looks great so far. If the seat goes get a Brooks and keep that retro look going.

I just learned something incredibly obviously but even more important. If your brake isn't adjusted well it won't stop you fast. This wasn't as easy as I figured it would be.

What I just did in the last hour or so.

1. Clean brake service fairly well
2. Installed KoolStop MTB dual compound pads
3. Broke them in and tried it out; braking was no better than with crappy pads
4. So I moved the lever to the other side because I noticed the brake cable was "flexing" because of all the tight bends; braking was only slightly better, but still nothing to write home about
5. I then adjusted the pads so they are a hair away from the rim brake service; The rear wheel goes up in the air when I panic brake. Sadly they now squeal like crazy at the same time. Sigh.

This whole process of building up a quality conversion takes up a heck of alotta time. So these are the pads I got. I am very impressed with their post build quality; very nice.

Kool Stop Dual Compound Mountain Pads

Toe your pads in. It can make a world of a difference. This is to say that you want the front of the pad to touch before the rear of the pad. I usually loosen the bold holding the pad on and put some spacer between the trialling edge and the rim [cardboard], clamp down the brakes and tighten the brake pad bolt. Check and repeat if it doesn't seem the leading edge hits the rim first.

Good job so far, sounds like you have learning lots. Next time you ride it try something for me, get going at a comfortable speed and lift your hands a few inches off the bars without changing the position of your body. Can you do it? If not

Thanks for the Toe-in tip; will do.

Did you loose your cell phone signal?

I have actually tried this, and my face was headed right for the stem. I have done enough road biking to know that I have too much pressure on my hands, but I'm not sure how much I can adjust the stem, and the handlebars are plain uncomfortable.. I need to decide on what brake lever to use so I can order the TT bar.

heh not sure what happened. I won't preach about fit then, sounds like you are well aware. From the picture it looks like you could shove your seat back and angle it back just slightly but ya... either way better bars are needed.

These KoolStop pads allow toe in adjustment (they have cupped washers), but man did I find it tricky to do. After probably 20 minutes of fumbling with the thing I finally got the toe in about right.

Squalling is totally gone, but I'd say my stopping power is also down a bit...

make sure the braking surface of the rims are clean. I'll take some rubbing alcohol and wipe them down to get any oil/dirt,ect off of them. If they are really dirty take a rough sponge and clean them then use the alcohol. Some people use brillo pads but I don't like the idea of possibly scuffing/scratching the surface up with those. Also check your pads every so often and if they're glazed take a piece of sandpaper and remove the glaze from them.

OK.. I just found this site that lets you select all your stuff and make an image of what your bike 'might' look like.. Kinda fun, perfect for a dork like myself

So.. I kinda liked this the best, kinda to my surprise. But it has a nondescript black leather saddle, brown sidewall tires, and riser handlebars.. It just seems to match the old school looks...

Note to myself; measured the handlebars, they are 25.4 mm

Lookin good.

Kool stops squeal something nasty when new, especially on a new rim, toe-in is necessary but X-treem turbo toe-in like what it might have taken to shut them up will be less necessary once they wear a little, which will help with the stopping power.

Creaky saddles are usually from loose clamp bolts, and many creaks that sound like other stuff are actually the saddle or the chainring bolts.

The 25.4 stem will fit all risers. I kind of hate risers for no good reason, and I don't ride them because I ride long distances, but tons of people love them. I always thought this bike was so amazingly old school and beachy that it should have some kind of cruiserish bar with white grips, skinwall tires, and a black brooks. I did white tape on mine, which looked great for the 5 minutes it was clean.

I'm trying to resolve the 'tight' bottom bracket, and started a thread in the Mechanic forum:

New Shimano UG53 Bottom Bracket tight

tOK.. It turns out that it is just bearing seal drag causing the issue; so no worries. The bike is currently sitting in my living room with BB/cranks off, and no wheels. I had to return the wheels to my Langster so I could tune it up before my girl gets back from vacation (she rides the Langster).

I took the cog and lockring off the wheel though, and was hoping to use them for my Fuji(when the wheels arrive). The lockring is a stamped metal POS so that isn't going to be reused, but the cog is a Surly model. It looks pretty well made but for some reason sheldonbrown.com says "not recommended". I haven't dug into this yet, but that is my next step..

Chry

i'm about to check out a berkeley for myself. is the city big enough for two? haha.

No, I was here first!

If the frame looks nice pick it up; they ride really well, and everything is standard size. I'm not sure the weight of the frameset but for a steel frame it is reasonable. I borrowed the wheels/tires off my Langster to do the buildup, and the final weight is roughly 22lbs. I put the wheels back on the langster, an aluminum compact geometry 56cm frame and it weighed only a pound less. Honestly, I'm baffled, but that is what it weighed.

My Fuji is sitting at home in pieces.. I even took the brake pads off so I could finish the Langster tuneup(which is done, rides nice again). I'm going to roll on the Langster(which is SS only now) and the Motobecane until I get the new wheels on Wednesday. Before then I'd like to find a set of risers and a nice brake lever, but hope of finding something local and cheap is fading.

OK.. I think I settled on a seat!

I really wasn't huge on putting a Brooks on the bike, and I think I am going to go with a Sella San Marco Regal. In many ways it fits the bike well because it was a popular road saddle 20 years ago, when the bike was made. Also it looks exactly like I want.. so.. yah, that works.

Here it is on a bike, and than again up close:

They don't recommend them because you can get the same thing badged Rockwerks rather than Surly for less money, not because there's anything wrong with them.

Maybe this isn't the place, but I have a white Selle San Marco Regal that's up for grabs if you're interested.

Ahhh.. That's right, I remember reading that.. Thanks.. Saves me $30

Honestly I like the white.. I think it'd go nice with the white letters on the side of the bike, but if I went white seat I'd want white bartape.. And since I'm going to ride this around the city nearly every day with no gloves its gonna look like poo in no time..

Let me think bout it

sometimes I wonder about myself..

I took the seatpost out last week hoping that the diameter was stamped on it someplace; well I didn't see it.. But I need a new seatpost and I don't really want to pay retail, so I figured I'd look one more time; guess what, it is right on the silly thing.. sigh.. 26.6mm

Anyway, now I can order that.. yay..

Well well well.. My wheels came from bicyclewheels.com; and I must say they look very nice.. Packaged well, and I am very happy with them so far. I threw on the tires that had come with the Langster (Mondo's or some junk.. One of the tires has a small cut that went through the rubber and there is 2-3 mm of slice that went all the way through. I had ridden them that way for a week or so without a major failure; so I figured I'd give em a try. For a little insurance I put some duct tape on the inside of the bum tire and stuck it on the rear.

I also picked up another pair of those Koolstop dual compound brake pads. So, blah blah, I put them on and the bike rides very very nice.. The new wheels+new brake pads stop the bike like a mofo; crazy stoppin powa.

The bike still isn't DONE; but is quite ridable.. I'm pretty sure I want to do drop bars now, and of course I still want to upgrade the seatpost/seat. I weighed it just a few minutes ago and I think it was 22 or 22.5lbs; can't remember. Fairly light anyway.

Ok.. on to some photos. The first two are just basic shots of the front and rear wheel; and the last shot is of me taken in the Boston Public Garden about 2 hours ago.. Enjoy:

nice, ill be heading back to brookline the beginning of september. nice bike

Your Bikes's looking good. I'm working on my first conversion now too. Its a chrome '77 Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2; I've taken off everything (except for the fixed cup on the BB...cant get it off!!!) and am now waiting for parts coming in the mail:
-Mavic CXP-22s with the formula flip/flop (black)
-Sugino 103mm BB
-Sugino RD cranks black
-Sugino 48t ZEN chainwheel
-EAI 18t cog
-700x23 Conti Gatorgrip in the back
-700x23 Vredestein Fortezza up front

Already have my:
-Tektro brake up front (with plenty o' room to drop the caliper since the bike is sized for 27" wheels)
--Selle San Marco saddle

Still need to figure out:
-a good 3/32" chain
-if I can clean & cut the stock handlebars to bullhorns, OK; if not then I need to find something that'll fit a 25mm stem


Once I have everything in hand, I may need to go to my LBS (revolution cycles in DC) and see if they'll take the fixed cup off and install the new BB. Not sure I have the right tools to get the cups really tight on the new one.

Read this page from Sheldon Brown about how to make a tool to remove the fixed cup. Shouldn't cost more than a buck or two. I sprayed mine down with PB Blast and let it sit for 5 minutes before trying and the fixed cup came out remarkably easily.

Your build-up sounds sweet.. The track BB and crank will be nice; I don't really love how the bulletproof/rocketring combo looks on mine.. (reminds me of a circular saw). Are you planning on using a drop bolt for your front brake? That skeeves me out.....

conversions all the way mofos

yeah, i'm thinkin that the drop bolts look like a guillotine for my tire. The Tektros that I had on th 27" rims still had another 1/2" to drop the calipers, so I figure/hope I should be OK.

I might give Sheldon's DIY fixed cup tool a try. On the other hand, since I've started ordering everything online for my fixie...I kinda feel like I haven't really been giving my LBS much bizness. They're great, and I kinda feel like a cheap bike-wh*****re buying everything online and then asking them to do the work for me...but then again I'd rather do the work myself and learn about my ride.
Wheels should be here in a couple days, followed by the crankset/BB, then the tires. Fingers crossed I'll have everything together by next week.