I've got a nice old Schwinn Le Tour frame and fork sitting here and was planning on building it up into a nice, shiny singlespeed. The problem is I have little working knowledge of what it takes to piece a bicycle together since this is the first bicycle (frame) I have owned since I was 5. (I'm 20 now)

Are there any parts in particular that I will have to pay special attention to sizing correctly to my bicycle? I'm assumed the bottom bracket might be one of those parts. Perhaps the wheels/hubs too?

Hey, I am in the same position; building my first fixie from a Raleigh Grand Prix from scratch, so i understand how you feel. What i planned to do is to just let my local shop build it for me, but i make sure that i can come in and work with them and learn from them, i think that's the best way.

anyway, as for wheel, i am going for 700c just because it's the most common out there these days, which means more choice, and since i am a beginner, i am planning on getting a flip flop hub for fg/fw conversion.

sorry about rambling on, just excited to meet someone who's also building a fixed gear for summer project (i assume). btw, i also own a 1990 le tour (except it's not fixed ....) well, good luck

Building a bike is simple. I just recently did one for the first time and it was fun and satisfying. From now on I will build all my bikes.

Anyway, you definitely need to know the BB size, head tube size if you need a headset, seat post size, width of the rear drops and you also have to make sure that your crank and cog lineup. The biggest issue I had was getting the proper tools. If I were you I would grab a cheap tool set like this Sette one that I have. It has pretty much all the tools you need. The only thing it might not have is the right tool to screw in the BB. If you need to install the headset I would just have a local shop do it cause you need some specific tools for it.

Anyway good luck and have fun.