Dawes Touring Bike

Just bought a Dawes touring bike. Paid £72 for it, so I can justify my choice to do away with the back hub, crank set, seat, drops and replace the broken mudguards.

The drop-outs aren't totally horizontal but it can still be converted to single speed can't it? Has anybody got any other suggestions for this bike project, it's my first so I'd like a bit of input from those who have done thier own. Cheers

keep the big red light.

I've had two Dawes touring bikes converted fixed. Both for polo. That's not really advice though. More like a statement.

nice buy, what's wrong with the saddle!I'm sure it would convert fine.

Haha yeah that red light is phat, it's staying. Not sure why I don't like the saddle I think I'd just like to update it to something similar to the Charge Plug saddle?

From the look of it, it's a B17 saddle, it's defintely a very comfortable saddle once you get used to it, otherwise just get the Charge Spoon if you're after aesthetic than function (although the Charge saddle is comfortable).

give the brooks a chop, everyone is running them nowadays :)

don't throw the canks away. Even if you don't use them keep them, or give them to me.

Those randonneur bars are quite nice. The rear rack is nice too, for small panniers not giant ones. Get rid of the 'suicide levers' (the ones that reach under the tops of the bars). they are just wrong, and don;t work well. I think you can take them out of levers and use them without. Get some hoods for the lever tops. For new mudguards, go for SKS Chromoplastic, £30 ish. When you replace the guards, you'll need to remove the calipers so give them a good clean and a drop of oil where they rub together, and where the springs meet them. Put some white Fizik tape on the bars. It's cheap and its lovely, wet or dry. Keep the saddle unless it's killing you. Old ones can reach a good price on here/on eBay.

New wheel: I'm guessing those are 27" (aka tyre size 630)? If so you might have a job finding rims and tyres, but not impossible. Online, try SJS, Spa cycles, Madgett's in Diss. They all have rims and tyres for 27". You could do worse than buying a rim and tyre from one of them, a hub from on here or eBay, and ask someone here who builds wheels to do it for a few quid, there's plenty of wheel builders here. I reckon Madgett's would sort you out with a complete wheel for fairly cheap if you phone up and ask nicely, if you wanted to save the hassle. There's a guy who works there on this forum, I think it may be randombadger.

Have fun!

Anything I take off and don't need, I will probably sell through this forum, I've never had any need for more than one speed so I don't think I'll start now ;)

Skully: Yup they are 27" wheels, I'll keep an eye on Ebay for the next two weeks and if nothing turns up I'll attempt a build. Cheers for the heads up on guards and wheel info, next pay day is going to be interesting!

I've never had any need for more than one speed so I don't think I'll start now ;)

best not to says that too soon! there may be some ride that you want to do where a geared bike would be a lots easier to ride on (says, a 120 miles ride for instance, or mountain ride).

I love fixed wheel bicycles, but the idea of spinning on one gear ratio for 120 miles is somewhat off putting, especially on the Pyrenees!

get a bluemells pump for that pump peg on the downtube.
Contact Pete at Dawes for period transfers (be nice, he may send them for free).
peter.crowley@dawescycles.com and laquer them on. DON'T say I sent you.
Singlespeed is going to need a chaintensioner...that gear dropout limits adjustability
Love the period patio.

Gotta love the Dawes so comfortable :)

Out of curiosity, does anybody know the year and/or model name for this Dawes? In the auction the seller stated they didn't know.

I thought the semi-horizontal dropouts had enough adjustability to ride single speed without a tensioner? Or does it just depend on what ratio I choose?

What is the general concensus on tensioners here? and finally (to Horatio), did you fix a tensioner to either of your Dawes Tourers?

So many questions! :-O

yes it have room to make adjustment, after all single speed bicycle in the past tend to have horizontal dropouts like the Condor Tempo;

I've had two Dawes touring bikes converted fixed. Both for polo. That's not really advice though. More like a statement.

• 1.
  
  

concrete island, i reckon horatio did what he had to in order to make that bike his polo rig. to me looks like you have a nice little tourer there. ss if you must, but you could just enjoy as is.

Keep it geared, that dog's to young to die.
+1 on getting rid of the suicide levers though,

If I kept it geared would I have to leave the forum? It all depends on how my money looks in a couple of months time, if I have enough cash put aside by then, I'll get myself a Plug or Fuji and I could leave this with its original giblets but at the moment all I want to do is convert a bike and figured this would make a nice middle ground for touring and satisfying the taste for single speed life.

Pic of dropouts:

But please, keep it geared, if you're going to buy a new bike (I see you're interested in getting a Charge Plug), you might as well keep that geared, having a geared and a fixed wheel bicycles is the best combination.

dont want to be negative but i dont think you should convert that. yes you can make is FG/SS, but its never going to be a zippy fast bike as its designed for touring. keep it geared and find an old racer to convert if you must.

i did some lightweight fixed touring and thought it was fine, but now ive had my geared bike for a while i think youd have to mad. i love riding with one gear, but not when you trying to cover lots of distance across country when your hauling a bunch of weight.

3 speed fixed wheel FTW!

I really can't wait for the new S3X hubs to be released.

i want one too, but i dont think itl be much use for touring. 3 gears that are wide apart is always going to leave you in completely the wrong cadance for the terrain. itl be great for everyday riding as imagine you just stay in the top gear (3rd gear-direct drive) for most of the time like a normal fixed, but then you have the smaller gears for backup when you hit an incline (2nd gear) or a hill (3rd gear). when you factor in the weight of touring equipment being in the right gear is more important.

from my limited experience of touring i found that antyhing that isnt quite right about your bike is really going to annoy you when your doing long miles day after day. ive doen it on fixed, but at the time i didnt know any better :)

check the seatpost size to gice you info on the tubing, branded dropouts another sign of quality frame. Convert it if you want for sure, depends how quick you like to ride about town, if you bomb it about get something lighter and faster and just tart this up as a day ride geared bike. Thants what I reckon anyway.