my turn.

100-tt frame i found craigslist
15-seatpost
14-bullhorns
5-front hub
15-front rim
25-rear hub
70-rear rim
60-spokes
100- wheelbuilding (650c track wheels are hard to find)
19- dura ace cog
30-bullet proof cranks
10-bartape
30-fsa seat
20-two different stems
20-pedals
20-soma toe clips
10-bottle cages

so plus small things I spent 600ish

Dignity

A new boring bike, just like everyone elses while a perfectly good frame is just sitting in your garage. Some people have very good reasons for conversion. Me for example, my bike was converted from my road racing bike from highschool/college. It was also my 1st decent bike, 1st real road bike. Until I converted it, it sat in my parents barn for 16 years? That frame alone is worth more than 5 kilo's or pista's. to me.

I also believe half the fun of a fg/ss is building it yourself.

Preach on brother! I have a 1986-87 Nishiki Modulus that was my first real bike when I was 14. It's just a frame and fork now, but last year I did build it up as a fixed gear and had the time of my life on it. I probably should dump some cash into her one last time...

Do you mean at high speed? No fixed gear can really corner at high speed. Not relative to a good rider on a road bike, at least. That's one thing that I've been noticing. We're becoming a generation of avid cyclists who don't really know how to corner.

Totally rational. Unless you don't want a new bike.

I only convert bikes that already have a flippity-flop on the go circle, so all I have to do to convert it is put my arse on the dingle shaped part of the chair.

conversions are for converting not riding.

Here is mine:

Bike w/ all original parts on it- free
Cog- $3
Crankset (old road double)- $5
Tires/tubes- $15
chain- free
chainring bolts- $10

Total cost-- $33

I rode that bike with no lockring on the stock wheel, I had a front brake, but only used it as the "oh crap!" brake. I did skids, and used my SPDs. The cog only came unthreaded once, even though I rode down mountain roads with it all the time. I miss that bike.

I think the first one I built came out to 350 or 400.
When I broke that frame, the next conversion cost like 175, including the wheelset I transferred from my first conversion. By now its probably cost 240 or so, including new cranks, bb, chain, stem and bars.

My conversion:

'77 Raleigh Grand Prix - complete 10sp - free from trash
15T Dura Ace 3/32 cog - $14
Forte bar tape - $6
SRAM 8sp chain - $10
Aztec brake shoes (2 sets) - $12
Rim Tape - $4
Brake cables/housing - $12
Winwood strapless toeclips - $10
WTB saddle - bin
Conti GP2000 tire - bin
booted Conti Gatorskin - bin
various wheels with bent axles, bent rims, etc. free from trash - reassembled into wheelset with rear freewheel hub re-spaced and re-dished - free from trash.
BB lockring - bin
Phil Wood grease to repack all bearings - in toolkit with cone wrenches, freewheel tool, BB spanner and HS wrenches.
Used original seatpost, stem, bars, brakes, HS, BB, crankset, 40T chainring, pedals.

Original 30 lb 10sp converted to 20 lb fixie with suicide hub (hence using rear brake).
Cost = $68

It was originally a $44 conversion, but the brakes sucked, so I replaced the cables and pads.

I'll probably throw some old clipless pedals from my tandem on it soon...

Remembering from about 2 years ago:

$10 for Marushi
$130 for rear wheel/rim tape/cog/lockring/tire/tube (ordered from LBS and they tensioned and installed everything for free)
$20 for discount bin seat

$160 total. That got me a decently working fixed gear. Over the next year or so, I switched some things out and spent a little more money, but for the purposes of the OP, I didn't include them.

Frame was free, but had to transport on a plane, $50
Rear wheel with formula hub and lockring - $107
Brake cables - Had lying around, but i think they were about $12
cog - $20

I also bought a work stand for an unrelated build, and that was about $120

I don't think i will swap parts or upgrade it much because it is a low end motobecane from the 70s and i don't really feel like dropping the cash for a bike i use for fun rides only.

Edit: I may put some new bar tape on soon, so assume another $20

Miyata complete bike minus seatpost and saddle:$10
shimano 105 cranks: 12
53 tooth ring: had it
shimano un53 bb: 25
generic seatpost: 13
Selle italia turbomatic:3.50
american classic/mavic rear wheel: 80
formula/mavic front wheel: had it
coda stem: 3
profile bullhorns: 1 22oz beer~ 3.50
cane creek tt lever: a gram of weed ~10
Modolo brake: 7.50
surly cog: 21
lockring: 4
z chain: 4
gatorskins:had them
clip-on fender:had it

total: ~$196.50

I think my first conversion ended up costing around $300

haha I just realized I already posted in this thread, and I was $43.50 off in my other post.

Used bike from the local co-op for $40. I actually did the volunteer program so I got the bike for volunteering some hours, but if I were to pay for it they valued it at $40.

$bike - seatpost
$bike - saddle
$bike - bb
$bike - crank
$bike - pedals
$5 - toe straps
$75 - wheels
$bike - chain
$30 - freewheel/cog(s)
$bike - stem
$bike - headset
$bike - bars
$5 - tape
$30 - tires
$10 - tubes

Overall I spent about $175 after shipping for all of it, plus some tire levers and presta/schrader adapters.

I built it all at the co-op so I didnt need to worry about buying any tools.

You can get away with doing it pretty cheap or you can replace everything and spend alot at which point you probably should just go buy a new one.

my old trek conversion:




$15 frame, which i rode for a couple years as a twelve-speed,
$90 rear hub and labor,
$70 front wheel,
$100 cranks, BB, and ring,
$20 pedals,
$12 chain,
$70 straps

so right around 400. i wouldn't ever want to spend any more than that on a conversion, but when it's just on components that are going to stick with you (i am still riding on those wheels years later) it's understandable.

it was a good bike, and now that i have enough stuff lying around to build it up again, i think i will.

That head tube design is sick, how'd ya do it?



As for my current build,

$75 for old Tunturi 500R (keeping frame, stem, fork, front brake)
$10 for busted Bridgestone Kabuki (salvaged drop bars)
$68 for Sugino XD 165mm crankset
$33 for MKS Sylvan Tracks, Toe Clips & Nylon Straps (Ben's have $5 off combo so straps were free)
$8 for Chain
$7 for Brake Cable

That puts me at $201 thus far. Still need to get a Bottom Bracket ($20), Wheelset w/ cog/lockring ($160), Tires/Tubes ($30). Saddle ($10... hopefully), and Top Tube Pad ($20 - don't hate I've got brake braze-ons on the top tube).

So altogether I'm looking at around $450-$500 once I put all the finishing touches on. Sure I could have gotten a BD or other complete bike for that, but where's the fun in that? Plus this is my first build so it's as much about learning and customizing as anything else. I wasn't as price conscious as I could be, but oh well, I'll have a bike that I can ride and I don't think I'll feel ripped off in the end. Additionally I look at some of the stuff as investments, if I find I'm not crazy about my frame after awhile I can upgrade for another $200 and swap most of the components. Or I can just leave it as is and move onto another build and try to do it even cheaper (or more expensive!). The options are endless!

I just finished building up a conversion for a fellow at the shop...

The frame was a handbuilt Proctor (famous local builder) that he scored for $250.00 , the wheelset was a deal at $250.00, tyres and tubes were $80.00, and his 1 spd chain ring was $60.00.

The rest of the needed parts were salvaged form his old Trek 2200 road bike and were all nearly mint Dura Ace.

I figure that his conversion is worth at least $1000.00 and you would be hard pressed to find another bike this nice for that kind of money as it was built with the best of everything...the frame is off the hook as it's all Reynolds 531 with a lot of custom touches.

This is to be his winter bike...

My most recent conversion...

Frameset: $125 (this was my road bike till I got an awesomer road frame and I actually got it in a trade, but the frame I traded it for was $125 so we'll call it that)
Wheelset: $125 (w/cog and lock ring)
Seatpost: $20
Brakes: $20 (Shimano 105 from swap meet)
bb: $25
Crankset: $20 (Dura Ace Road cranks from CL)
Bars, stem, chain, tires, tubes, tape, brake levers, cables, pedals, powergrips, saddle: parts bin

Total: $335 plus parts bin stuff.


(pictured w/ different calipers)

[QUOTE=eucarya;7708285]That head tube design is sick, how'd ya do it?



Thanks. It was done by the painter. Dr. Deltron (Mark Bunten) who posts on the C&V board. The original headbage was gone before I got the frame. The face or gargoyle as he called it is made of cast silicone. It is glued on and smoothed out w/ some bondo on the edges and then painted. He (Mark) use to have company called Bikelangelo and they made a number of different faces you could add to your ride.

[QUOTE=fender1;7708695]That's dope. It reminds me of...



...or at least if the Goblin King rode a fixed gear.

I must the king of cheap builds...

I found Bridgette in a trash heap and had bought a Raleigh Super Grand Prix for $40.00 that provided the wheel set... the Ideale saddle was $15.00, the stem and bars were $10.00, the SR crank was free, the rear cog was salvaged from an old coaster hub, and the tyres were $24.00 new. The cloth and shellac on the bars cost me a few dollars in materials.

All in all... she cost about $120.00 and has carried me 10,000 km since I built her.

[QUOTE=Sixty Fiver;7708975]I must the king of cheap builds...


Dude, you work at a co-op!!!! If you couldn't do a cheap build I don't know who could.

Well off ebay:
10$ Seatpost
10$ Decent Seat
25-30$ Bottom Bracket
35$ Bulletproof Cranks
10$ Pedals
150$ Weinmann DP18s
4$ Amazon Chain
10$ Cog
7$ Stem
15$ Headset
15$ Bullhorns
7$ Crappy Tape
50$ Frame
Total: ~ $350
That's of course with some of the lower end components so its definately not hard at all to build a conversion for under 500$
For 500$ you should be able to build a pretty decent fixed gear or singlespeed with a 50$ frame
That leaves you 300$ for components (wheelsets ~ 150$)

[quote=fender1;7708999]I do tend to pay more for parts then what we would charge members but the perk is that I often get dibs on some pretty choice bits.

Since I build my own wheels that saves a lot of money and i don;t need to pay a mechanic.

When folks come in to build / convert bikes I tell them that with a set of decent wheels they are probably looking at about $400.00 for a nice conversion.

We pulled this nearly mint Kuwahara out of an LBS dumpster and in the course of a few hours had it turned into a fixte with a suicide hub... the cost of parts was $50.00.

Raleigh Grand Prix frame and 27" front wheel- $25
Rear wheel-free
Dishing rear wheel- $15
Cog- $10
Chain- $15
Shimano Deore cranks- $10
Bontrager Select tires- $30
Paint- $15
Saddle- $25
Seatpost- $15
BMX Platform pedals- $25

Total: $185-
Although adding this up makes me realize how much I've actually spent on what was supposed to be a budget build, what I've gotten out of the deal is a healthy love of riding fixed, and a bike I actually enjoy riding to and from work and class every day. So I guess its worth it.