I just got this bike yesterday.
It's my first conversion, i've taken apart bikes before, but never done a conversion.

So far i've got it's running fine as a single speed with the old cassette still intact. I'm not going to spend any time/money converting this rear wheel cause i'm just going to buy some Black Mavic CXP22 w/Formulas next week.

Other than that what do you guys think i should do to it?
What Saddle? Bars? Tape? Pedals? New Cranks? Anything? Nothing?

Thanks for the help.

Here are some pics...

Before:


Current:

My opinion is to keep it geared and vintage. Then again, I do have a thing for old steel geared bikes.

It looked good in the before state.

Thanks, but I'm obviously past that point.

looks fine.i'd change the saddle but that's just me...keep it if it's ok for you.

I'd get some bar tape. Bare metal gets awful slippery when your hands are sweaty.

You can leave the rear wheel just like it is.

I'd have the front brake using a lever on the right. That way, you can use your brake while making traffic signals with your left hand. It also shortens up the brake cable and makes it look neater. I'd keep the rear brake, since it's a singlespeed. Flying downhill without a rear brake can be scary, especially if there are curves.

If you decide to get a track hub, you can probably ditch the rear brake but I'd still keep the lever for symmetry and also riding on the hoods is a good thing. Adjust the brake lever(s) up to where they were in the before picture. Maybe a hair higher, even.

(sorry, missed the part where you wrote you were getting a new wheelset. I'd still keep both brakes but that's just me.)


What sort of riding do plan to do with this bike?

new bar tape and change the seat for aesthetics... beyond that the bike is beautiful and theft deterrent in its currant state.

Glad to see you bought the univega!

This describes my setup, brake on the right, dummy level left -- I like it a lot, for the reasons mentioned.

Also, I have CXP-22s on my road bike (alloy, not black), and they've done well for me.

hew i was just gonna start a thread about converting a univega. my friend has a univega arrowspeed that he wants to convert to a fixie. any info and what we should start out doing?

I hope those bars are plugged. Unless you like core samples