New to fixed gear bikes
 

So I found this stripped Cannondale (unknown model) road bike on Craigslist ($80) was thinking about making a fixed gear out of it, what gear ratio should I go with for a weekend bike? What else do I need to complete it?

https://s27.postimg.org/ozt9s948f/IMG_1719.jpg

In before someone tells you it's a horrible idea because of the rear dropouts.

Front tire needs air.

I hope you're a giant because you will need some big ass legs to ride that bike. Making it fixed gear probably won't be worth the trouble because of the dropouts as mentioned above. You could make it a single-speed pretty easily if you wanted though.

Also, you're crazy for putting your giant TV on those two rickety little rolling carts from Ikea. It seems you love asking for trouble.

Cool cool, I'll look into it.

Thanks man

The tv's on a wall mount and the IKEA carts are holding my PS4 and my laptop.

Cold.

Whole thread is brutal. I love it. Pass on the Cannondale. Get a frame with horizontal or semi horizontal dropouts. In b4 someone suggests gumwall tires to complete the bike.

Did you buy it as we see it in the photo? If yes and if you're he11 bent on making it a fixed gear bike it's gonna cost some bucks and not sure it's worth the effort for the reasons already mentioned. If it came with all of the necessary parts to make it road-worthy, I'd go back and make it a geared bike.

I did what you are wanting to do with my old Raleigh Wyoming but didn't like the results so I took it back to original and now it's a cool utility bike.

Regarding the dropouts, head over to Sheldon Brown's page on fixed gear conversions -- that will explain why unfortunately that Cannondale frame won't work.

However, you DO have a pretty cool frame, and that could be traded for a frameset that works for fixed gear. There a plenty of good steel road frames out there that can be used for conversion (here's an article on steel comparisons).

As other have said--take a look into frame sizing and measure yourself. That way, if you put up a Swap/Trade ad, you can specify the frame size you're looking for.

Just trying to be helpful. :p

I've got all the original parts for the bike, I originally took the bike apart to re-powder coat it, so once that's done I'm going to put everything back on.

I have 2 road bike already, making this the third, I'll probably just sell it once it's complete.

Thanks for the info