One hundred years of Solitaire

Given this is a fixed gear and single speed website, I thought I’d post my current single speed project. It’s a Dekerf Solitaire that has been sat in my cellar for more years than I care to remember that I have finally got round to building up. It’s a parts bin build insofar that I have been slowly but surely accumulating parts for it - but I think I have most of the bits to actually get it built up.

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Finding the right forks really slowed me down. Dekerf tuning forks are rare and expensive, I had planned on fitting a set of Pace RC37s I have but the steerer was just a little bit too short. After a lot of half arsed searching I saw these De Salvo’s on eBay and got them resprayed by Colourtech in Dartford - they did a pretty great job at colour matching them to the frame.

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Nice 👍

I had something Speedvagen Urban Racer inspired in mind - that is to say a hybrid. After having some Phil Wood singlespeed hubs built up as 29ers for something else I got them rebuilt as 27.5 for this - an expensive change of mind. It has Planet X Rivendell copies on the at the moment but there is space for something a bit chunkier.

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Getting in here early - unlikely dibs if you ever sell.

This is going to be amazing....looking forward to it.

subbed!

Thanks for the enthusiasm everyone. @Josh I’ll keep you in mind 😉 - I but let me finish it off first. Aiming for mostly silver finishing kit but went a bit wild a while ago and bought a set of Whiskey Parts Milhouse bars on the basis they looked cool and quite like the MK1 DMR Wingbars I have - I hope they feel alright.

Very cool frame and the forks kinda suit it - looking forward to seeing it done

Sorry for the lack of updates - though the slowness feels very much in keeping with how long it’s taken the get this far. The delay has been mostly due to my inability to measure things, namely the width of a bottom bracket shell. I’d assumed (big mistake) that being a mountain bike, although quite old, it would have a 73mm BB and even ordered a new spindle for the cranks to fit. Those took ages to turn up from the US so I sort of forgot about it. Anyway when they arrived and I came to fit the cranks I realised (after a lot of head scratching, swearing and drinking cups of coffee) it’s not 73mm it’s 68mm. After even more messing about I worked out it’s more like 67mm at the edges of the EBB - eventually I’ve got the cranks, chain and pedals on. Chain lines looks not terrible, chain ring clears the stay, everything is torqued up tight. Now just need to steal the brakes of my Gunner and find a seat post clamp that’s the right size and I’m pretty much ready to go - expect another update around Christmas.

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So, I think it’s pretty much finished. I may put some bigger tyres on it at some point and it’s over-geared (or I’m under legged) for much more than a gentle incline and I may put a layback seat post on it. I’m enjoying the silver, green and tan/brown parts. It’s surprisingly light compared to the Kona Humu - but probably not that surprising given the parts, smaller wheels and the fact the frame has one less tube. Anyway here are a few photos. I’ll take a better one of the whole bike closer up at some point.

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Great bike, well done

Thanks - great praise from you, especially given that it has black spokes and rims.