Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Gonzo Bob
10-30-03, 04:38 PM
Uh... that doesn't quite sound right. What I mean, of course, is that I've converted one of my bikes to fixed gear.
I'm also new to this forum so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm in my 40's, been into the triathlon thing since 1985, have not owned a single-speed bike since I was about 12 years old and had never even ridden a fixed gear until last Sunday when I finally got mine together.
The Conversion: It's a mid-1980's steel road bike frameset (Schwinn Traveler) I picked up on e-bay for $25 plus shipping. I had been running with an 8-speed drive-train using many parts from a '84 Fuji that I crashed in a road race a long time ago.
The rear hub is a Campy Athena freewheel hub that came spaced at 130mm. For the conversion, I replaced the 14mm axle spacer with a 10mm spacer I had laying around and put the 2mm spacer on the other side of the axle. This brought the OLD down to 126mm (the actual spacing of the frame) and brought the cog outboard for better chain line. I then re-dished the wheel and threaded on a 16t cog and an old BB lockring with some loctite.
Up front I took off the big ring (53t) and spaced the small ring (42t) inboard by 3mm using a set of spacers I got from Harris Cyclery.
And that's about it! Well, obviously I took off the derailers and shifters. I left the rear brake on and I'm thinking I'll keep it on because this bike is also my touring bike and I'll swap it back to multispeed when I go touring.
Now for a question. I notice from the photos on this site that quite a few folks set up their road fixies with pursuit bars. What's the reasoning behind this?
I'm also new to this forum so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm in my 40's, been into the triathlon thing since 1985, have not owned a single-speed bike since I was about 12 years old and had never even ridden a fixed gear until last Sunday when I finally got mine together.
The Conversion: It's a mid-1980's steel road bike frameset (Schwinn Traveler) I picked up on e-bay for $25 plus shipping. I had been running with an 8-speed drive-train using many parts from a '84 Fuji that I crashed in a road race a long time ago.
The rear hub is a Campy Athena freewheel hub that came spaced at 130mm. For the conversion, I replaced the 14mm axle spacer with a 10mm spacer I had laying around and put the 2mm spacer on the other side of the axle. This brought the OLD down to 126mm (the actual spacing of the frame) and brought the cog outboard for better chain line. I then re-dished the wheel and threaded on a 16t cog and an old BB lockring with some loctite.
Up front I took off the big ring (53t) and spaced the small ring (42t) inboard by 3mm using a set of spacers I got from Harris Cyclery.
And that's about it! Well, obviously I took off the derailers and shifters. I left the rear brake on and I'm thinking I'll keep it on because this bike is also my touring bike and I'll swap it back to multispeed when I go touring.
Now for a question. I notice from the photos on this site that quite a few folks set up their road fixies with pursuit bars. What's the reasoning behind this?