Nelsondamus

I've been browsing through the forum awhile and signed up when my road bike was stolen . Anyways, I've always appreciated the aesthetics of fixie/single speed bikes and decided to build one myself.

Well I just sanded all the old paint off this old frame & fork I got off eBay. Is this a threaded stem?

Primer and paint process tomorrow.

Components checklist: chain, seatpost, saddle, stem, handlebars, handlebar tape, wheels, tires, pedals, crankset, & headset.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks in advance.

onetwentyeight 

bottom bracket, stem, clips, straps, and a brake set if you're going that route.

if its old, its probably threaded. Do you see threads on the fork?

euphoria

Don't forget the lockring and a chain whip.

popluhv

Bottom Bracket.
Before you paint that, could you photograph it some more, and tell us what it is?

mattface 

bottom bracket. cog and lockring. also by "wheels" you probably want a track hub for the rear wheel if you want to run it fixed. Freewheel hubs converted to fixed with a cog, and any of various means of trying to keep the thing on there are called suicide hubs for a reason. It'll cost a few dollars to get a proper track hub, but that's the part that makes a fixie a fixie. Cheap out on the other stuff if you must.

sternmboy

gold paint, gold components, rear brake, zip ties, brake cable, brake housing... i think i might be forgetting some stuff, someone else might know.

helvetica

carbon fiber flag and ti flag holder. the flag should have some sort of spray paint stencil design showing your "liberal-anarchy" support

Nelsondamus

It's a Western Flyer steel frame

Before


After


I was thinking of doing something similar to this.

onetwentyeight 

keep the pinstriping if its not to late. its nice.

rollsroyce

Do you plan on keeping the one-piece crank?

edit: Judging from the photos, it looks like your bottom bracket shell is for a OPC. Thats why I ask. Maybe the photos are just taken from a wierd angle or wierd lighting.

space_robots

Ok, the first thing you do is locate another crappy frame, but one with a functional crankset + BB. Then weld this new frame on top of your first. Put wheels on the bottom frame and run a double length chain from the cranks on the top from to the rear wheel on the bottom. Weld on a section of pipe to the steerer tube on the bottom frame and attach bars or something to it so you can steer. ALL DONE now go RIDE

carleton

Don't forget money. Lots and lots of money.

It's cheaper to buy a fixed gear off the rack than build one from the frame up. Yeah, you get exactly what you want, but you gotta pay for it.

Based on what you got so far, I'd ballpark and say you need around $800. No offense, but I expect that if you don't know if your fork is threaded...you are gonna pay a lot in labor for others to build this bike for you.

Also, TIME. It's gonna take lots and lots of time to get the parts, build the bike (or have it built), and tweak it till it works.

After converting 4 fixies and building 3 track bikes, I'd strongly suggest you buy a bike off the shelf for $500 and customize it part by part when the need/desire arises and money is available. This will get you riding much faster and cheaper.

Good luck.

Nelsondamus

Haha, thanks for the advice. I'm doing all the labor myself...paint, assembling blablabla. Money's no issue, I just need something to keep me busy during the summer. The reason I asked if it's a threaded fork cuz the definition is kind of confusing

dirtyphotons

yes, it's threaded.

that bb shell looks huge, it might be hard to find parts for it. building bikes is a blast, but there's no shame in getting a mechanic's help. enjoy.

gfrance

If you can do it yourself it'll be a great learning experience and you'll get a boatload of personal satisfaction. I recently got mine done, but decided to have it professionally put together because I have no patience and wanted the bike NOW. Picked all the components a la carte, got what I wanted but it cost me. Couldn't be happier with the result though. (FGG 3,388). Get to know all the good websites and do research.

Aeroplane

HELL YES. Get some bad-ass BMX cranks for an American BB (that's what it is referred to in BMX-ico). Then you can have one of those sweet-ass fancy chainrings that all the X-Gamers have. Blah blah for bars, stem, seat, and wheels. Those cranks are going to be the defining characteristic of the bike. Go for it!

Also, with BMX cranks it's very easy to set up a left-hand drive, do that too.

Nelsondamus

Bottom bracket



Can anybody post a link with a crankset that'll fit?

Nelsondamus

bump

dirtyphotons

it looks like that bb shell is for a one piece crank. it has cups pressed into it just like a headset. if it's even possible to convert that to regular, three piece cranks i'm pretty sure you'd need to replace the cups with threaded ones. that being said, i've never seen such threaded cups. either way you're gonna likely need special tools and the advice of someone who knows what they're doing.

Rikardi151

What you have is a one piece, american, or ashtabula bottom bracket shell. rea more about it here you can get parts for it here including two types of kits that are pretty cheap and allow you to use either a modern bottom bracket and cranks, or just mount modern cranks on an adaptor bottom bracket.

also, you can just knock those cups out with an old screwdriver and a hammer. You usually need no special tools to work on a one piece crank.

dirtyphotons

sweet! i've had one of those sitting in my parents' basement for years. can't believe i didn't check harris. thanks rikardi.

alanw

I'm working on a conversion myself, but so far it's been a month of waiting out for that perfect frame. I have a number of parts ready to go but nothing to put them on! How were you thinking of painting the frame? I'd love to see the results when you get started on that so please do keep posting!

What's the general recommendation? to take out hte headset/fork etc before painting?