In praise of conversions
10-11-05, 07:39 AM
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In praise of conversions
I wanted a fixed gear since I saw Quicksilver at age 15 or thereabouts. I came home from the movie and simply stripped all the cables and gear changers off my lovely Ross "mountain bike" and it stuck in a difficult gear which I rode till the axel bent and I moved on to other things.
Fast forward 10 years or so. Somehow stumbled on to Sheldon Brown's website. The take home message was horizontal drop outs. A friend of mine who was a bike geek called me on his cell from a bike swap meet somewhere telling me he found a nice frame with horizontal dropouts and did I want him to pick it up for me for $75.
Sometime later I was in a bike shop in Manhattan and asked if they had any fixed wheels. A used something or other with a Sovos hub was mine for $45. It sat in my tiny apartment for months taunting me. Similiar scavenging and some parts from Harris and probably a year later I finally had it together. I didn't even know about chainlines or spacing but it all seemed to work, my lovely green Giant Chronos. Rode it for 2 or 3 years without changing much at all. Always felt comfortable, never really coveted anything else except the flat black 2002 Pista mostly for the paint job. An old guy down the street would stop me to talk once in awhile telling me how he used to race track on a Frejus which he still had but never got around to showing me.
One day was wandering in a thrift shop and saw for reason's I know not why, a mint 2003 Battleship Grey Bianchi Pista sitting among the tattered couches. No price. They price on Saturday mornings at 11. Lined up early (this is a thrift store with a following) and was second on line and picked it up for a very reasonable price. Someone must have donated it for tax reasons or a mate berating them for having "too many bikes". Put the Giant on Craigslist and sold it to a messenger in a day or two for the same price I'd payed for the Pista.
Did the five borough bike ride on it the next week and then the Montauk Century about a month later. Never fit me quite right but I kept playing with it, buying bars and stems and seats. Discovered this list and started coveting other things.
I wouldn't say I missed the conversion but the Bianchi never felt as much like mine and today I should be recieving a new frame I got on closeout and will begin another conversion, this one a cruiser type of frame the basis for an urban assault vehicle. I haven't been so excited about a bike in awhile. First thing, that flat black paint...
Fast forward 10 years or so. Somehow stumbled on to Sheldon Brown's website. The take home message was horizontal drop outs. A friend of mine who was a bike geek called me on his cell from a bike swap meet somewhere telling me he found a nice frame with horizontal dropouts and did I want him to pick it up for me for $75.
Sometime later I was in a bike shop in Manhattan and asked if they had any fixed wheels. A used something or other with a Sovos hub was mine for $45. It sat in my tiny apartment for months taunting me. Similiar scavenging and some parts from Harris and probably a year later I finally had it together. I didn't even know about chainlines or spacing but it all seemed to work, my lovely green Giant Chronos. Rode it for 2 or 3 years without changing much at all. Always felt comfortable, never really coveted anything else except the flat black 2002 Pista mostly for the paint job. An old guy down the street would stop me to talk once in awhile telling me how he used to race track on a Frejus which he still had but never got around to showing me.
One day was wandering in a thrift shop and saw for reason's I know not why, a mint 2003 Battleship Grey Bianchi Pista sitting among the tattered couches. No price. They price on Saturday mornings at 11. Lined up early (this is a thrift store with a following) and was second on line and picked it up for a very reasonable price. Someone must have donated it for tax reasons or a mate berating them for having "too many bikes". Put the Giant on Craigslist and sold it to a messenger in a day or two for the same price I'd payed for the Pista.
Did the five borough bike ride on it the next week and then the Montauk Century about a month later. Never fit me quite right but I kept playing with it, buying bars and stems and seats. Discovered this list and started coveting other things.
I wouldn't say I missed the conversion but the Bianchi never felt as much like mine and today I should be recieving a new frame I got on closeout and will begin another conversion, this one a cruiser type of frame the basis for an urban assault vehicle. I haven't been so excited about a bike in awhile. First thing, that flat black paint...
