Somebody said it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.

-- excerpt from "It Couldn't Be Done" by E. Guest


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/11...55ed31ce_o.jpg

Here's a Univega that I converted back on 2003. I got the donor bike for free (friend's garage or maybe the back of a bike shop) and still spent $500 on:
- Rear wheel (hand made)
- Cheap front wheel
- Tire for rear wheel
- Pedals
- New bars
- New stem

It was a POS.

Two questions:

What was wrong with the original stem, bars, wheels, and pedals that had to be replaced for $500 (especially when you can buy the used bars/stem/wheels off a Pista for next to nothing, or so I've heard)?

Why, specifically, was it a POS?

wrong fashion.

you got ripped off. still, it has all the necessary ingredients, if it was a POS then that's nobody's fault but your own.

Back in 2003 there wasn't much of a fixed-gear craze. Not lots of parts around.

My thoughts:
- The geometry was slack for my taste.
- The bad chain alignment
- The horizontal dropout wasn't very long, so I was either on the back end with a slack chain, or the front end worried about yanking the wheel forward.
- Couldn't use chain tensioner so I didn't have consistent tension.
- The cable guides on top would catch my nuts. Owie owie owieee.
- The results just weren't worth the time and money invested. I spent $500 and countless hours hunting for or waiting on mail-order parts for a bike that didn't even look good.
- It didn't exactly fit. Was a bit too big for me. But it was free, right? That's when I learned that if it doesn't fit, it doesn't matter how free it is.




Yeah, much of the above could have been remedied by spending more time, money, or effort...but then I would have had to spend more time, money, or effort.

Um...exactly.

noob dumpster diving is the new .... ah, forget it.

Yeah if you can't make it fixed let it go to the landfill with the Starbucks cups and other trash!
Why on earth would you bother to pull out a perfectly good frame that isn't "cool"!

The only thing you mentioned there that is a good reason not to convert a free bike is that it may not fit you well. That is a very good point. One that you didn't make in your original post, but very good.

The rest of the points you make have to do with personal taste and your buying parts you didn't need instead of a new bb spindle and a half-link.

So kids, remember these three rules if you're thinking about a conversion:
1. Ride a bike that fits you
2. if you are on a tight budget, don't spend $500 on **** you don't need.
3. (I assumed this went without saying, but apparently not) Don't ride with your ball sack out.

Also, in case any noob actually ends up reading this thread, look here for inspiring conversions that cost less than $150:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/cont...s/results.html

Oooohhhh.... thanks for the public service, man. Way to fight the good fight against nube discouragement. Onward!

Actually, I thought you had a few good points that might be helpful to someone out there, but they might have gone over better (and your intention to discourage discouragement might have come across better) if it were a tad less pompous/preachy.

But, whatever.

I hear ya. Good point. The whole tongue-in-cheek part was lost on some that read the piece and heard a voice and tone that they expected but was not intended.


How about this. Everybody re-read it with a dry, pompus, quick-witted, Brit tone a-la Zero Punctuation and get back to me.


(I should have used the word "knickers" more...)

Ha... It's cool... I realize you were just trying to help (I remember your DIY thread... that was a good one and helpful).

Also, nice link Sr. Huero… that link to FGG has some great conversions for cheap.

There is nothing wrong with dumpster/curb/free bikes. As long as they fit you or a freind, are not damaged, and are worth the time to fix up. And there is a difference between patching up an old bike to ride and making a fixed or SS conversion out of it. If all you can find is a Schwinn Traveler you might want to just keep it as stock as possible and ride it around. If you are broke and have your heart set on a conversion go for it, but realise that you are not starting with a good base. In theory you could get away with respacing/dishing the wheel, putting a track cog and BB lock ring on the wheel, and taking the shifty parts off. If you know what you are doing the wheel will be OK (not great, not even good) and the old Schwinns look good. If you do not know what you are doing you will end up with a bad chain line, wobbly wheel, flats, and a lock ring that likes to pop loose every time you try to skid.(Or you will pay someone to do it right. The above bike is also what you find when someone claims to have built a fixed for $15)

I would say look for a decent 70-80s steel road frame. And it can be a dumpster or found bike, there were thousands, hundreds of thousands, of these bikes sold, so they are cheap at the least. You want semi-horizontal dropouts, and set up for 700c if possible. Go ahead and buy a flipflop wheel for the back. You should be able to get one for $100, sometimes less. Sometimes with the cog and lock ring on it. Then either respace the frame or respace the wheel. If you still have chainline issues get a Miche BB, they can be adjusted for chainline. Everything else is personal preference.

One thing, when you dig a frame out of the trash make sure it is not ****ed up. There is a reason the frame is in the trash and it is not always because someone was tired of it. We throw frames out because they are damaged. Split/flared head tubes, twisted, cracked. We cut the dropout off, but some shops just toss them. If we have a decent bike that is not worth the trouble to fix and resell it goes in a nearby bike rack and usually disapears in a day or two. (Then shows up at the shop to get the twenty things wrong with it fixed)

What I am saying is scrap bikes are fine just make sure you are not building a death trap.

Amen, Reverend. Good post.

I think you are just still bitter after blowing $500 and failing so miserably on that thing, that bike ****ing sucks!

i guess actually agree with everything. even the thing about horiz. dropouts, and you remember that little talk we had a week ago. i never said they were bad, remember....

yeah, dumpsters can yield good stuff, some people are dumb about what they throw out.

OK, serious question. This really interests me: is it possible to convert with some special hub (like, some sort of external bearing hub) a normal BB shell into an eccentric? Without actually touching the BB shell itself.

White Industries makes an eccentric hub. It is a flipflop, very nice, very $$

And to repsond to the quote, from carlton, in your post. Just about all older(say pre 85) road frames have semi horizontal drop outs. All but a few are deep enough to have decent chain adjustment.

my .02

dumpster diving and coverting/fixing an old bike has some merits that cant be ignored, but carelton is mostly right in that such an undertaking is over the head of a noob. i dont say this to be condescending but the facts are unless you

a) have the appropriate tools to do all the work yourself (shop labor tends to blow the equation of making a conversion economical)
b) can look at a bike and know exactly what it will need (in parts, $$, and time) to make it work at the level you desire
and c) have a some sort of stash or good access to the miscellaneous parts needed to round out the build without getting nickeled and dimmed

without those, doing a conversion really can be a loosing battle, especialy if attempted on a frame that wasn't great to begin with and you don't know any better. we've all seen those guys who fall in love with that slightly bent POS sears-roebuck frame, get it powdercoated and then hang $500 worth of new parts on it. WTF?

but that said a conversion can end up being a better bike than a new fixed/track ride. classic road or touring geometry is arguably better for the type of riding most of us do than pure track geometry. If you are savvy you can also get frames of a better quality than what is being offered at the same price point new today. Also, if you aren't looking for a Cadillac, a thoughtfully put together conversion can be a suburb value with few compromises.

so to completely discourage conversions of "dumpster bikes" is a little much. but noobs should understand the learning curb and potential loses they are up against before they get too excited about that rusted Raleigh they just stumbled across.

any old bike is better than some chinese pos.

Don't hate on others cus you f*cked up...

I also converted a univega I found in the trash:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2045/...5e28bf56_b.jpg

Wheelset = 150
grips = 15
brake and lever = 30
spray paint= 15
tires and tubes = 45
saddle = had it laying around
cranks = $65
peddles = had em
stem = (not needed but made the fit a bit more comfortable, original was CRAZY short)

that equals 320 for a bike with a formula/cp22 wheelset and RDs... it weighs in at just under 21 pounds (on a legit scale at the LBS, no BS)

This was my first fixed gear and my first build, and a very good learn process. I love riding it and loved building it. I can't think of another sub $350 bike I would enjoys this much. and any of the sub $500 bikes on the market woulda come with wheelsets I woulda had to replace within a year...

hate to say it but, for what that bike is, you paid too much. could have certainly got a used complete of equal quality for less. at the end of the day the frame ist still what makes the bike.

a bike never adds up to the sum of its individually purchased parts. NEVER.

Wait a minute... That bike's gotta be showing a good 18-20cm of post. If it's too big for you, the saddle should be lower than normal, not higher. If you can ride it like that, not only is it not too big, you shouldn't be catching your nuts on any part of the top tube, even if they hang like a Nuremberg defendant.

Thanks Rev.Chuck, but I used really bad wording. I know about the enocentric, I have laced a wheel with that hub and now it's on one of my bikes. I was wondering if the bottom bracket shell itself could be made to work as an eccentric BB shell with some special BB.