De Reus project

Hello,

1st of all let me introduce myself.
I am Hugo, a 25 year old guy from the Netherlands, recently (about 5 months ago) I discovered the fixed gear bike, bit late deffo.. but it caught my attention, always being in to hiphop, graffiti and skateboards/skiing I decided to give it a shot to create my own bike.

So the journey started to search for a good frame that I could use for building my 1st fixed gear.

Started off with searching in some second hand shops for some old racing bikes.. Offcourse after gaining some information in what to look for.

Nearby the town I'am living in I found an old Jan De Reus bike (a racing bike maker from the Netherlands back in the days). I was looking at it and it looked great so I got it for just around 40Euro's, which is certainly a bargain considering how it looked.

So I was off... got my 1st racing bike and give it a shot.. Took all the parts of that wouldn't have any big plus factor on my bike and got a clean frame:

Picture beneath of the frame:

Then the next step that I was thinking about is to get rid off al the paint, so I got myself some antipaint from albastine and blew it all of to it's bare metal..
What a work.. the big part is easy, the paint came off good, but now I need to finetune all the little parts that are hard to reach to get a clean job..

Currently still working on that and I am almost finished.. Meanwhile I decided to look for some wheels and got these beauties (Gipiemme's) of Tonta Cycles in Naarden (great guy, cheap parts and good service)..

Picture of the wheels:

Front wheel:

Rear wheel:

For now, so far so good..

Next step is a total clean frame (done for 95%) and I will upload a photo of that as well.
Later on in this week I will order some more things (bottom bracket, handlebar, crankset and some more items I need to rebuild this bike).

Hope you guys and girls enjoy,

Hugo

recently (about 5 months ago) I discovered the fixed gear scene, always being in to hiphop, graffiti and skateboards/skiing I decided to give it a shot to create my own bike.

So the journey started to search for a good frame that I could use for building my 1st fixie.

There is no scene*, and there is no such thing as a fixie. Your new bike will be in the HHSB thread within seconds of your posting completed pictures.

*There was, but it closed to new members three years ago

Nice start, are you going for a clean frame, or letting it resprayed?
And if ur looking for some cheap parts, I may have some stuff for you. I'm from the netherlands ;)

There is no scene*, and there is no such thing as a fixie. Your new bike will be in the HHSB thread within seconds of your posting completed pictures.

*There was, but it closed to new members three years ago

Allright thanks.
Didn't mean to use the wrong words in my post, adjusted it hopefully correct now. I'm not searching to be any part of a group or scene (for so far that's possible now a days..),
It's basiclly a project that get my head off things and work on a good riding bike since public transport is getting expensive for me at this moment.

Nice start, are you going for a clean frame, or letting it resprayed?
And if ur looking for some cheap parts, I may have some stuff for you. I'm from the netherlands ;)

I am gonna respray it myself (matt black), a friend of mine wants to do it.. He is in spraying cars, but it will take a few more weeks, and since I got some experience spraying graffiti I think I can handle it myself with some good materials.

Thanks for letting me know, I will keep that in mind whenever I'm searching for some parts.

What was wrong with the old paint? Jus askin?

What was wrong with the old paint? Jus askin?

The old paint job lost it's magic, wasn't so great anymore... few minor damages and scratches..
After I'm done respraying I will be putting on a new decal of Jan de Reus, cause it shows some respect to the original builder of the bike.

Old paint never loses its magic, it's called patina..

Allright, so far so good..
Today I decided to go ahead and work on my frame and colour, shaved the last parts of it to get it clean, used some cleaning materials to get all the dirt off the frame and took the primer in hand to spray the 1st few layers on it.

1st of all a picture of my naked frame:

2nd a picture of the frame with the first 2 layers of primer attached to it.

Next up is another layer of primer, which will be getting attached later on this evening, after this is done I will stock my frame in a dry heated place to let it dry for 24 hours before attaching the paint and protection layer on it.

Kind regards,

At this point can i convince you not to do the chalkboard paint job?

I would go for the professional sprayjob... even if it takes a few weeks.

Within a week your new spraypaint frame will be more damaged then the old paintjob was.

At this point can i convince you not to do the chalkboard paint job?

With some valid arguments ;).. Still thinking about the paintjob, after several comments about the possible end result and the chance of quick damaging it might be an idea to get it done properly by a professional, even if that takes a bit longer.

So I will reconsider my options and look for a good adress nearby my home, still hoping that friend of mine can do it fast in time so I can get the bike up and running in max: 2 weeks,

Sometimes quality needs time, and it will be a better idea to go for that!

Thanks for the tips all, I will get back when I got some more information.

Do you have the wheelset from Tontacycles? Do they allow braking?

Do you have the wheelset from Tontacycles?

... got these beauties (Gipiemme's) of Tonta Cycles in Naarden (great guy, cheap parts and good service)..

(first post)

Do you have the wheelset from Tontacycles? Do they allow braking?

They allow breaking, but they don't have a specific part on the rim for breaking, he recommended me to get brakes which got cork in them to minimize the damage on the rim and to not make it a lot of noise, metal can be squicky after a while.

I came back from my color and decided to go for darker grey instead of the matt black, I think that will suit my bike way better in combination with the other parts.

It will be powdercoated with a RAL color (if that's a brand).

Next week I be heading towards Naarden to talk some things over with him and make a good selection of parts for my bike which will suit me well.

Kind regards,

TIt will be powdercoated with a RAL color (if that's a brand)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAL_(color_space_system)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAL_(color_space_system)

Yup, that's the one :) Seeing some nice colors in it so I am looking forward to the paintjob!

Allright,

2 weeks later.... Did all the things that needed to be done, had it resprayed.. Got myself some new parts and would love to show you the end result, so here you go.

Thanks everyone for the tips and support :)

Kind regards

two words: foot retention

Bar angle. Whut?

brake?

I really like this thread and the effort you have gone into for a first fixed gear bike, I am sure you will enjoy riding it more because of all the effort that has gone into building it.

I do agree with the above posts though: dont ride that until you have foot retention. Footstraps such as Holdfasts will work with those BMX pedals. There are many other cheaper options online etc if you look around (its also pretty easy to make your own).

Also, the angle that your bars are at will make the bike handle really strangely, you should definitely change the bar angle by around 90 degrees so that the grips are above the height of the stem.

A front brake would be a good idea but not 100% necessary as long as you have foot retention. If you dont have a brake, make sure your gearing is fairly low to start with. Once you have figured out riding fixed, then slowly gear up if you need

Congratulations on the build and best of luck riding it.

Turned out nice! Much nicer than matte black could ever be.
I agree with the posts above.. + lowering your stem and rising your seat would make your ride a bit more sportay.

Hi all,

Thanks everyone.
Got some decent footstraps, will put them on tomorrow. Deffo will have a look on the bar and will be using all the tips that you gave me :)
Agree that the chocobrown is better then the matt black, glad i made the change.

Was a nice project to go on, had fun building it and will be making another one when i got a chance to do it.

Kind regards,