What are a few good conversion frames?

I know peugeots, nishikis, univegas, and motobecanes are good, but what specific models are best?

there are a million good frames. i would say look for steel, nicely lugged (you can pretty much always equate the cleanliness of the lugwork with the quality of the frame/tubing), horizontal dropouts, and not french.

you can go french if you really want, but if the BB and headset are not in good shape, you are going to start running into trouble finding a replacement... luckily velo orange just released their french-threaded BB, but it's not the cheapest, and headsets can be even more of a pain.

Not always. I picked up a '77 Gitane Gypsy Sport, which has lugging like this:



Yet, this is a low-end, probably Taiwanese-made (had an ISO bottom bracket), hi-tensile frame.

That said, I love this bike, and fully converted it only weighs around 23 pounds, even with two brakes, a freewheel and the original steel handlebars. So I guess I'd have to agree with what wearyourtruth said, in spite of my caveat. I'd add removable chainrings to the list, and avoid ashtabula cranks (easily spotted by the huge bottom bracket).

i just made up a single speed for my buddy from a late 70's/early 80's takara frame. i've found a lot of the older japanese road frames are good. they have long horizontal dropouts which are favored.