Northern California - Help me with fate of FranekBike

Perhaps inspired by Taxi777s new bike, I dragged my oldie out of the garage and cleaned it up.

Here's the spec:

Mid-70s Gitane Tour de France
Had it painted and had braze on shifter and water bottle bosses added
Fork had problems, so I added a new one, but Columbus instead of Reynolds steel, and a Shimano 600 headset
New brakes (Old Weinmans were awful)
New seatpost and seat
New bars and stem
Campy high flange hub new wheels (36 spokes, dude!)
I ordered new brake levers. What's on there now is an old Diacomp tandem lever that pulls both brakes. I never liked it.


It really is a FrankenBike. It has no historic value. But It's kinda cool and I had a ton of miles on it in the olden days. Plus, I think I can't sell it for much, so I should have some fun, right?

But what to do? Whatever it is, it has to be cheap.
Commuter? But the downtube friction shifters are so....

Tour bike? But then I'd want a lot of expensive changes....
Single speed? I think all I need is a single speed BMX style freewheel.
Fixie? But then don't I need a new rear wheel, or at least hub?


What should I do that's cheap and fun?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2626133303_9103e7de11_b.jpg


Look, I bought carbon shifter levers because I thought I'd have a cool bike
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3098/2626950820_c192653e78.jpg

Shimano Crane. FIVE speeds baby!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/2626132517_9e0a085b90.jpg

Sugino cranks
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/2626130717_594d4cb0bd.jpg

I don't even remember buying these, but I do remember the Weinmans were really bad...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2626949272_f33eb803e9.jpg

I even had my name added when i got it repainted
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2626948940_d4f2fcdbb3.jpg

As far as making it a single speed, you'd have to replace the multispeed freewheel with a singlespeed freewheel, but you'd also have to get the wheel redished to fix the chainline. Probably not a big deal, but something to consider.

Alternatively, you could pick up a cheap wheel/wheelset pre-built with a flip-flop hub (threads for a single freewheel on one side, and threads for a fixed cog and lockring on the other). I think I paid $179-199 for the set on my fixed-gear bike, but I'm sure you could find something for less.

Looks like it lacks rackmounts on the rear, so making it a tourer may not be in its future. The fork has low-rider mounts, though, interestingly enough. No fender mounts either.

It's a nice-looking frame. Lugged steel, looks like it might be 531?

Good eye on the steel. You are right!
I don't get the rear wheel re dish thing. Can't I use spacers or something? I really don't want to spend much. And I'm hoping to keep the wheels, partly because, well, I like 'em and they're the only campy thing I ever had, and partly because i'm cheap...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2626950052_ae9e0401d8.jpg

You'd be able to use spacers on a freehub-based wheel, but on a wheel that uses a spin-on freewheel hub, the interface is the same on both the multispeed and the singlespeed.

When the wheel was built with multiple speeds in mind, the hub is actually off-center from the rim, to allow room for the multispeed freewheel. If you were to just spin on a singlespeed freewheel, the freewheel would be inboard more than you'd want it, causing the chain to not be straight. This will be noisy, wear stuff out faster, and the chain could even be more prone to falling off (Normally, the derailleurs would be preventing this from being an issue on the outer and inner cogs).

Redishing simply involves adjusting the spokes so that the hub is more centered on the rim, giving you a straight(er) chainline, and respacing the axle so that the wheel is still centered on the frame. Take the wheel into a bike shop and ask about it. I can't imagine it'd cost much more than a true, assuming half the spokes don't snap off in the process. :) (Even in such a case, you could rebuild the wheel with the same hub and rim, just with new spokes and nipples, though that'd cost a bit more.)

Re-dishing is not that difficult. I did the same thing on a bike I sold. I redished a 5spd rear wheel, stuck a freewheel on it and instant single speed. You'll want to use a chain ring mounted to the inside of the crankset to minimize the how much dishing needs to be done. You'll need single stack bolts. You could use the redished wheel for fixed gear by roto-fixing a cog on and use a bottom bracket lockring but some say that's not a safe method. Others say it's fine. I have no personal experience with it so I couldn't say.

Re dish, huh? OK! I'm pretty sure that those 1978 zinc spokes can handle anything thrown at 'em.
I can use the 42 tooth ring. Now I need to ride it and guess what size sprocket I want to marry.

huytheskigod: Did you change the spacing on your hub to move it towards the drive side? If that's the case, I can see why you'd need to re-dish. Also, were you able to use the same spokes? Spoke length was ok?

cccorlew: Here's a thought. Go fixed gear or single speed but buy an fg/ss hub and build the wheel yourself. You'd want some tools; a stand, dishing tool and spoke wrench. A tensiometer is nice but not essential. Really, it's not that hard. I built my first wheel with some time, patience and Jobst Brandt's book. It's still true after I don't know how many miles. This may be more $'s and time than you want to spend. On the other hand, the tools are more of an investment and once you have an idea of how to build wheels, and the tools with which to do it, you'll be able to build/maintain/repair you're own wheels. Since you don't need to hop on this bike and ride it right away, you can take some time and use it to learn something new.

huytheskigod: Did you change the spacing on your hub to move it towards the drive side? If that's the case, I can see why you'd need to re-dish. Also, were you able to use the same spokes? Spoke length was ok?


Ok, so taking off the mulitspeed freewheel and putting on a single speed freewheel did not allow for a straight chainline. To correct this, you have to re-space the axle to move the freewheel toward the drive side by adjusting the spacers. I simply had to move the drive side spacer over to the non drive side and re-center the axle (also took the opportunity to repack the bearings). Doing this, moves the rim toward the drive side hence the re-dishing involved. Spoke length would be the major issue. I had enough threads on the non drive side spokes to do the re-dish without bottoming them out and have them poke too far into the rim to cause issues. This isn't always the case. The less dish there was to begin with, the easier time you'll have.

For touring, I see bosses for three bottles. For single, this is as cheap as it gets http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=23062&item=50-6550&slitrk=search&slisearch=true

For touring, I see bosses for three bottles.Huh, you're right. That's odd. Good place for a pump, though, if it doesn't get a bottle cage.


For single, this is as cheap as it gets http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=23062&item=50-6550&slitrk=search&slisearch=trueThat's for a modern cassette/freehub system.

That third set of bosses is for a cooking fuel bottle if you're touring.
Apparently that Forte tension device is necessary for modern vertical dropouts. I have semi-horz dropouts so I don't need it (YEAH!)