Some of you might remember my post entitled "My First Fixie", where I showed off my new Dawes Lightning SST:



Well, there's a bit of a story behind it. Like I said in the post referenced above, I wanted a cheap, ready-to-go fixie, because I wasn't familiar enough to with fixed gear yet to do a conversion. I knew that because I had purchased a late 80's Bianchi Strada LX to convert, and I was having a real hard time figuring out what to do -- I just wasn't grokking the conversion. Here's the Bianchi:



Well, today at work I got an idea... I can now just move all the parts over from the Dawes to the Bianchi, and have a cool, unique fixed gear bike. I rushed home from work, and short of a shim issue for the seatpost and a front-brake issue it's done. I decided to go for my Shimano 600 cranks with a 42 tooth Biopace chainring instead of the Truvativ cranks with the 48 tooth chainring, and I put on my cool Shimano 600 pedals, too.

I'll have pictures posted tomorrow when I'm fully done and it's all nice and clean.

Heh. :-)

Congrats...though I would have taken the stem from the Bianchi, and ridden the dawes...

I have a *killer* soft spot for Bianchi bikes. Plus it's a better frame. But ultimately it's because I'm a sucker for Bianchis, and I've wanted another one ever since I sold my Brava in early '90 to fund a date with a girl.

...

I'm much smarter now. :-)

Stripping an 80's complete ?

Well the Bianchi doesn't have track ends...

That Dawes has enough track end for both of them.

I don't see why people care for track ends so much. If you aren't racing on the track (where they are required) then it's only athestics and ease of use (dropouts win there). And the Dawes has butt ugly track ends. The Bianchi is hotter.

My first conversion was an '87 Strada LX. It's not a great frame.

Me either. As long as you can get the proper chain tension, who cares what kind of ends are on the frame?

Probably not. But it's better than the Dawes, it's a Bianchi, and I'm enjoying it. The latter alone is enough justification for me to do the conversion, and for the bike's intended purpose (a bike I can leave at the office without fear of anything happening to it) it's absolutely perfect.

I got it finished and took it for a test ride this morning. Here it is:


(Sorry the low quality pic... my wife went to the Vegas with the girls for the weekend and took our good camera with her; I had to shoot that with my phone.)

Anyway, it's an '86/87 Bianchi Strada LX with Shimano 600 cranks, pedals, and front brake. It's running a 42 tooth Biopace chainring in the front, and a 16 tooth cog in the back. Alex wheels with Maxxis tires, a Zoom stem, "generic" alloy handlebars and seatpost, a Velo seat, and a Promax brake lever round out the package.

I *really* like this bike; it's a joy to ride. Quite a different ride from my roadie, that's for sure, but I like it.

nice, may I suggest a black crankset? blue and black is an awesome combination.

I have the Truvativ cranks that were on the original Dawes, and I toyed with putting them on, but I'm too attached to my Shimano 600 stuff. :-)

But yeah, I'm digging on the blue and black.

WTF? Sorry, folks, I have no idea why that posted so many times. Sheesh.

We figured you were just REALLY excited about your bike

You know that you can delete posts, right?

Yes, but it was hitting "page not found" errors each time I tried earlier. It seems to be working now, so I just deleted them.

iamtim, you win the new poster of the month award. Cut up that Dawes and weld it into a bmx-er and you'll win for April, too.

*blink, blink*

Thanks, I think. I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or not. For what it's worth, I've been on the Road Cycling forum for quite some time.

uh oh...

Nice... I think you used the Dawes correctly...using it for parts. I think the 600s cranks are the way to go...never like black cranks on anybike for some reason. However, ignore color coordination for a moment and just look at that dumpy stem. Please, please put the original stem and bars from the Bianchi back on there.

what he said

Heh, actually, I kinda like that stem. That said, the original Bianchi quill stem is not the right size for me. At some point I'll probably snag a more normal quill stem with the proper extension and angle, or maybe even go threadless.

This is my "project" bike. :-)

I tried using a biopace chainring... it worked but you will find that the tension is a bit uneven and too tight in other places. You'd have a safer chain with a round chainring IMO

so, what are your plans now with the dawes?