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good afternoon ladies & gentlemen,
am working on my second fixed gear/single speed project at the moment. i'm in the process of moving back to london from beijing (via france) and wanted to put together a winter bike/single speed to commute on. whilst i was in asia, i picked up a nice w-base trackmaster which i raced the beijing alleycat on. however, given it's shiny black, bright pink with some white here and there, i'm worried it's going to get nicked.... or at least that's a good enough excuse to build another bike anyway!
i'm hoping that by posting up a few pics and sharing the build story, you guys might be able to offer some good insights/tips tricks etc. also, everyone likes pictures of bikes.
i managed to pick up a beautiful old peugeot from 'eurocash' (a pawn shop basically) here en vendée, france. there was a whole rack of the things, most of them in top condition, ranging from 15-70+ euros depending on the condition. i picked this up for just 30 euros (about 25 quid) which i thought was alright:
it was already quite a beautiful bike to be honest, as a regular road bike rider it felt almost wrong to pull it apart! however, i knew i was going to get more out of it as a singlespeed and it was probably past it's glory days.
i started by stripping it right down as standard which was much easier than i thought:
the cranks and chainrings were both in excellent condition still. same with the dropouts, i thought they'd rusted but it was mainly just grease/dirt. after some elbow grease with some cleaning stuff, they came up nicely. there's a few spots of rust here and there but, hey it's character.
the pedals already had cages on with leather straps which was a nice freebie. will probably buy some metal cages when i can back to london later this month.
i already had a built-up wheelset that i had had made in beijing (where everything's cheaper) from left over parts when i'd done up my w-base so the actual conversion part was very straight-forward, just a case of removing all the gears, shortening the chain (by breaking it and adding a removable link) and attaching the back wheel. whilst i'd originally planned to run the smaller 40 chain ring, i wanted to be pushing something a bit harder so have opted for the 50 instead. so long as i don't go up a hill, everything'll be fine.
i put the spare front wheel i had on the front but it actually looked a bit out of place against the classic old lines of the frame. instead, i opted to use the original front wheel which was still completely true and very shiny after a polish. i replaced the quickrelease with a new, shiner one but other than that it was fine. i'll probably get locking wheelnuts anyway for london.
i had a spare, but pretty cheap and chinese-made, white tyre which i put on the back wheel to try and keep in with the frame's colour scheme. again, that's something i'll try and replace with something better when i have the chance. now the only thing that looked a bit out of place was the saddle.
there was a bit of sagging in the chain tension but i was actually able to fix that easily by pulling back the back wheel as one would expect.
nearly done! actually took the saddle from my other fixie and put it on this one. it's just a crap old saddle that an old man on a street corner sold me for about £3 in beijing.
i also had some bazooka pedals a friend in beijing had sold me very cheaply which i swapped out for the original peugeot ones (which were very, very heavy considering their size).
the old 'grip tape', or what actually looked to me like some sort of medical tape, had to come off. i'm thinking of buying some white, cream, or brown grip tape to replace it. it's silver and nekked now which is pretty but unpractical.
it's got a nice arse.
thanks for taking the time to look at it guys. i've got a few questions if anyone would be willing to answer. i'd really appreciate it:
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- the 40 chainring is now pretty redundant as i'm running on the outboard ring. however, i can't work out how i detatch the chainring and crank from the bottom bracket. is this one of those jobs that requires a special tool?
- the chain-line is almost spot on considering all i did was whack it on and attach the chain. however, i think it could do with being straighter. i'm only running on single speed, not fixed (there's a flip-flop hub on the back) so the chain shouldn't be undergoing the same abuse it would on a fixie. in any case though, how would i straighten it? with spacers?
- this is just aesthetic but what colour grip does everyone think? white? cream? brown? i'd love to hear your thoughts
- i want to lower the headset by about a centimeter if i can but haven't been able to adjust it so far. if someone could point me in the right direction, that's be great.
- i'm thinking of removing the black powdercoat from the back wheel to make it shiny again and more in keeping with the bike. if i do this, does anyone know how i'd go about it? is it just a case of white spirit and lots of rubbing? what about protecting the metal afterwards?
- finally, can anyone identify the year or model of the bike? there's a sticker that says 'carbolite 103' and, judging from the graphics, i'd say it was early 80s. however if anyone has anymore info, please share! i want to do-up this bike in as sensitive a way possible to its original charm (budget permitting of course)
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thanks everyone! and to reward you all for your help, here's some bike porn of my other fixie:
cheers! ^-^
- the 40 chainring is now pretty redundant as i'm running on the outboard ring. however, i can't work out how i detatch the chainring and crank from the bottom bracket. is this one of those jobs that requires a special tool?
hey guys,
thanks for your replies. mikey mike - i actually went for a cream grip tape in the end. i found some really nice tape in the bargain bin at country sports here in france for about 4 euros! check out their site: http://www.countrysports.fr/ not a bad shop if, for whatever reason, you get a puncture in the countryside hundreds of kilometers from anywhere.
thanks for your feedback stripmymind! very helpful. good to hear from someone else who's been converting too. i agree with what you said about the brown grip but, as i say, there was cream grip in the bargain bin so i just sort of went with that in a daoist sort of way. i think i'll wait until i'm in london to get the chainring removed though, i don't have that tool or even anything like it as far as i know.
as for removing the paint, i'm still none the wiser. i remember on the fixed gear gallery there was an article about removing ionizing from alloy but i'm not sure that's what this is. do you know of any way i can tell?
let me know how you get on with figuring out your headset. i'll post a pic of the bike up after i've got the tape on it and maybe had a fiddle with some paint removal!
best,
pearswick