Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Old style bottom bracket and other fixie/ss questions

Hello Forum -

I'm new to the forum and the new craze of fixed/ss bikes. I want to build a fixed/ss bike as a
project with one of my daughters. A friend had a old schwinn 10speed they gave me for this
project.

This thing has the old style bottom bracket(one piece with barrings) and wanted to know if/how to convert this to something more up to date?...or should I just jeep it as is? This may be the first of many of these projects(pretty fun so far). I don't want to spend a ton, but am willing to fork out a little for a decent bike. Should I reuse the 27in wheels and install a flip/flop hub or just go ahead and get a decent 700c wheelset already set up? The frame, forks, head set and even crank/bottom bracket are in decent shape.

Just looking for some pointers.

thanks,
Bob

do the front cranks have one chainring or multiple ones? if it's one i would just leave it as is. you CAN get adapters to convert to a 3piece set-up, but then you are looking at the cost of the adapter, bottom bracket, and cranks.

if you are building a fixed gear then you might as well just get 700c wheels already built instead of trying to lace up the old 27in rims to a new hub. if you know how to build wheels then knock yourself out, but if you've never done it before it's a bit of an ordeal, especially calculating spoke length.

just make sure you get long reach calipers to reach the new 700c wheels, which are slightly smaller than 27", if you choose to go that direction.

Hello Forum -

I'm new to the forum and the new craze of fixed/ss bikes. I want to build a fixed/ss bike as a
project with one of my daughters. A friend had a old schwinn 10speed they gave me for this
project....

I'm not saying that you should or should not do the conversion. I decided it was worthwhile to do on my old Schwinn Continental, but in retrospect, if I had know what a PITA it was gonna be I think I would have not bothered. There are plenty of better old schwinn 10 speeds out there than anything with a one piece crank.

Here is a blog post about my bottom bracket conversion adventure (http://atoms.net/blog/2009/11/26/). I'm pretty sure mine was a special case being a tall frame - but the thing is, you never really know what you are getting into until you get into it.

wearyourtruth - it had 2 chain rings and I pulled off one of them. I've never laced up wheels, so plan to just get a decent wheel set with the rear flip/flop hub

atoms - I will check out your bottom bracket conversion adventure


....so I can't just reuse the crank/bb set up I have?

atoms - that looks just like what I have. I will look closer tonight to see if there is obstruction