Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - what if...

what iff you built a fixed gear from a bike like this.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FDDDGU/ref=nosim/dealigg-20/?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

would it even be worth it...could it come out nice.

i am not trying to do this i was just wondering.
bikes like these are all over the internet

aside from the whole "bicycle named after an SUV" thing, i'd be willing to bet that the bike has vertical dropouts, and would prove difficult to run fixed without an expensive ENO hub.

You would make a $hitty fixed gear out of a $hitty geared bike. That's about it.

i know a kid that lives around me that converted a walmart road bike to a fixie.

The dropouts pretty much make this a project that isnt worth it

There are a lot of posts here about this bike. This is the most complete, and probably the most positive:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=237231&highlight=gmc+denali

I worked on a few of these back in my wrench days, and these are my thoughts:

They are heavy. Like almost old schwinn heavy.
The shifters are insane, and you probably aren't going to be able to get them off.
It might actually have horizontal dropouts, but I don't remember for sure.
All the ones I saw were set up horribly. This is more a reflection on Box stores' build quality, but still. When the bike is set up so the break pads are missing the rim (you read that correctly), it still sort of influences your opinion of the bike.
Many old 10 or 12 speeds have better quality. I won't say "most" old bikes are better, because I think people underestimate how many junk old bikes are out there. However, I will say any old bike will hold its value better. An 80's road bike isn't going to depreciate any more than it already has.


Point is, there is virtually no way I would get one of these. That is a probably a little harsh, but if I saw one of these on CL for $30 and an old Fuji on CL for $30, I would go for the Fuji almost every time (assuming the frame is not crap). While the shifters are the most glaring example, there is just a lot of junky weird stuff they did on this bike that I would not want to deal with converting. If the dropouts are vertical, that would seal the deal for staying away from this thing.

i know a kid that lives around me that converted a walmart road bike to a fixie.

Hell, I see a lot of that on this forum.

Oh, that hi-ten Schwinn from 1972 wasn't the dept store bike of it's day?

Chris

An 80's road bike isn't going to depreciate any more than it already has.

Just a personal example:

Early last year, I bought an early 80s Giant road bike from a local craigslist seller. Over the course of the next year, I upgraded just about everything, sold what was useful, and put about 1000 miles on it. Early this year, I bought a Surly LHT frame and moved most of the components to the LHT. I put the nearly stripped frame and fork (had a HS and stem as well) on CL and sold it for almost what I paid for the complete bike a year earlier. In all, I made about $40 from that bike (Frame/fork/HS/Stem for $80, brakes for $25, crank/rings for another $25). Do that with the Denali...

Chris

except no one in their right mind would want a Denali frame. Or cranks. Or brakes.

Been there, done that.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/acampagnolo/Bike%20Forums/th_GEDC0095.jpg (http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/acampagnolo/Bike%20Forums/GEDC0095.jpg)
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/acampagnolo/Bike%20Forums/th_GEDC0093.jpg (http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/acampagnolo/Bike%20Forums/GEDC0093.jpg)

except no one in their right mind would want a Denali frame. Or cranks. Or brakes.

I know of someone who doesn't bring theirs to college because they are "afraid it would be stolen"

....