Daughter in college wants used fixed gear? cost,suggestion?
 

Ok, newbie here..

My daughter, who is 5'5" in height, wants fixed gear to ride around campus.....

Park on porch of her house, locked, so don't want to spend alot of $$.

Max: $200.00

What can i expect to look for find in this range?

thanks

Maybe a nashbar hounder. Other than that, really nothing. Thats just not a realistic price range for a fixed gear.

maybe a craigslist buy on a conversion.

he said used. Sometimes you'll find decent used stuff in that range on craigslist. Not sure about what size you'd want.

Perfect, here.

http://www.roadbikeoutlet.com/single...e-bicyles.html

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?LH_BIN=1...&_sop=12&_sc=1

And this site seems a bit seedy, but
http://www.bikebuyers.com/fixiebikes...FSU6gwoduncyIA


That's just a couple I could find, I'm not sure about the quality,I think I have heard decent things about Dawes though.

I'm sure there are a few out there, but they can be hard to find!
I wish you the best of luck finding a bike for your daughter!

Bikebuyers is the new bikesdirect.

Touting "no tricks."

+1
No heartbreak when stolen.

get her a kilo tt or a windsor hour or wait for a fuji track to go on sale at performance all are a little out of your price range but well worth it

300~350 is really the lowest you can safely go for a beginner prebuilt bike

unless you want to try an find an old road bike for conversion and are handy with bikes if so you can easily build a 200 conversion that is well worth it

I'd say have her search around craigslist or other sites until she finds one that she thing looks good, will fit, and within the price range. Hopefully that will make her appreciate it more since she will be looking herself.

Thats what I did when I wanted a bike for college; and it has made me take care of it a lot more than I probably would have if my parents simply bought one.

^ Decent advice

Craigslist reminds me of a great wino who used to live outside my apartment building years ago in Cleveland; his favorite phrase was, 'Hey, any garbage can come up with a chicken' That's equally true of Craigslist, I'd been pondering around about getting into biking again, saw a Specialized Langster on C/L for $200 and had it in the garage in two hours. Just an excellent bike, love it, and the kid had papers on it too. It's a real crapshoot, but there's some lucky finds out there. Good Luck

Just don't send her alone to look at stuff on craigslist...i know common sense but just throwing it out there

Does the campus have a bike co-op? Mine does, and they have a program where the teach you how to build your own bike. You show up with a frame (or more complete bike), pay them $50, then they teach you how everything works at weekly classes and let you dig through the used parts bins, as well as giving you a discount on new stuff. You end up with a bike and the skills to maintain it yourself. Lots of people do cheap singlespeed and fixed conversions.

No idea if this is a common program at bike co-ops, or unique, but it'd be worth looking into.

Balefire - My campus co-op is like that, too!

I agree that a campus co-op would be a cool experience for her. At my campus co-op, you pick out a frame, and that includes a one year membership to the co-op. You can then fix up the bike or have volunteers show you how to fix things up. I see a lot of single speeds coming out of the co-op but not so many fixed gears, since a fixed gear conversion usually requires a new wheelset.

If she has a campus co-op or a local co-op in general, she can easily buy a fixed wheelset and a bike from the co-op and get a conversion built for under $200. Plus, she'll learn the ins and outs of her bike, too.

Has she ever ridden a fixed gear bike? If not, she may want to start with a flip-flop rear hub. That is a rear wheel that is fixed on one side like a track bike and a single speed on the other that will coast. So you can turn the wheel over and use whichever you want. I have a bike with one and switch back and forth depending on what I'm doing. At least she would have a choice if she doesn't like the fixed gear.

With all the people building fixed gear bikes to sell, make sure the one you get has sufficient adjustment to tension the chain properly. If you are unsure what you are looking for, I suggest going to your local bike shop and talking it over with them.

I just bought a fixie of CL and put an ad up that said "Cheap Fixed Gear Wanted" put that that you want to spend around 200 and see if you get offers, I ended up finding a 2001 Bianchi Pista for 180.

at that price it might be a stolen bike

she'll be too busy making "music" with skinny hipster boys to bike around that much. just get her a mongoose cache.

i bought my brother one of those 150 dollar steel dawes fixies. i was impressed. 4130, set of weinmanns laced to formulas, even included the formula cog and lockring. altogether i was more than happy.

this.

lol

I think everyone can agree that cc wins the thread. :lol:

haha some girl brought a conversion into the shop. bb was siezed, fork was bent, and the headtube was so ovalized the headset cups fell out when the fork was taken out. great way to spend $150

and just so this doesn't sound sexist, a guy brought in a bike he got of CL for $175, and the seat tube was split down to the bottom bracket

There is a dawes on ebay for about $200. The seller is the wife of the owner of bikesdirect. Also crosslakesales (also on ebay) has a fg/ss they sell for around the same price. Don't think you'll fine much better for the price anywhere else.