalls.

Then again, probably everyone here has gone through that at least once. Learning experiences...

Just go to Sheldon's conversion page (http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html) and read up. Do not fear the beard.

Haha, the good thing about conversions is if you get a dog of a frame it usually only cost you about 12 dollars, and any parts you've bought for it can be re-applied elsewhere. I'm currently riding a conversion that I simply love. Its a wonderful learning experience as well.

i would submit that the most important thing to look for is... size!

other than that and the usual stuff (tubing, drop outs &c) i'd see if i could find something with pre-existing parts on it that are usable: ie a non-cottered crank with a good chainline measurement, a good stem (those old-school quill stems are awesome), a usable front brake. if your bike already comes with that stuff, then that's a tonne of money saved on your conversion.

...

made for 700c wheels (otherwise, your pedals will be too close to the ground for comfort)


-1

i say he'd be fine with a 27"-to-700c conversion.

I ride a 27" to 700c conv, its fine.

If I remember correctly, some Rosses are pretty stiff for Hi Ten tubing if you like that sort of thing. I liked mine before I got rid of it because of rust. You'd be surprised just what you can do with cheap frames.

I ride a 27" to 700c conv, its fine.

yeah, me too. the difference is inperceptibly small, the only problem most people have is finding normal or long reach caliper brakes, but in my experience, you can adjust most calipers set for 27" wheel to accommodate 700c by simply moving the pads around.

yeah, me too. the difference is inperceptibly small, the only problem most people have is finding normal or long reach caliper brakes, but in my experience, you can adjust most calipers set for 27" wheel to accommodate 700c by simply moving the pads around.

Hence the disc brake workaround. Good excuse to learn how to build up wheels too.

Thanks a lot for all the recommendations. I'm not worried too much about cosmetics like shifter bosses and such. Just a not-suck frame that'll easily accept modern stuff. I have a 1" threaded headset and a stem shim ready to go, and I can have a cromo disc fork (in 1") in my hands in 4 days for 30-some dollars. As I said earlier, the bigger concerns are things like BB threading.

Next time I'll be there is next weekend though, but keep the suggestions coming. Looks like my best bet is something Japanese in my size that weighs reasonably light and isn't a boat anchor.

I ride a 27" to 700c conv, its fine.

me too, but I run 170mm crank arms (thats what was on the bike already) so I strike pedals if I just think about leaning in a corner.

I actually spent a saturday afternoon practicing pedal striking, and with plastic pedals I get a nice little "RRRippppp" slide, and can control it, so now I don't even worry about it anymore.

I wish I could learn how to lock the rear wheel when I do it so I could do pedal slides :eek: (new trick?)

Look for a Miyata 912 if you can find one.
Steepish angles. Good tubing. Will be fun
if you can catch one.

in most cases you can use everything on the bike so try to get a complete frame on cl or ebay. Worst case, you buy a new wheel set, but if you are converting you have to understand that it is not going to be perfect like a track bike

my friend found a ross frame once in a run down building and he's been riding on it for like 6 months and seems to like it a lot.

yeah man, the ross rocks!

its lugged, kinda heavy, but it proved to be a great conversion. too bad its for 27" wheels...

I found a Nishiki Riviera GT on the side of the road a few weeks ago....its too small for me, but i'm converting it for a friend. It's such a sweet frame, if it was bigger i'd be all over it

I found a Nishiki Riviera GT on the side of the road a few weeks ago....its too small for me, but i'm converting it for a friend. It's such a sweet frame, if it was bigger i'd be all over it

I have one of those. It's a nice little touring frame, don't you dare touch the braze ons. OR ELSE.

Lots of good points in here, and quite a bit of misinformation too. I don't feel like digging through and quoting, so here's a couple of things that I remember off the top of my head.

1. Not all Japanese steel is amazing. They occasionally used hi-ten gas pipe crapola also.

2. Ross frames were often great or horrible. They seemed to ignore the middle ground. I had a great Ross that was triple butted Ishiwata with a beautiful Maroon metallic paintjob. Ran like a top.

3. Not all bottom brackets are the same height, so the 27" to 700c argument is kind of silly. I've done it on a couple of bikes and had plenty of clearance with 170 cranks, but sometimes that isn't the case. If your frame and brakes have the clearance, you can gain some of that drop back with some fatty tires. Schwalbe Big Apples are quite sexual.

4. The people who tell you to look for a lightweight frame that doesn't have stamped dropouts are spot on. A lot of the time, if the frame has a tubing sticker, that's a sign that it's decent tubing. Avoid anything that says Hi-Ten, avoid stamped dropouts, and try to stay away from France and you're generally fine.

5. Post up some Goddamn photos when you're done. You rarely see someone convert a bike and throw a disc brake on the front.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but if I don't get to cleaning the kitchen soon my wife is going to slaughter me.

Good points, except if you do find a French bike made of Reynolds 531 or some other nice tubing you should snap it right up. Even if you don't want to mess with it, somebody will pay you good money for a nice Gitane Tour De France or a Peugeot PX-10 especially if it has a bottom bracket, seat post and stem/bars.

Personally, I would look for a sticker on the seat tube that says "butted" especially when combined with any of the following:
Ishiwata
Reynolds
Columbus
Tange

Bonus points if there's a sticker on the fork indicating that it's made of any of those brands of steel.

I'm familiar with my steels. Probably because my road bike is steel.

BTW, if it's ok with my boss, I may be able to get some frames I dig up onto ebay. But before I do that, I could post a consolidated list of my findings here and work out some deals. Maybe I could get a few photos of the chaos that is that shop here too, and you folks could play I-Spy for hours on end.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but if I don't get to cleaning the kitchen soon my wife is going to slaughter me.

yeah. size.

nothing ruins your ride like a poorly-sized frame. i'd submit that if you had a choice between columbux slx tubing that's way too small and a gas-pipe job that fits like a glove (figuratively speaking of course) i'd choose the gas-pipe.

or build up the columbus, sell it on ebay and buy a better frame with the proceeds.

Personally, I would look for a sticker on the seat tube that says "butted" especially when combined with any of the following:
Ishiwata
Reynolds
Columbus
Tange


Definitely add Dedacciai there, though those will be rather new frames (earliest Dedacciai tubesets date to 1993).

I'm personally hoping to score a 23" Raleigh International with beat paint or something else in Reynolds 531 with Nervex lugs and minimal braze-ons that I won't feel too bad about converting.

yeah. size.

Duh. I am a moron.

I'm personally hoping to score a 23" Raleigh International with beat paint or something else in Reynolds 531 with Nervex lugs and minimal braze-ons that I won't feel too bad about converting.

heh heh, rescued or not, you would catch so much hell for converting it to a fixed gear ;)

like gramps always used to say: shifters on the stem, a conversion to condemn

The best and easiest conversions will be roadbikes from the seventies. Hardly any brazeons, 120 mm rear spacing and room enough for wide tires and fenders (or studs like I use). Get a decent frame, life is simply to short to mess around with Hi-Ten gaspipe bikes. A Reynolds 531 with Nervex lugs or a Japanese artwork frame (a seventies highend Japanese frame is something!) would be at the top of my list. The Italian roadbikes from the seventies should stay geared IMHO, I do not like to see a Colnago Super from 75 converted to a fixie.

I have no idea what type of steel my Ross is made out of, nor do I have an exact timeframe it was built, but I do know that its decals were really lame and the parts on it were shimano, so I'm thinking mid to late 80's. In other words, it is probably a **** frame, but it gets me around and its really not too bad of a conversion. I do not have any current photos of the bike, though.

...

I say that good old bikes with good tubing might as well be fg
as long as you don't take off the cable guides and stuff.

I have no idea what type of steel my Ross is made out of, nor do I have an exact timeframe it was built, but I do know that its decals were really lame and the parts on it were shimano, so I'm thinking mid to late 80's. In other words, it is probably a **** frame, but it gets me around and its really not too bad of a conversion. I do not have any current photos of the bike, though.

So what if the parts were Shimano?

So what if the parts were Shimano?

Just sayin'

I did find it in an abandoned building...

Just sayin'

I did find it in an abandoned building...

80s frame with Shimano components could be a really
good Japanese frame that would be a decent conversion.

My prized conversions...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/yardobikes/kuwiefix.jpg
1987 Kuwahara Cascade, Ishiwata quad butted tubeset and Tange forks... my utility / winter / foul weather bike.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/bridgette5.jpg
1962 Peugeot, butted tubeset... 22 pounds of lugged riding joy.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/Carlton40a.jpg
1973 Raleigh / Carlton Gran Sports... full 531 frame and forks... 19 pounds and a few ounces.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/ramblerfixed1.jpg
1940 CCM Rambler - this is gonna be sweet when I am done.

The Peugeot is my favourite daily driver...with 11.5 inches of bb clearance a pedal strike means I'm probably already screwed.

The Carlton is presently undergoing a rebuild into a geared road bike... don't hate me.

The Kuwahara is my foul weather commuter and the Ishiwata quad butted frame is pretty much bombproof.

The old CCM is just too much fun...the fork and fixed wheelset are modern and it has another set of wheels with a coaster brake and fatter tires I can swap in and out.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/rambler2.jpg