I'm gonna pull the trigger on a CAA9 Optimor 3, but I'll have this '06 OCR2 left over. What's involved in turning this thing into a fixie?

Well, let's just assume you have some cash lying around if you're upgrading after one year-ish.

I'd buy a White Industries ENO eccentric fixed gear rear hub. This will allow you to have proper chain tension in your vertical dropouts. Lace that to the rim of your choice. Purchase a cog and lockring Then, get a crankset with the proper chainline (42mm, typically) and you're ready to roll. Enjoy!

yea, ENO hub, Surly Fixxer conversion, or formula hub spaced for 135mm are all good options.

Except, it has vertical dropouts. ENO is the way to go.

I would suggest just respacing the rear cassette. It might not be fixed but you also don't have to spend $200 for a ENO rear wheel.

Doh! Totally slipped up on that one.

Should I pull the brifters and replace them with regular brake levers?

I'd leave them on first and get new brake levers if I find I like fixed, but still don't want to buy a new frame. Esp. if there's no other road bike to put them on.

Or just give them to me!

personally, i'd just sell the ocr2 and use the money toward a more "fixable" bike.

I think that's the way to go. Get yourself a frame with track dropouts or a sweet vintage frame with horiz. dropouts. Sell the OCR.

Agreed. I have 50 bucks. PM me.

agreed. since you will have two bikes why have
-a nice road bike
-an OK road bike that cannot coast

when you could have
-a nice road bike
-a track bike

get a soma or a bareknuckle and have fun building it up

It's possible he wants to keep riding a road frame that he is familiar with... road geometry and the like. Not everyone likes track geo on the street.

So, I agree... go with the ENO hub.

maybe, but everyone should try track geo. it is way more fun. road geo makes a ride more BORING, IMHO

+1 on the ENO hub. One thing to consider is the BB drop- remember, you can't coast through corners. You can increase clearance by setting the eno hub in the "down" position, but some road frame/long crank combos are just scary with respect to pedal strike.

I might go with a single-speed conversion instead... I kinda want to do this on the cheap, so I'll likely hack an older set of Xero wheels with spacers and a single gear. I figure the Truvativ crank has to go in favor of a single-speed one? Also, if I go cheap-ass, I guess the frame needs a chain tensioner?

If you just want to do single-speed, simply remove one of the chainrings from your crank, line up the cog with the chainring (spacers should allow you to be almost exact) and run a chain tensioner.

That's it, really.

he said on the cheap

not cheap looking

I ride the Xero Xs3r wheels with a 18t cog and spacers,never had a problem. but you can also diassemble the freehub,clean,and replace the grease with JB weld. find a perfect gear combo with existing cogs on the cassette,and it might only cost you the price for JB weld.

As a rider/abuser of an ENO hub, I highly recommend it for turning any contemporary road bike into a fixed/singlespeed. Helluva good product, through and through, and it really makes life running fixed on a vertical dropout frame a breeze.

Hello,I am wanting to buy an old bike and convert it to a single speed super commuter. I have been looking at frames on ebay. I think I want to use a road frame, maybe something light and fast or something older and stylish, I guess i should just make a decision. Oh and I hardly know anything about bikes other than my own old one. This thread has been really useful. I'm wondering about the geometry issue. I commute on pretty busy roads. Why might I not like track geometry? Theres a frame I am watching on ebay, its dimensions are 55 cm top tube and 55 cm seat tube. Does that sound tracky? Please feel free to respond to me like a know-nothing!

That's a start. But angles make a bike tracky. slack angles on that and it'd be another cruisy road frame. Steepen it up and it'd be great on a track.

Thanks...when you say tracky, do you mean the way it steers/turns? I'm guessing anything will feel a bit more exciting the old hybrid.

if you were in the market for a new frame, then you'd want to try different bikes with different geometries. since you are not in the market for a new frame, just work with what you've got.

WRT handling, the important geo factors are the angles of the seat and head tube relative to the plane of the ground, the rake of the fork, and the wheelbase