FOBx530

Greetings everyone,

I recently am to this place and its a wealth of information, though unsorted.

I just got my first road bike, a vintage 70s Azuki for 30 bucks, rusted but still in good condition. Its about 48-49cm and is a bit tall for me, where I am only 5'3. And has a few dilemma.

Questions:
-The bike has 700cc wheels on them, if I replace them w/ 650cc, will the height of the bike lower and will there be complications? ie. the petals too low to the ground?

-I know fixed gears petals always move, even when going down hill and cause your feet to move along with the petals. Is there anyway to prevent this? Just like a mountain bike or a bike with gears, when going down hill, I can cruise without having to petal. Is there anyway to do this with a fixed gear bike?


Thanks, fob.

dabac

Can you straddle the bike w/o the top tube hitting your crotch? It's actually strictly not required, but a sensible place to start. It's usually possible to replace the stem with a shorter one to move the handlebars closer.

Pedals will be closer to the ground but the bigger issue is probably that the brake(s) (if any) will no longer reach the rims.

Yes, but then it obviously won't be a fixie anymore. Easiest is to simply replace the rear wheel with a so-called singlespeed rear wheel, which will allow you to coast. Depending on the hub it might also be possible to screw a freewheel on to your current rear wheel.

If it's currently set up as a brakeless fixie, then obviously you need to add some brakes to the bike. A frame that wasn't intended for a coaster brake originally isn't always strong enough to withstand the force from the brake arm, so take care.

FOBx530

- I can reach the handles just fine, though the top tube is about half an inch away from my crouch; this cause me to tip toe to get off the bike because it feels uncomfortable.

- Aren't there other brake systems aside from the conventional ones on the rims, or can I move the brakes lower since the rims are lower (might have to drill holes to acquire the brakes?); perhaps cheap disc brakes (if there are such "cheap"?

-My bicycle is a 10 speed Azuki

"Easiest is to simply replace the rear wheel with a so-called singlespeed rear wheel, which will allow you to coast. Depending on the hub it might also be possible to screw a freewheel on to your current rear wheel."

I don't understand what you meant by single speed will allow you to coast. Does coast happen to mean riding down the hill and having the wheels move without having to move the petals?

- The reason I want to change my 10 speed into a single speed is of weight. I am fairly small so I'd like to have less weight for me to carry the bike, ie. on the bus or for the car, actually for more speed!

Sorry if I did not explain or give the complete specs of my bicycle on the beginning thread.

Thank you for advice and helping out.

dabac

Well, then you're in the zone. It might not be the ideal bike for you, but being able to achieve a comfortable riding position is far more important than being able to achieve a comfortable standing-over-the-bike position. Time spent straddling the bike while stationary is so small compared to time spent in saddle while pedalling so you should be able to live with that - I do.

Discs would make it possible to mix wheel and frame sizes pretty much every which way, and there are a few wire-actuated ones that are quite reasonably priced. Unfortunately your frame hasn't got the mounting brackets for them. A half-skilled fabricator would be able to make some, but unless you can pay him off with a sixpack or two there's no way you're gonna find any proportions between what you've paid for the bike and what the modification would cost you. Same goes for replacing the fork.

You can get drum braked hubs as well, and they can be mounted w/o doing any mods to the frame. But if you're buying new you're once again up against the cost discrepancy between initial purchase and and cost for mods.
Besides, hub brakes will put strain on fork and chain stays in a different way than rim brakes does.
If you're light as well as short it might do OK, but otherwise there's a real risk of bending frame and fork by swapping brakes.

Brakes can be lowered by bolting a tab to the place in the frame where the bolt is currently sitting, and then bolting the brake to a hole at the end of the tab. Haven't tried it myself, but I think it'd be hard to get it rigid enough to make a reliable brake attachment point.

For the extra inch of groin clearance it'd provide I think you'd be better off working on your discomfort/mount/dismount technique or finding another bike to trade with.

Yep, It's called coasting when the rear wheel is spinning while the pedals aren't moving.

If your bike is a 10-spd it should be able to coast as-is, I've never heard of a fixie with multiple gears. You might want to start with pulling the wheel out of the frame, laying it down over a pan of some sort with the sprockets facing up and then emptying a can of wd-40 or similar into the inside gap closest to the shell carrying the sprockets(but not directly by the axle!). If that doesn't free things up have a bike mech either service your freewheel or simply replace it.

I don't think you'll be able to cut even a pound of weight of the bike. You'll have to consider whether that's really significant compared to the bike's total weight. For me there's no way I'd trade the flexibility of a geared drive train for such a puny weight reduction - if weight reduction really is the main reason.

I'll gladly admit that the not coasting made me believe you had a fixie that you wanted to turn into a SS...