FXjohn

I posted a picture of this bike last fall up in the rafters.
I have finally got time to start working on it.
What do you think, will it work, or should I get a different bike?
First of all I would like to buy new cranks.

FXjohn

trekkie820

New cranks and BB, and a ot of other new parts. Unless you like old school, might be more hassle than its worth to "fix" that one. good luck with it though!

Jonny B

Could work, but it's not the best frame. The ends of the stays are pressed flat, not domed, which would indicate a cheaper bike, but that's no reason it's not good enough. Obviously you'd want to clean off all the rust and repaint it. My only concern is the BB; it has one piece cranks, which means it has a large, unthreaded BB, commonly found on BMXs. But you have lots of options: use regular 1 piece cranks, with an appropriate chainring; use high-end BMX 3 piece cranks (not very fitting though); or use a normal British-threaded BB and regular cranks, using an adaptor kit (basically two 'cups', pressed into the BB shell as normal, but with threads on the inside). Or if you really like the frame but don't like the BB, you could have the BB shell replaced by a framebuilder. It looks fillet brazed, which is easy(ish) to seperate, but because the tubes would have to slightly longer (smaller BB shell), it might be a lot more work than the frame is worth.

If you can put up with the BB, go for it, otherwise find a new frame. Truth is, you could find a much better frame than that for not much money.

jim-bob

Icky. Cheapo frame, not really worth fixing up unless you're really fond of it for some bizarre reason.

FXjohn

Yeah i think I am just gonna get something like a Langster.

The poll with all the links to the manufacturer's is great!

FXjohn

singlespeed

Holy cow! You guys are beiing snobs! Icky my butt! This is what you have? Work with it! Don't go out and follow everyone else and go buy a fixed "street machine."

You get the chance to put together a bike that has everything that you want. With all the parts you can just put them on another frame later on if you want.

I can tell you right now that you will like this bike much better if you take the time to redo it and fix it the way you want. You have a chance to build up a bike exactly the way you want, not the way the marketing department decides. Don't just run out and be a another mass consumer, recycle what you already have.

Good luck with it.

FXjohn

I could do both(build a bike and buy a bike), and it would be good experience to do it.
I need help figuring out what parts to order, I have never had a fixed gear.
I want to do it cheap but adequate.


FXjohn

schwinnbikelove

Singlespeed, there's a reason they said icky. FXJohn, I don't want to be mean, but it's really not the best, and probably not worth your time. It's like a Huffy, only really old. (Actually, I just looked at the last picture, it is a Huffy?) I agree with everything else singlespeed said, but the bike's quality just isn't there. I don't even prefer that high of quality, but to me, it'd be like buying the cheapest at KMart and dumping money into it. I don't know, if you don't have thrift stores, garage sales, etc. available to you, I guess you could work with it, but I think it would be much more worth your time to pick up an older, higher quality road bike, which are pretty dam cheap nowadays. If you got something higher quality with an alloy 3 piece crank with removable rings, you'd only really have to worry about a rear wheel. I got I don't know how many old Schwinn road bikes for less than $25....good stuff, too.

Good luck!

slopvehicle

The bottom line:

It wouldn't be hard to pick up a much better frame/complete bike for $10/$20/$0. Why not save yourself the trouble of swapping parts out or rebuilding later on, when you (inevitably) find something "worth" fixing?

superchivo

It's not the highest quality frame in the world but that doesn't mean it won't be a fun bike and a good experience. Depending on the detachability of the chain rings on the cranks, all you really need is a new back wheel and you may be able to respace the current wheel and use a cog from the freewheel. I would go ahead and do it.

MKRG

I found a 1978 Raleigh Competition GS Carlton made from full Reynolds 531 equipped with Cinelli bars and stem with Campy deraillers, hubs and dropouts and Shimano 105 cranks and shimano 600 brakes for the exhorbitant price of... $10 US Be patient, you can find a nice frame for cheap. I know at the local thrift shop there is always one or two schwinn varsities which in my estimation are worlds better than the frame you pictured.

kurremkarm

You can't polish a turd.

singlespeed

damn you guys sure are elitist for a bunch of people who say go against the grain and do your own thing! Quick! Run out and buy a Bianchi Pista!

It doesn't matter what you ride, just make sure that you get out there and ride it.

trekkie820

I am forced to agree...i think removing the derailluers and gears is a good way to connect to the bike, and to piss in the face of technology. Much better than buying a factory bike.

schwinnbikelove

singlespeed, I don't think you're understanding. It's not about being elitist, it's about quality and safety. Do you know anything about framebuilding, grades of metal (steel), or safety and value for that matter? If you don't believe that I'm not elitist, you can do a search and find my three bikes. They were all high enough quality for me to spend my time and money on, and they're not going to snap in half, either. To me, it's not about the name, but the quality, end of story. Cheap steel is a cheap frame, and vice versa, and both can have bad results. It's like putting money into a Yugo...or buying a Huffy from Kmart and getting a brand new wheelset and doing a singlespeed conversion, it just isn't worth it.

kurremkarm

You can't talk to a turd.

LOL

The people telling him to find a better project bike are giving him the right answer. Spend a little time and find a better frame to start with.

We love him, we want to have his children, but his bike sucks ass.

jim-bob

Sure, you can do whatever you want with that bike, but it's going to feel heavy and weird, regardless. For not much more effort the guy can find a bike that'll ride 100 times nicer and won't break in weird ways, and that'll make a much nicer conversion candidate. I don't think anyone's said he needs to run out and drop a bunch of coin on a prebuilt track bike.

manboy

I'd say if you can "fix" the bike incredibly cheaply and have a cool around-town bike, do it. By that I mean finding your own low-tech solutions for anything you may need to do, such as securing an existing sprocket to the rear hub and finding a chainring that will work on the front. However, I wouldn't put a lot of money into it in the form of new cranks, etc. I agree with the guys who say that you could probably find a better frame second hand for a rather small amount of money. If you're going to put a lot of time and money into it, I'd say you should look for some more suitable raw material. Otherwise, if you're going to do a super-cheap, super-diy, kind of fun, don't worry about it ever getting stolen sort of bike, go for it.