Carbon SSFG?
 

I'm kinda new to the whole SSFG scene just sorta playing around with the ridiculously red tark bike I built haha. Anyway, since I'm thinking about retiring my Fuji 3.0 professional full carbon bike that I set up to do tri's for a new Cervelo I was wondering if anyone has converted a full carbon bike to a SSFG? Is it just stupid to do this? Would it possibly be a good track bike? I've really been looking at the velodrome in Houston and thinking about training/racing there, would the Fuji be alright if I converted it or should I go with a prebuilt track bike?

I don't think converting a carbon road frame to fixed is that strange of a thing to do.

Where you might run into trouble is with chainline and chainring clearance on the stays.

Trek has a carbon singlespeed that has a belt drive system.

There are also some generic carbon track frame from china on ebay.

Sounds like a bad idea. I'm guessing you have vertical dropouts, which makes riding it fixed nigh-impossible, unless you use an eccentric hub or magic gear ratio. Magic gear is out for track racing, as people generally change gearing to suit the event. As for eccentric hubs on the track, idk.

Furthermore, it will still have road geo, which you may or may not like for the track (and lower bottom bracket, which could potentially be problematic)

An eccentric hub isn't a bad idea, and the hubs aren't that much compared to hubs a lot of us ride. A set of White Industries hubs is still less than Phil Woods or something like that.

When I converted my road bike I used a wheelset built around an eccentric hub. The entire conversion cost less than what I got for selling my road group. Just do a search from my username and I had a lot of information about this.

But I used a road double crank with the chainring on the outside of the spider. My chainline was pretty close with a cog and it was right on with a freewheel.

Well I was talking about the build with a good friend of mine that works at our local bike shop, he was thinking the best option would be eccentric hubs, but about the geo, I have it set up as a TT/Triathlon racing bike so the geo is a lot more stretched out compared to a typical road bike at least in the rider stance. Would it be that huge of a difference from track geo? I have never ridden a track bike or even really researched track racing, I've just recently just started getting interested as I've reached pretty much my peak in triathlon racing I am looking for some new bike events.

Edit: And sorry forgot to ask, road bikes have lower BB? Does that mean clipping pedals when your going around?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/...e73ef769ab.jpg

Need one.

Whaaaaaaaaat that is crawesome!

I can't tell you a whole lot about geometry, but I would think that you would want a true track bike for track racing.

Hit up the track forum and they can tell you if what you have in mind is even track legal.

The belt-drive single speed Madone weighs 12lbs

http://ziprage.com/wp-content/upload...rbon_black.jpg

Is that seriously a full carbon singlespeed that has no intentions of being used on the track? Seems like a lot of effort/money for something that won't be used for racing.

That looks to be the case, and I agree with you. How many of these do you think have actually been sold?

Thats what I'm wondering I want a nice track bike but even something like this I'm not willing to pay 3K+

That bike is not meant for track use at all. It has road drops with hoods and 2 brakes and I'm not sure how well belt drives hold up on the track.

Buddy, just go out to the velodrome (Alkek) sometime when they are having races and see what the trackies are riding. Talk to the racers and get some pointers on what you really need if you are indeed serious about training and racing on the track. It sounds like you are not strapped for cash, so you can afford a nice track bike that was intended for that purpose and still be able to get a nice tribike as well. The reason track bikes have track ends is that we don't just run one gear on the track, and you can't change gearing and adjust chain tension with vertical dropouts. I just came back from a workout at my track (Superdrome) this morning, and used two different gear ratios; a relatively low gear to warm up and then a higher gear ratio for my efforts. Just sell the Fuji, unless you've got some sentimental attachment to it.

i have nothing but praise for my whit industries eccentric hub. it works great, the quality is great, it looks good, and it is designed to be used with the outside chainring on a road double (the sprocket is also offset. if you install it the other way it changes the chain line)

i would also think that a tri bike would have acceptable geometry for track use. it may not be "perfect" but if you own it, why not use it. pedal strike is not an issue on my road conversion and i have 175mm cranks (clipless pedals help a lot)

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...d/DSC00746.jpg

Pedal strike on the road is a different situation than on the track. On the road it is your inside pedal that hits the road when leaned over in a turn at speed, and crit riders on geared bikes coast through the apex of the turn to avoid pedal strike. On the track it is actually the outside pedal that hits the banked turn when you are either going slowly or turning uptrack. Depending on the track's banking, a road conversion with long cranks may or may not be safe on a track. The OP's home track in Houston (Alkek) has relatively shallow banking, so a road conversion might be OK, but my home track (Superdrome) has very steep 44 degree banking where road conversions are strictly verbotten. In any case, riding fixed on the road is very different from riding on a banked track, and I have different FG bikes for those purposes.

thanks TT, i knew it was the outside pedal/bank issue but i was just thinking that if he used shorter cranks he may be ok. i wouldnt be surprised if that bike had a fairly high bb height. some tt/tri bikes have drastically different geometry than a street bike.

thanks TT, i knew it was the outside pedal/bank issue but i was just thinking that if he used shorter cranks he may be ok. i wouldnt be surprised if that bike had a fairly high bb height. some tt/tri bikes have drastically different geometry than a "road" bike.

The only reason I was thinking about converting the Fuji was that I have grown very accustomed to it and have raced on it numerous times(2500+ training, 1300+racing) and thought that being so used to it its geo would help on the track considering how the road geo of it really helped when I swithced it over to tri specific bike. Anyhow thanks for all the advice I think I am going to hit up Alkek and see what its all about there....Time for a radically different subject(and yes I will ask it in the tri section, but just in case haha) Has anyone ridden a cervelo tri/TT bike exstensively?

Wut? Spending an lot of effort and money describes how 1/3 of the bikes on this scene were made. The objective of many (not all) people on this scene is to make their bike look as race as possible. For example, track drops. Track drops only excel in one area: Sprint events on the track. Not even endurance events.

Also, carbon isn't as expensive as it used to be. Actually, it's pretty cheap these days. You can get a full monocoque carbon fiber Planet X (frame, fork, seatpost) for $850 shipped from the UK when last I checked. Pearl white or black that shows the carbon weave.

It's a solid bike. I'm 250lbs and raced the hell out of one last season. I was the 2nd owner. Previous owner was a big guy, too. I've since sold it. Another average/big guy at the track is racing it now. No explosions yet.

Also, watched a guy crash a white one this weekend in a race. Got up, checked the bike, no damage. Raced again no problem. No explosions.

(random pic from velospace. Not my bike.):
http://velospace.org/files/a.JPG

Do you know where I could find one of those online? Also, how is the stiffness on that bike? I like running an extremely stiff bike would this fit the profile? Thanks!

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/bike...es/track-bikes

It's stiff. On a scale of 1-5, I'd say 4. I've seen this bike in photos at the US National Championships and other Elite races. It's the best bang for the buck carbon available. You'd have to spend $3K for a Dolan DF3 or $2500 for a Fuji Track Elite to take the next step up.

A review from 2008: http://www.fixedgearfever.com/module...rticle&sid=864

EDIT: the seatpost and tire clearance issues mentioned in the review were promptly fixed in later releases of the bike. No longer an issue.

So how does the Planet X stiffness compare to your Tiemeyer?

BTW, my coach Jeff Labauve has a Tiemeyer and used to hold the world record in the flying 200m (~10sec flat).