Originally Posted by berny
So Jan (my better half) found an old frame on the side of the road and brought it home. It's not a bad thing and I think I'll do a SS fixy. Cupla questions; should I leave the old BB shells and the headset bearing cups in for sand blasting? Shells will protect threads. Why can't I have F&R brakes? Frame is drilled and bosses are there. What gearing should I have?
Any other suggestions would be most greatfully recieved.
In order (this is my limilted knowledge and I dont ride fg but eventually will) I thought you needed a track bb.
Sand the damn thing. It doesnt take too long, (unless you have access to a sand blaster, I found out after I sanded my frame down I did have access to one, I wasnt happy)
You can have front and back brakes, but back brakes arent necessary at all really. A lot of debate about front brakes though, just depends on how confident you are, I guess.
For gearing it really depends on how much muscle you have, how far you want to ride, how hilly your area is etc. But a good gear calculator is
here
and the thread that goes with it is
here
basically go for a ratio that is close to how many gear inches you want but has the most about of skid patches. So your entire tyre is a flatspot and not just one spot of it is, ie less tyrewear.
I hope that helps