from the ground up
I recently bought a used, 1985 Torelli Corsa Strada frame with the intention of building it up as a fixed gear for tearing around Chicago. At the moment, I have a fully geared road bike and a ss mutant of a mountain bike, so i figured a fixie would be the next logical addition. I have never built a bike from scratch, much less done a fixed-gear bike. The frame is totally bare (no fork, seatpost, etc.) and i am thinking about getting it re-painted, but that consideration aside, i am wondering how much money I should be reasonably putting into this bike. Has anyone here built up a bike like this from skratch? What kind of budget did you give yourself? As a vintage Torelli steel frame (5lbs, straight as an arrow), do you think it is worth five hundred dollars in used and new economy parts? A thousand dollars? I have no time frame on completing this bike and I probably should have thought about it before hand, but whatever. I want to do it justice, but i also don't want to spend myself into a hole. Any sage advice?