Track ends - newbie question - Craig David

Did you email Rotrax? They never responded to me.

If your frame is not ultra-valuable, your local reputable blacksmith/steel fabricator can do this with his eyes shut-it's not a black art.I cut the ugly seatstays and cheap pressed steel track ends from my Pompino got Columbus seatstays and the Long Shen cast track ends welded and brazed to (near) perfection for a drink.Bolt in an old wheel to make sure it's all square an true FTW(Red wine also FTW!)

The problem with going to a steel shop is the likelihood of them having correct drop out aligning tools..

What you pay for at a bike shop is not only the brazing, but also the frame finishing afterwards.. aligning the ends, checking the frame is true, if not... making it true..

Some prep can go into it as well.. making sure the bottom bracket height isn't going to be too far from original.. Cutting the chain stays shorter to make the clearances better suited (or making the clearance worse? basically making them tighter) as well as filing the track ends to make a good fit.

It is quite a job, i have done about 5-6 sets now.

how much do you charge matt?

Unfortunately i dont have the oxy/ace in my workshop anymore...
The only way for me to do it is through bikefix on their prices. £120 inc track ends

smallbrownbike - thanks. I guessed that this might be the case. Thanks for the knowledge sir.

I'm also thinking of chainging an old frame to horrizontal drop outs. So i'm looking at about £120? Also this is a big question, but does anyone have a list of recomended parts for the rest of the conversion?
Ts its my first conversion and there seems to be a huge variaty of kit out there. I am thinking middle of the road in terms of price. Any suggestions?

for the trackends, go to superted @ fixedgearlondon....

+1 SuperTed. I don't know how much he charges (think it's £60 but may be wrong). Either come to London and give it to him, or send it to him, postage on frames is about a tenner?

tedfgldn@gmai

I like the sound of converting my frame to track dropouts, I was thinking about making some dropouts on the water cutter at uni and making a jig so i could braze them myself at some point

Craig David isn't a cheapskate, he's a true honour to Britain.

craig david also loves to talk about himself in the 3rd person

craig david also loves making shit music

about 100 at bob jacksons. considering it myself, what with livin in leeds.
http://www.bobjacksoncycles.co.uk/repairs_pl.php

go for it, get torchin, i put track end on my old road bike. but a word of warning; cos road drops hang below your chain stays and those track ends are in line with them your back wheel will move higher into the frame, what i mean is, your might have clearance issues with your bridge, and it drops your BB too. anyways what have got to loss but a dead road frame?

I got a quote back from Rotrax, a frame builder local to me, and they quoted £200. WTF!

Is the road trax shop still open... thought it closed down shortly after I left uni in soton.

I'm not clear why track ends are seen as desirable.

Obviously vertical drop outs which give no chain adjustment are no good without a derailleur, but ordinary foward opening road ends which were fitted to the vast majority of steel frames until fairly recently are fine to use with single speed - fixed or free.
This type of end was invented for use with single gear and was seen as an advance over 'roadster' rear ends which were the same shape as track ends but normally used with chain adjusters. The benefits of the forward opening ends were (and still are):

1. Easy rear wheel removal. The chain drops out on the wheel and can be left on the front sprocket, also, if there is a back mudguard it can be left in place.
   
2. If a double sided hub is used and the wheel is turned to use a different size sprocket so the wheel is in a different position in the slot, the sloping angle of the ends will cause the rim to remain in line with the rear brake blocks - this is not the case with track ends which are normally mounted horizontally. Just think of those pre-war Tour riders turning their wheels at the top and bottom of mountains!
   
   

Rotrax's price may well include a respray - personally, I've given up worrying about paint on frames for everday use and if I had to do a repair of this type I'd just wire brush the joint and give it a couple of coats of red oxide.

Just a final note on d.i.y. frame repairs. Silver solder is much easier to use than brass and nearly as strong - possibly stronger, because there's no risk of overheating the steel tubing. The extra cost of the silver is significant in the cost of a whole frame, but not when making a repair of this type.

@Lucas - I emailed them after having checked out their blog. Dunno if the shops still going. Where about's is/was it?

@clubman - Thanks for the knowledge sir. Appreciated.

@TheCrane - It ACTUALLY turns out; Craig David is a real life sucker! (...and I am not Craig David after all. Had you fooled though right!? ...what with coming from Southampton n'all!).

Superted's prices sound good.

@Lucas - I emailed them after having checked out their blog. Dunno if the shops still going. Where about's is/was it?

@clubman - Thanks for the knowledge sir. Appreciated.

@TheCrane - It ACTUALLY turns out; Craig David is a real life sucker! (...and I am not Craig David after all. Had you fooled though right!? ...what with coming from Southampton n'all!).

Only Shirley High-street near the town end (which makes sense because they had a Shirley Lane batch of bikes). There was a crap Marin/Trek/Scott Dealer across the road, total arsehole used to run the shop.

There is another shop run by two blokes which I think is opposite the brass monkey bar, used to stock Trek/Lemonde/Specialized, can't remember for the life of me their names or the bike shop name.

Only Shirley High-street near the town end (which makes sense because they had a Shirley Lane batch of bikes). There was a crap Marin/Trek/Scott Dealer across the road, total arsehole used to run the shop.

There is another shop run by two blokes which I think is opposite the brass monkey bar, used to stock Trek/Lemonde/Specialized, can't remember for the life of me their names or the bike shop name.

G A Cycles - that's the only one I can think of on Shirley High Street. That might be the asshole one then I guess..
The shop's I go to are DHC in Woolston (friendly bloke in there, Dave I think) and Rock and Road nr. Northern Bridge.

G A Cycles - that's the only one I can think of on Shirley High Street. That might be the asshole one then I guess..
The shop's I go to are DHC in Woolston (friendly bloke in there, Dave I think) and Rock and Road nr. Northern Bridge.

G A cycles that is it, owner is complete nob-jockey.

I never ventured into woolston :(.

easy!

peasy

lemon

squeezyyyyyy!

chicken