Road to fix conversion
 

Hi,

I've got an old steel frame collecting dust and I'd like to turn it into a fixed gear. It's an early 80s Tom Ritchey frame, steel, lugless 63 cm. 74 degree parallel angles and a high bottom bracket. I've never been able to sell the thing, just too attached. It's got horizontal dropouts. Sooo, is there anything preventing me from removing a bunch of stuff, and going fixed? The rear hub now is set up for an old school freewheel. Does that work for a track cog and lock ring? Would it be prudent to build a new wheel? Do old Campy cranks accept track width chainwheels? Also, kinda hilly here. I was thinking 44x17. Is that about right?

Thanks.

No.Works for the cog, but not the lockring. Depends how much of a risk you are willing to take. Loctite + rotafixa torquing are enough for some folks. A lot more would call it a suicide hub.Yes.Chainrings are available in a variety of widths (chain compatibility) and BCD's (crank compatibility). Yes.Probably. There's no way to know without trying.

best bet with the gear ratio is to try on a geared bike without shifting, that way you'll be able to find out what sort of gear inch you like to push.

I say go for it. I ride a converted DiBernardi and love it. I run my old 42 campy on the front (had to replace the chainring bolts w/ shorter ones) and a 17t track cog out back spun on with no lockring (wouldn’t fit) some say I’m nuts but I kept both brakes on.

Good luck