jdbassi

[Name's Jhun (joon) and I've been riding singlespeed/fixed for about 9 months now. I've developed my knowledge over time about how to take bikes apart, maintain them, etc. Buying the right parts for my conversion was a pretty tough task for me at first but after reading ways on how to convert an old road bike to singlespeed/fixed; it seemed quite easy.

I bought an old 10 Speed Open Road by Montgomery Ward for a pretty cheap price and was well taken care of. I tried researching about the brand for so long and eventually gave up because the history of the brand wasn't too broad on the internet. I felt that my bike wasn't worthy enough because it wasn't popular, known, or just heard it had bad geo. I put maybe $250 altogether so far on my bike converting it from a road to a simple singlespeed/fixed. I always felt that conversions weren't too "cool" either, but I seem to be fine with it. What do you think?]


EDIT: just riding brakeless, not sure what brake to use for the front on my conversion.


Before.

After.

cinemattic

super clean rebuild man. congrats

vw addict

kewl story brah

UCF Eric

Looks good, ditch that reflector though.

Jaytron

Looks pretty sweet.

rustybrown

No breaks and non drivside.

Like the colors, tho.

jdbassi

Oh thanks! I'm thinking of getting an threaded to threadless adapter to use modern stems; would that look tacky, or just stick with quill stems. Ya I was gonna take off the reflector awhile back, just got lazy.

vw02

keep the quill, earlier styled bikes deserve earlier styled parts. i think quills look better anyway, especially w a lugged frame/fork

jdbassi

mm okay, thanks. I just have trouble sliding my bars on quills, especially the one in the picture. It was old when I got the bars, and the person i bought it from just gave me that stem. it was a 29.5mm stem going into a 26.0. is that bad?

streetdude

It's pretty bad, yeah. You should get a shim, although 29.5 is an unusual clamp diameter. Is that an old standard or something?

EDIT: Are you sure it's 29.5mm? I don't see that size listed on Sheldon: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-handlebars.html

jdbassi

i'll make sure i read correctly when i take a look at it later but i remember it saying 29.something before i put it in. it is unusual.. it's made by oval.

WeirdOddity

hmm....if you had trouble sliding your bars into the quill...i would guess that your stem clamp diameter is slightly smaller than your bars. Probably 25.4mm. I dont think anyone made 29mm or larger bars from that era...though I might be wrong about that.

get some brakes, but otherwise, your bike is very nice

mth4life

Great job on the conversion, I think it looks great!

EpicSchwinn

It looks great. It would be sweet to re print or paint the emblems back on in blue or other complimentary colors. It would help separate you from this crowd.

...

homebrewk

Boom.

jdbassi

yeah, i really have to unwrap my bar tape and take a picture of my bars to see what size it really is, cuz the last time i remember, it was as close it could get to a 26.0mm.

jdbassi

aha, those bikes are super colorful.

jdbassi

On brakes, could you take them apart to make the screw longer? Cuz I can't fit my brake on my bike cuz the screw's too short for me to put it in.

sorry for triple posting!

jdbassi

Bump?

jdbassi

Ah, oops it was a 25.9 not a 29.5. My bad..

Verbose

You can't really extend the screw. You can often go down by using a shim, but making something too small fit on larger bars is rough. If you are looking for cross bars, I'd recommend Tektro RL726. Just got them off ebay for my 26mm Nitto bars and they are great.

jdbassi

They're Oval A700 bullhorns 25.9mm going into a 26, shouldn't that work? I mean, they're already on it but yeah, just saying that it was hard trying to push it all the way to the center.

Verbose

Are you talking about brake levers or the stem. That's probably why nobody is responding, it gets more confusing each time. Either way. Round peg, square hole. Get a new whatever for 10 bucks and everything is fixed.

jdbassi

yeah, i think my stem problem is fixed. trying to put a brake from a windsor a friend gave to me on my conversion isn't working out. screw is too short and i read that it most modern stems have the nut as long as the screw so they could meet halfway in the fork or rear brake bridge. so unfortunately i can't use that brake. not sure what to do with it now but give it back to him. still running brakeless. front or rear wouldn't fit.

Veloh

You need a nutted brake; your friend's s recessed. An alternative is to drill the hole to use recessed.