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@BrickMan
OK, had this 70s Raleigh gaspipe 'Ace' for about 18month now, maybe longer. It was found on freecycle and had already been stripped to ghetto SS, I shoved some old Suntour stuff on there and it was my city/train/shop bike for about a year. This year found a airlite double fixed on 27" in great shape for a few quid, and since winter has been fixed for commuting and spinning like crazy ready for summer.
So inspire by a hacked up french steel touring bike I saw in the rat thread..
I decided the best course of action was to order some dropouts, drink some wheat beer and make use of those new hacksaw blades...
Muchos paint stripper + power sander = anti theft, worked so far
bye bye dropouts
An accident waiting to happen. I've NEVER been a fan of this type of seat cluster with the 'stays just brazed on the outer sides of the lugs. And rightly so, after chopping the other end of the 'stay the left side just popped right off. A quick look at the braze shows its been like this for years. Raleigh build quality at its finest.
Mocked up for 27" + 28c. Then I realised the 27" wheel I'm planning on using is out of true, and 30 of the 40 spokes are rotted to their nipples. For the rebuild I'm going to go for a cheap/free semi-aero 700c rim (anyone?). Which also means chainstays can be cut further, much further.
GT triple triangle track copy. Why not?
Then er.. too much beer happened, and went a bid mad with the hacksaw. Was aiming for about 30-35% removal of tube, but ended up going to about 60% in one place, 40% the rest. Will just have to plate the fuck out of it next week.
Was going to attack the front end too, but really not sure how successful trying to remove tubes from lubs, shorten, re-align etc. Frame is a weird one, its 54 ST and 58 TT, and I prefer them the other way, 56/54 ideally.
Biggest concern is BB height. On 27" + 28/30c it rides 10.25" floor to BB shell. On 700c 23c it rides just under the 10" mark. So I figured with the cut in chainstay length, and on 700x23c I might just get back to 10.25" and hopefully 10.5" would be nice.
BUT. then fork is going to lower it again.... looking for a 700c crown grinder of a fork, something around the 325/330 axel to crown (right measurement?) with a moderate rake.
Geometry could work out OK, but more likely its going to gain a few degrees, ending up somewhere in the 72-74 ball park up front and bugger knows for the seatpost.
Anyway, aim of the project is to produce a super sketchy, scruffy, borderline free, street bike.