Possible conversion...not worth it?
 

So, I have a solid road bike...my Lamond is capable of more than I am right now for sure! But for those shorty, round-the-towner type rides, I sure could use something a bit more awesome...something that won't require me to change my shoes if I want to ride. I think fixed gear (maybe ss) would be the way to go...so...

I have this old schwinn road bike....about 30 years old, no idea on the model, steel frame...was running more-or-less functionally about a year ago. It's spent a lot of time not moving, leaned up in back of a house, lots of rain...

I know the thing is covered in rust...and most parts would probably just need to be replaced (or gotten rid of in the roadie -> fixie conversion)....but is it worth it to try? How much am I going to have to spend to get the cheapest possible conversion to a rideable fixie? Is it worth the value of the pile of rust I've got sitting there?

1) Pics
2) Read Sheldon's fixed conversion guide then post something meatier

strip it down to the frameset, strip it down to bare metal, paint it with a couple of spraybombs, get a decent rear wheel (~$150), use the old bb if it's not munged up (see the next paragraph...), keep your bars & stem if you can. You might need to replace the headset if it's really bad, but chances are you can take it apart & clean/lube it.

Does it have a 3-piece crankset, or a 1-piece? (3-piece is where the drive side crank has a 3 - 5-pronged spider to which the chainring is attached) If it has a 3-piece, you're all set. Clean it up, decide what ring you want to use. 3-piece also means that it will use a different bb than an outdated 1-piece. If you have a 1-piece crank, you can just take off the front derailleur and carry the extra chainring around until you come up with a more permanent solution. The retail portion of Sheldon Brown's site (Harris Cyclery) has a part that will allow you to mount a modern bb in your 1-piece shell (which is larger than the bb shell of a frame intended to use a 3-piece crankset), if it turns out that's the type of frame you have.

Get a cog & lockring to go on your new rear wheel. Use Sheldon Brown's gear inch calculator to determine what size cog you need. about 70 gear inches seems to be a pretty popular number.

Shorten your chain, or get a new one. 1/8" would be better for a fixie than the 3/32" chain it comes with, IMO, so make sure your cog & chain width match up. As for the chainring, it's alright to leave that 3/32". Shouldn't cause any problems. My drivetrain is 1/8" with a 3/32" chainring, simply because I haven't bothered to get a new chainring yet.

Done.



make any sense?

makes perfect sense, thanks! First hurdle: the bike is 100miles away...

It is also possible to sweat out the rear drops and put in track drops. Check out my site www.clarkcustomcycles.com and look @ the rattle can racer. It is an Bianchi Team frame and it got two more years of life before it ripped @ the ss/bb joint not my fault. If your bike has forward facing drops you can get away w/ just a track wheel and whatever parts it needs to get running. Good luck fix gears rock.

I did the same thing to an old but cheap Schwinn World Sport. It's not a great frame and it's a little long in the wheel base for my tastes, but I "invested" in a decent set of wheels and a single speed Sugino crank and kept the other parts for now. I figured if I hated it, I could re-sell the wheels or convert them road hubs. It turns out that I like the fixed gear riding a lot. Now I am scoping for some bull horns and if I can find it, a better frame. I will just move my bits and peices over to a better frame if I find one. I would go for it.

I second Schnee's comment on reading Sheldon - I learned a ton from Sheldon's articles.