Project problems...
 

Well, I set out to build my winter beater today, and we made some good progress, but ran into some problems as well. I cleaned up the head tube and bottom bracket shell, cleaned the bottom bracket, greased it up, and put it in. Cleaned the cranks up and put them on. Cleaned and lubed the headset, and put it on along with the fork. Threw the front wheel on. So far so good. Then I went to put my seat on. I got the seat and seat post from an abandon bike at my friend's building. Sadly, the seat post is way to narrow for some reason. Ok, handlebar time. Both stems I have are a little too wide to fit into the steerer. Grr. Oh well. Rear wheel. I cleaned up the hub and lubed the bearings and everything then put it back together. Spacing is way too narrow. I need to space it out with some washers or something..

So, I got about half way there I guess. Below you can see the pretty orange frame, nifty Shimano 600 cranks, fat tires, rear wheel isn't actually attached, the headset and bottom bracket are sure buttery smooth though. :)

-Jason

Stem: Older American Sports/Tourers used a (now) hard to find stem diameter. The outside diameter of the steerer is the same as standars 1", but it has a thickerer wall yielding the need for a smaller stem. Sheldon has stems to fit.
Seat-post: Get thee to a LBS, they should be able to size it up.
Rear hub: Longer axle with serrated lock-nuts installed inverse. See Sheldon's page on fixed gear hubs for an idea.

If you head down to Working Bikes (http://www.workingbikes.org) you can find whatever you need for that old school Schwinn. Cheap too.

I have a similar old schwinn and had the same problem with the stem, I solved the prolem by using a grinding wheel to taper down the bottom part of the stem, and then used some emory cloth to smooth it out.

jason, that frame is small for you, no? since you ride a 59cm pista with the seat way out...

Uhm, yeah. It's just the one I had though.. Now that it's being annoying I may just try and find a better frame. I don't even need to build another bike but now that I have these 700x35 tires I want to use them for something! :rolleyes:

-Jason

Ideally, you'd find a frame for 700C wheels, with enough room for fat tires and fenders. I am weary of 27" frames now, after building my fixie and running into all sorts of issues with fitting fenders and brakes to it. (Since i have 700C rims) I'm planning to get another frame in the spring and move my parts to it.

to whom it may concern-
why dont you just use 27" wheels w/ 27" wheeled bikes, and 700C's for a frame that accepts 700c's?

ive always thought its a pretty bad idea to put 700c wheels in a frame made for 27" wheels, lowers the BB height, brake issues, fender problems, etc..
at bikeman.com they have double walled 27" rims, only place ive ever seen them.....

on my raleigh technium i have cheapo single-walled weinmann 27" rims and have never scraped a pedal thanks to the stock BB height i maintained (and the 165mm cranks)........plus the rims are still straight as an arrow and philly roads arent the smoothest around!

so what im trying to say is, save some bucks and get 27" rims for bikes that accept them, even single walled rims can take a big hit!

Because your rim/tire options are extremely limited with 27". Plus, since 700C's are so common, you can find used wheels very easily, and are likely to have a few around, for exactly this kind of project.

So I don't know... If you have a 27" frame and a few 700C wheels around, I'd be tempted to put a bike together :) And I did.

I've got a 27" frame with 700c wheels too. It's nice for tire clearance, plus as shrimpx mentioned there are so many more wheel options for 700's.
Havent had any problem with bb height with 165 cranks.
I ran a front brake when I first got the bike without a problem, just needed a longer caliper. I'm sure a drop bolt would have worked for a standard caliper too.
For fenders, I usually just throw on one that clamps to the seat post on days that look particularly menacing. Easy on, easy off. It works great on zero clearance track frames too.

My Fix has a 27 inch on the back since I had a couple of those laying around when I built it and has a 700c on the front because I killed the old front (ie taco...crash...boom) wheel and I'm not going to waste money on a new 27 inch. I just made sure the brake would reach and voila! Plus it has that cool aero look to it now...I know... 'm a geek.

Hahah, I still have the parts from that bike in my apartment's laundryroom. If you need the stem and seatpost, let me know. Also if you need a larger bike, I've got one sitting around. My friend needs a larger road bike frame, but he hasn't got around to come by in the past 3 months, so I might as well give it to someone who needs it more.

you guys made some good points...now i realize on a 27" frame running 700x40mm tires would probably be the same ride height as with the original 27" rims....

MKRG-- ive been thinking of putting a 700C on the front of mine, i also have a 700C fork i could put on, but i think that might drop the front a little too much....or would it? :rolleyes:

I don't know about the fork since I've never done that. The 700 wheel dropped the front maybe a 1/2 inch. I switched it from a 27x1.25 inch to a 700x23c. I only put this one on in the interest of getting the majority of my tires compatible with each other so I can swap tubes and what not should I ever have to in a pinch. Not to mention that the 27 inch rim cost a couple dollars more than the 700c.

Panasoanic: Yeah, I could use those parts, and/or the bigger frame. Thanks. :) I'll give you an email or something.

-Jason

Well I spaced out the rear wheel correctly, and I moved the chainring to the inside of the crank, and now the chainline is almost perfect. I wasn't sure that that would work out, but since it has I am motivated to finish this bike up now. Only problem now is I gave my front wheel to a friend who broke his Spin playing bike polo..

-Jason

wtf was he using a spin wheel to play polo? i mean, as if those things weren't prone to breaking on their own..

-chris, who hesitates to ride anything but a 32h3x