Northern California - Building a fixie for my new commute!

Hey y'all, long time no see! Haven't been going on any group rides or long rides lately, mostly just 20-25 mile loops from the girlfriend's place. Actually I've been leaving my road bike there because it's such a better place to ride from than my Santa Clara place.

I'm moving up to San Carlos and will be bike commuting from now on -- looks like less than 4 miles each way, as opposed to my 22 mile (car/motorcycle) or 28 mile (bicycle) commute from Santa Clara! Hell, I'm a little bummed my new bike commute will be so SHORT!

Just thought I'd check in and say hi and that I'm excited to be building a fixie. I'm open to any advice. Will just ride my old mountain bike to work until I get the new bike put together.

Trying to keep it fairly cheap -- especially as my first bike build, since I'm sure I'll wish I had done things differently once it's done. Looking to pick up a new frame+fork with headset bearings in place. Going new will make it easier for this n00b to find parts that I know will fit. Probably new wheelset (flip flop) too, then see about piecing together a bottom bracket, crank, stem, handlebars, front brake, pedals, etc.

Any advice is welcome but I'm not really soliciting, mostly bragging :)

What's fairly cheap to you?

Easy/Common Build
Frame: Mercier Kilo TT
Wheelset: Alex R450's to Formula's

That's about the ballpark I'm thinking. 500ish. I'm sure I'll end up spending more once I start looking at trick individual components though. I saw a cromoly frame, lost the name, 4 letters, starts with a P .. pilo or something. $200ish range. Wheelsets I was glancing at were $120ish. So yeah, that ballpark. Main reason I'm not really soliciting advice is because I know there are ungodly amounts of information on the fixed/ss forum here on bikeforums and all over the 'net.. so I don't need someone to re-explain everything that's already out there, but I certainly don't mind tips and starting points like you provided :) thanks!

Hey Reid, what size bike do you take? If you can fit a 58, I may have just the thing for you.

I'm a short-inseam 5'10".. IIRC my road bike is a 54cm. Pretty sure my legs are too short, I'm about a 31" inseam.

Bummer. It has a 33.5" standover, according to the spec sheet.

If you can, stop by Box Dog Bikes in SF (http://boxdogbikes.com). The have everything to build a fixed gear bike from scratch or whole bikes you can buy.

Thank you so much Henry! I will definitely stop by there! Of course, if I can buy all the parts in one place, who knows, I may end up just buying a complete bike.. slippery slope. Then again, if I build one, I can use it as an excuse to get a stand and some of the tools I don't already have.

They even have a stand there that you can use if you know how to do your own wrenching.

reid-meister, long time no see. man gets a girl and forgets his bro's! :-)

i got a fixie just about 6 months ago, and the one thing i wish i didn't do is to have it custom painted. if i were to do it all over again, i'd prob. only paint it stock color IF i decide to paint at all. other than that, i do enjoy riding it, even on my 30-mile round-trip commutes.

you can get a fully built kilo tt for $350 on bikesdirect.com. i personally have not dealt with these guys, but there is a lot of discussion about the company within the fg/ss forum. they have several models to choose from, but i'd get the kilo tt because it is reynolds steel iirc. most other bikes around that will be either 4130 cromo or aluminum.

if u really want to make it a build...you can get a kilo tt frameset from bikeisland.com for 200 shipped. treefortbikes.com might still have the $160 pake frame, but doesnt come with fork...and it is 4130 steel. you can also opt for a scrambler frame from eighthinch, but personally i'd stick with the kilo.

If I were you, I'd be combing Craig's List. It's not easy to piece together a bike for less than a manufacturer...and this is way more the case if you're buying used.

On Craig's List, there's always a ton of fixies/singlespeeds being sold...by students in a cash crunch or folks who decided that fixed/SS is not for them.

If you look around, there's no shortage of Bianchi Pistas, Leaders, Raleigh One Ways, etc. being sold off.

If I were you, I'd be combing Craig's List. It's not easy to piece together a bike for less than a manufacturer...and this is way more the case if you're buying used.

On Craig's List, there's always a ton of fixies/singlespeeds being sold...by students in a cash crunch or folks who decided that fixed/SS is not for them.

If you look around, there's no shortage of Bianchi Pistas, Leaders, Raleigh One Ways, etc. being sold off.

Nothing to add about your build, except welcome to the Peninsula! Let me know if you have any questions about rides and routes up here. Also, as you're probably aware already areas of San Carlos can be hilly. Keep them in mind when you select the gearing for your fixie.