William, I have a Bianchi Veloce that I converted to fixed gear with Track ends about a year ago for my wife. She never liked it and it is now sitting on a stationary trainer. It is 55cm and has Shimano parts and Suzue 32 hole NJS hubs on Mavic MA 3 wheels. If you are interested, PM me and I will send you some closeup pics and detail the particulars.

fixedgearhead@ecr.net

I'm thinking... I'll email you and see whats what. Regardless, thanks for the offer!

The bike died on the way home, specifically, the cranks started wobling, so I had to walk it out to the trolley. Bummer.

I played with the Bianchi last night, and stripped out the bottome bracket, and then put it back in again. This time I used very judicous torque to get the crank side on tight, as well as the lock ring. I'd have to use a breaker tube to get it on anytighter. The whole thing is ovaled out.. I'm not sure how that happens or happened, perhaps a bad install, perhaps to much wieght (me 6 foot 2 and 190 plus stuff).. or just an old frame (1981 or 2 nears I can tell).


Anyway I'm gonna ride it for a few days and see what is what with it. Perphaps as Dorf suggested, it'll hold out. I rode it in this morning and really worked it (hard starts and all) it didn't get loose.

The frame was "only" 65 dollars, and there are some other (pretty sweet) things out there for reasonable prices (I got an email on a really sweet sounding bike).

I guess the crux of my "complaint" was a fear of throwing more money and more money into something that was not gonna hold up, and that perhaps buying something new would be a more durable option. The sad thing is the bike feels like it's got a soul, and I hate to give up on it... Just the way you feel when you build a bike I gues (or rather assemble one I should say).

I'll have to see.

Fix the BB, ride this bike for awhile. Write the money off that you have spent as a learning experience. Save money to buy the bike that you now know you REALLY want.

That's what I'm doing.