Originally Posted by
DallasW
Absolutely new to actually working on bicycles, so bear with me here...
I'm building up a fixed gear out of an old Norco bike I found on Kijiji for cheap. I've pretty much figured out all the parts that I need, except for the crank...
It has a "swaged crank" if I'm correct, it looks similar to this:
The outer chainring on this crank is the "main" one, and the smaller chainring bolts onto it. What should I do here if I want to make this into a fixed gear? (The outer chainring is about 53-57 teeth, I can't remember my exact count!) Is there any way to replace a swaged chainring, from what I can find it seems that you can't.
If not, what sort of parts do I need to be looking for? Do I need to replace the bottom axle (not sure if that's the right term...), or are cranks fairly interchangeable?
If I am replacing the crankset, what would be a good gear ratio to "start out" with. I'm looking to use this thing for putzing around the city and getting into road biking a bit (I just have an old mountain bike now that I use to go to/from places around the city).
Thanks!
53 teeth you'll probably want around 18-21 teeth in the rear depending on hills.
if it's square taper (that picture is square taper, you can tell because it mounts to a square axle) then a bunch of cranks will work. you might need a new bb tho to get the axle length right. if you're trying to go on the cheap you can probably find stuff on craigslist. if not, ebay the eighth inch or origin 8 stuff, it's functional.
oh and for my dumb question, why are messengers and such so closely tied to fixed gears? If i was carrying a bunch of crap on my back i'd rather have a bike i can shift gears on. hell, for simplicity sake i'd take an old steel road bike with 1x6 drivetrain and use a dt shifter or barcon.