More noob conversion questions
 

I have a Raleigh Capri bike from the 80's I am wanting to convert to a fixed gear bike.
I asked about new 27 inch wheels and have been advised to get 700c track wheels instead.
The rear hub spacing on the 700c wheel is 120 mm and on the bike frame the dropout measures 125 mm wide. Can I just drop this wheel in and tighten the nuts or do I have to add some spacers to increase the hub spacing?
Also, will the old sidepull caliper brakes work with the new wheels?

for the spacing, don't worry bout it. just clamp em down.

for the brakes, it depends. slightly smaller wheel diameter, pop em on and see.

You can just clamp down the spacing. The brakes may work, some of those old ones have pretty long reach. If the pads were 4mm from the bottom for a 27" wheel, you should have room to adjust them.

I realize that this is a relatively old thread, buy figured it better to dig it up then start another.

Today I picked up a Raleigh Capri for 5 bucks, in decent shape, needs some cleaning up, but I also would like to convert the bike to a fixed gear.

It will be used mainly on a college campus, kinda curious if anyone can point me in the right direction, as far as where to look for parts, what I need, that sort of stuff.

I'm into riding, ALOT, but i'm on a much newer bike (06' Trek 1500) and want a bike I can feel comfortable locking up and going to class.

Any help is greatly appreciate.

Brett

I bought most of my stuff I needed for my Capri from Niagara Cycle Works. They had free shipping over a certain dollar amount spent. Check around on the net for the best deals you can get at the time. I also bought some track wheels from bicyclewheels.com and a cog and chain from the Trek Store of St Louis.
I ended up buying a crank set, pedals, chainring, brake pads, brake cables, chain, cog, freewheel, wheel set with a flip flop hub, tires, tubes, handlebar tape, and a seat.
The bike turned out real nice. All I need now is a better set of handlebars.

bump
i found a raleigh capri single speed (http://tucson.craigslist.org/bik/592450862.html) on craigslist for $110 obo, and i was thinking o f getting it to convert it to a fixed gear. is that a good deal, or would it be a better call to spend the money on a better frame and find the rest of the components for cheap?

bump again

Total ripoff. He took an old road bike that can be found for less than 50 easily, stripped some parts, and threaded on a bmx freewheel. With a few wrenches you can do that quite easily for less than 60 bucks with ease, and less that 40 if you wait for a good deal. All you need is an old road bike, and a 12-15 dollar freewheel from the LBS.

ive been slowly gathering that from what i read online, but i just needed a confirmation, thanks.

now for a different opinion.

If it has newish chain, tires, bearings, and brake cables and pads, then go for it. Spin off the freewheel and spin on a cog and bb lockring for $20.

It's true you can get a cheap entry level road bike for 50 bucks less, but adding all the parts you need to get it running good will cost you some money. Also, you can't ride that $50 to school or work tomorrow. You can ride the bike.

hahah oh dear im conflicted now. you have a point though, the main reason i was considering it was because im kind of needing a bike to ride where i need to go while i repair my other bikes. my dad says he saw some used single speeds at the bike shop that were better quality for the same price, so tomorrow im going to ride down there and see what they have.