Damrong18

I'm looking to take a stab at building a fixie and I've been scouring the Internet for a good frame to start with. I found ad from Craigslist for a 1988 Schwinn Prologue (minus the fork) for $50, it has some rust and a dent on the crossbar, is it worth getting?

Smithie

If you don't already have a fork to go with this frame, plus the dent issue, I'd say no. Getting a fork of equal or decent steel quality will likely cost you at least another $25-40, which means you've now spent $75-90 minimum. That can buy some pretty nice frames with good paint and no dents in my market.

brooklyn_bike

They're nice bikes number 2 or 3 in schwinns lineup. Sounds like its been crashed so if you go for it check it over very carefully.

Scooper

The late eighties Prologue is a high end bike made by National/Panasonic for Schwinn, and was sold only as a frameset. Fortunately, the geometry is well documented so you should be able to find a fork with similar rake and dropout to crown dimensions.

Depending on the size of the top tube dent, you may be able to roll it out enough using tubing blocks to fill it with Fillet Pro and fair it with fine tooth files and sandpaper so that in can be repainted without showing.

For $50, you could afford to put a few bucks into a fork and rolling out the dent and have a really nice frameset.

Henry III

There is a fixie/single speed forum here. You don't need a good bike though to build one.

Grand Bois

They don't know much about vintage frames there. I don't have a problem with building a fixed gear from a damaged Schwinn.

Spoonrobot 

I just got done doing a similar conversion, I'll tell you about my experience in a minute.

Right now, in 2012, it's generally considered a better idea to buy a complete fixed gear bike or a fixed-specific frame than it is to buy an 80s road frame and convert. The additional cost, time and potential problems are not worth the perceived benefits of conversion.

Conversion made sense when fixed-gear frames and full bikes were hard to find and expensive. But right now the basement level price for a fixed-gear full bike of decent starting quality is around $300 to your door. Conversion also made sense when you find a serviceable complete bike for a bargain, in that instance you could just buy a new rear wheel for @$70 and have a fixed gear.

But once again, it generally makes more sense to resell a bargain priced 80s road bike for profit, then go ahead and buy a fixed specific frame or bike.

Now, I recently spent some time converting a 80s road frame to a fixed gear. I planned carefully and did my research and still ended up spending about 30% more than I would have spent on a complete, comparably equipped fixed gear bike. You end up spending way more than you should for mid-level parts or spending way too little and getting much poorer quality than you would otherwise. If I could go back in time I would have just bought one of the litany of low/mid-level fixed gear complete bikes on the market and then spent that 30% I saved on tools, clothing and consumables and been much happier.

wrk101

+1 While I am a big fan of the Prologue (I have two of them), for your purposes, its hard to beat the new SS/FG bikes out there. With a new one, you get whatever size you want, in whatever frame material, color, handlebar style, new wheels, tires, etc., flip flop hub (usually), for a really low price.

With a bare frame without even a fork, you are looking at serious $$. You will need a fork, wheels, crank and bb, stem, seat post, bars, tires, brakes?, levers, pedals, saddle, chain, bar tape, headset, etc., and of course the time/tools to build it. And when you are done, you have a rusty, dented frame. Big PASS on this one.

If you are set on doing a conversion, do yourself a BIG favor and start with a complete bike. A SS freewheel, redish the rear wheel, chop the bars, remove the large chain ring, and you are on the road.

thenomad

I agree its probably easier to get a specific ss frame. Longer trackends make changes easier. I bought an ironman frame with a PC job for 50. Cant get much for a frame with damage.
Building from only a frame can get expensive unless you already have the parts

miamijim

I can convert a road bike to SS for ~$20 but I know what I'm doing. But, I also agree with you, it's 2012, smart money is spent on complete pre-built SS/fixie.

Spoonrobot 

Lots of people who don't care about aesthetics can convert a road bike to SS for $0.



But the original poster was asking about converting to a fixed gear.

Grand Bois

The OP says that he wants to try his hand at building one and I can understand that. I built one myself just for fun, even though I have no interest in riding it. I did enjoy building it. There's not much fun in buying one that's already built.

I think I'm going to convert mine to a coaster brake so I can get some use out of it.

Grand Bois

I can't see how it would. Sheldon Brown couldn't either.

thenomad

what i mean is that if you want to play with gearing like flipping from 15 to 16 or 17 with a 1" max dropout (on that schwinn) to work with you'll need to make a chain change. With 2" to work with you can run a few gears without changing the chain at all. Not a huge deal but certainly can get in the way if you have two different gears on a wheel. Just makes it more fiddly. But who am I to offer an opinion different that SB...