against owner, rather than remain in fixed gear status:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amalate...n/photostream/

I was talking to a couple of bike shop owners a couple of weeks ago, and we all quietly agreed that this fixie trend is really stupid and that there are going to be a ton of cheap used track bikes and components becoming available over the next 5 years. A lot of nice old bikes are going to be sacrificed in the meantime. This one chose an honorable death over further embarrassment.
Adieu, braves soldat.

Meh. If it gets people riding, I am all for fixed gears. I think your shop owners are being dense. Anything that grows their customer base should not be regarded as stupid. As long as people don't chop the frames, I don't care all that much.

Sorry about the Peugeot. That bike looks pretty clean to have that kind of failure.

Yeah, I wonder what that guy put that bike through? Perhaps the inside of the downtube was really compromised with rust b4 this accident took place? Also, surprising is that it appears to be a 501 tube---I thought they were sturdy? This photo has me thinking twice about the strength of my pug---of roughly the same age, with its super vitus tubes.

Wow! How the heck did that happen?

Re: the anti-fixed comments; Bicycles are meant to be ridden. It would be a pretty boring world if we all rode the same kind of bicycles and besides, 1 less car/1 less ton of emissions and 1 more bike is always a good thing. Be happy, thankful, and greatful that young people have a renewed interest in bicycles and let's not us old farts start acting like dictators ok?....
Good enough for Sheldon Brown, good enough for me......And I'm willing to embrace anybody who wants to talk about vintage steel. Some of the younger less experienced riders will figure out what works for them just fine without our influence.

Any rust inside the tube?

I wish I knew---I just ran across this photo by chance...

Oh, regarding my super vitus, yes, I think there is a little, here and there...

I wouldn't worry. I have a 79 PFN10E with Vitus 181 tubing, and that bike has been thru hell and is no worse for the wear.

As I've said before, to an extent I'm fine with the fixie fashion, as it gets folks riding. But I've seen so many examples of fixie idiocy here in RVA I wonder. Riding with no hand brake while unable to skid stop or trackstand. Riding with no handbrake and loose chain tension (seen two riders desperately trying to stop after throwing a chain). My favorite, the kids on a freewheel single speed with no brakes. The strangest recent trend, no front brake but a back one and a freewheel.

I said "quietly".
I'm all for getting people out riding. As long as they're not killing themselves or pissing off non-bikers.
Still think fixies will go the way of elevated chainstays and neon lycra.

Ummm...I was about to post a snarky comment for that photo when I noticed he hadn't converted this Peugeot to a fixie. Please note chainrings and obvious derailleur-guided chainline photo here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amalate...n/photostream/

Oops. Nevermind.

Once some of these folks discover transportation cycling and want to cover longer distances efficiently, the single-speed and fixie fad will indeed fade. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, and just as the history of road cycling progressed from fixed gear to single speed freewheels to multi-speed drivelines, so will these individuals' preferences in equipment.

As for the downtube rupture, the front of the downtube is a high-stress point at which frame failures are relatively common. (The bottom bracket and the drive side chainstay are other trouble spots.)

Bro, that's a different bike

Looks like the tube was overheated during the addition of the braze-ons.

P.S.: Am I in the wrong for having whacked off the DT braze-ons on a beat Benotto 1500 frame w/a cracked rear dropout? I fitted track drops to it

-Kurt

I was making a 40+ mph, 5 mile decent down Gold Camp road yesterday and wondering about just such a failure. You ever find yourself in that situation and wonder, "Hmmm, what if the guy that built my bike 40 years ago was having a bad day?"

I remember that project. Did you ever post pictures of the finished frame?

Yes, that second photo is definitely a different bike.

I don't see anything wrong with this guy's conversion that merits derision, other than some questionable fashion choices. There was nothing done that couldn't be undone, and the break was obviously going to happen whether it was fixed gear or not.

You know, converting old road bikes to fixed gear or single speeds has a long history in cycling.

Actually that is just the first step in a good conversion, removing the shifter braze-on's. In this case they may have gone a bit too far.

I'm haunting swap meets & garage sales for a decent bike to turn into a single speed. No components will be trashed & nothing will get ground off the frame. Repainting is out of the question. An old Peugeot is on my list- I just like the name. I'm trying to keep the entire project under $100.00

The fixie thing has me puzzled. I like coasting & stopping. Riding one in traffic or anywhere that a hill might appear sounds suicidal to poor naive me.

A) That's a different bike, as noted.
B) The bike in question still has the shifter braze-ons.

Would you believe that it is still in the vice, bare steel dropouts still vice-grip'ed to the frame? Thing is full of oil back there to prevent it from rusting...

-Kurt