would it be wrong of me...?
05-23-06 | 01:11 AM
#27
LF for the accentdeprived
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 3,549
Likes: 0
From: Budapest, Hungary
OP never met or saw the girl, did he??? Diffcult to have a crush on her like that.
Anyway, another vote on telling her. You don't have much to tell her though, do you? Only that she is better off with a cheap prebuilt wheel then sinking money into building up a crappy rim. And that scoring a bike with a usable crank would have been nice.
Anyway, another vote on telling her. You don't have much to tell her though, do you? Only that she is better off with a cheap prebuilt wheel then sinking money into building up a crappy rim. And that scoring a bike with a usable crank would have been nice.
05-23-06 | 01:13 AM
#29
LF for the accentdeprived
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 3,549
Likes: 0
From: Budapest, Hungary
OP never met or saw the girl, did he??? Diffcult to have a crush on her like that.
(Of course, I have a crush on her myself... To me, every girl who bikes (and wants to ride fixed!) is sexy by definition.)
Anyway, another vote on telling her. You don't have much to tell her though, do you? Only that she is better off with a cheap prebuilt wheel then sinking money into building up a crappy rim. And that scoring a bike with a usable crank would have been nice.
(Of course, I have a crush on her myself... To me, every girl who bikes (and wants to ride fixed!) is sexy by definition.)
Anyway, another vote on telling her. You don't have much to tell her though, do you? Only that she is better off with a cheap prebuilt wheel then sinking money into building up a crappy rim. And that scoring a bike with a usable crank would have been nice.
05-23-06 | 01:31 AM
#31
ass hatchet
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,284
Likes: 0
I've seen a couple of those 70s Schwinns with freewheeling bottom brackets-- very odd! I don't remember exactly how it worked, but some Google magic turned up this mention of it: https://fredhaj.tripod.com/suburbanpage.html
Apparently it's called "The Shimano Front Freewheeling System (FFS)"
"The advantage to this arrangement is that it permits shifting while coasting. Another interesting feature is the Positron deraillier. With the Positron system, the indexing detents are built into the deraillier rather than in the shift levers."
Interesting-- the rear wheel is a sort of multi-gear fixed hub?
from an archived bikeforums post...
Apparently it's called "The Shimano Front Freewheeling System (FFS)"
"The advantage to this arrangement is that it permits shifting while coasting. Another interesting feature is the Positron deraillier. With the Positron system, the indexing detents are built into the deraillier rather than in the shift levers."
Interesting-- the rear wheel is a sort of multi-gear fixed hub?
from an archived bikeforums post...
Originally Posted by jacksbike
The rear 5 speed freewheel was screwed onto the rear hub and did not freewheel. It move backward or forwards in the same direction as the rear wheel. Now the crankset, sometimes 1 piece and sometimes 3 piece cottered, had the freewheel built into its bottom bracket. You would push down on the pedals, and if you stopped, the 2 front sprockets continued freewheeling forward, while also pulling the rear wheel along with it. It was a great bulletproof system for beginner cyclists. Negatives-added a lot of weight to the bike, needed a special rear freewheel (that did not freewheel) special crank arms, sprockets , bottom bracket, and special (again) Shimano tool to remove the bottom bracket freehub set up. Anyway, don't know if anyone makes a single speed version of this. Perhaps a BMX knowledgabel person could answer.
05-23-06 | 06:24 AM
#35
Yay!11! I has!!!1
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,659
Likes: 0
From: Eastcoast
Bikes: Cocaine the white stallion, Custom Witcomb pista, (Being restored) 80's Pogliaghi Track, (destroyed) RAP Round Breeze NJS, Cannondale Jekyll 900, 84/5 Pinarello Montello (all italian)
Tell her
__________________
Bloodstains, speed kills, fast bikes, cheap thrills, French girls, fine wine...
Bloodstains, speed kills, fast bikes, cheap thrills, French girls, fine wine...
05-23-06 | 08:23 AM
#41
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 3,990
Likes: 36
From: Williston, VT
Bikes: Bridgestone RB-T, Soma Rush, Razesa Racer, ⅔ of a 1983 Holdsworth Professional, Nishiki Riviera Winter Bike
I would have no compunctions about warning anyone to bail on that deal regardless of their gender. She's being set up for a long complicated build that will likely leave her with an expensive crappy bike. Very likely the experience would sour her on fixed gear bikes in general. Tell her to get out while the getting is good. Help her figure out a good workable bike for a reasonable price, and the roads will be populated with one more happy fixed rider.
05-23-06 | 02:27 PM
#43
girl anachronism
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 434
Likes: 0
From: Philadelphia, PA
Bikes: cayne uno
I would tell her she is getting ripped off. When it comes to things she doesn't know much about, it sucks to be worried that some ****er is going to rip her off. Obviously you can't do much more than that, it seems. If you get the chance to talk to her again, tell her (if you didn't already) what she will have in the end, try to explain how it won't really be right for her, and then tell her what she does need. That way when she is looking around at bike places, she'll know who is knowledgable and fair, and who isn't.
05-23-06 | 04:32 PM
#44
don't pedal backwards...
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 754
Likes: 0
From: Minneapolis
Bikes: Surly Long Haul Trucker set up for commuting and loaded touring, old Sekine road frame converted to fixed-gear, various beaters and weird bikes, waiting on the frame for my Surly Big Dummy build
Those old Schwinn frames are heavy as ****. Crush or no crush, I think you ought to at least inform her of where she's about to end up and what could be done to make it work out much more desirably.
Find a garage sale ten speed bike with three-piece cranks. Pick up that Mavic CXP22/Formula wheelset for $130 or so and scare up a cog, lockring, and chain. Pretty much good to go.
Yes and no. I disassembled a trashed FFW bike a few months ago for scrap steel. It uses pretty much a standard one-piece steel crank, but the chainring that attaches to it has a set of bearings and a ratchet built into it, so you literally have a huge freewheel attached to your crank.
The rear sprockets are a stack of cogs sandwiched together with spacers between them. The hub-like thing they are all slid onto has teeth machined into it and each sprocket in the cluster has a very simple ratchet mechanism (a spring and a small block of metal to drop into the grooves on the shaft). Basically, the cogs on the rear hub can freewheel, but it takes a bit of force to get them to do so. This is apparently so you won't die if your shoelace or cuff gets in the moving chain.
I actually took the frame and BB/crankset from this bike out one night while drinking, and made it into a FFW singlespeed just for the hell of it. I had a ghetto 27" wheel with a suicide fixie hub and stuck some bars and a brake on it. You could coast going down the road, but the chain keeps moving and the chainring freewheels with a very loud clacking sound. I think I still have the frame in the garage somewhere. I should put it back together like this some time.
Find a garage sale ten speed bike with three-piece cranks. Pick up that Mavic CXP22/Formula wheelset for $130 or so and scare up a cog, lockring, and chain. Pretty much good to go.
Originally Posted by slopvehicle
Interesting-- the rear wheel is a sort of multi-gear fixed hub?
The rear sprockets are a stack of cogs sandwiched together with spacers between them. The hub-like thing they are all slid onto has teeth machined into it and each sprocket in the cluster has a very simple ratchet mechanism (a spring and a small block of metal to drop into the grooves on the shaft). Basically, the cogs on the rear hub can freewheel, but it takes a bit of force to get them to do so. This is apparently so you won't die if your shoelace or cuff gets in the moving chain.
I actually took the frame and BB/crankset from this bike out one night while drinking, and made it into a FFW singlespeed just for the hell of it. I had a ghetto 27" wheel with a suicide fixie hub and stuck some bars and a brake on it. You could coast going down the road, but the chain keeps moving and the chainring freewheels with a very loud clacking sound. I think I still have the frame in the garage somewhere. I should put it back together like this some time.
Last edited by MacG; 05-23-06 at 04:54 PM.
05-23-06 | 05:04 PM
#45
keep it pretend
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,761
Likes: 0
Originally Posted by MacG
Yes and no. I disassembled a trashed FFW bike a few months ago for scrap steel. It uses pretty much a standard one-piece steel crank, but the chainring that attaches to it has a set of bearings and a ratchet built into it, so you literally have a huge freewheel attached to your crank.
05-24-06 | 02:11 AM
#46
seeking simple
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,031
Likes: 0
From: South Dakota
Bikes: Yes!
Originally Posted by powers2b
Chivalry will never die but someone told them why we invented it so now it's just a waste of time.
Enjoy
Enjoy
Originally Posted by MaxBender
While your at it, try to get into those padded shorts in the morning.
By the end of the day they can be quite gamey...
By the end of the day they can be quite gamey...
Originally Posted by asalvador
.. those schwinns are freaking hokey.
