My singlespeed (bicycle) build

ya I saw it the other day on MTBR... thought it was a nice way to go and cheap...

35's are nice for for just bombin around town :) and can be had pretty cheap to boot...

running into a sewer grate sounds ouchy... forgot about that with skinny tires lol...

I just got a new 29er for christmas (from my mo-in-law... she hands me $$$ and tells me to get something under the tree)... my 1st SS... should be fun and punishing...

anyway did a 2nd take at your bike... you should shorten your chain a bit more... even with the forte tensioner you can get it pretty close to a straight rap and you'll get better engagement around the cog so less likely to skip a gear

I was thinking about it. That Forte tensioner runs pretty tight, though. If I ran it near-horizontal, it would be so tight that I think the pulley would crap out very quickly.

The chain stays put very nicely. Maybe I'll take out a link or two.

true... you aren't on a bouncy trail where that kind of thing could be an issue lol

As promised, here she is on her new fatty-ish tires after a ride this afternoon:

Beefy

OK--so I listened to you, donalson. I removed one link. I think if I removed 2, the pulley would hit the cog (the cog is big, at 20T, so it takes up some real estate)

I'll see how it works maybe tomorrow. It's tight, but I don't think it's overly tight.

gamby wrote: I decided on bullhorn bars (also Origin 8) after watching footage of the final time trial in the 1989 Tour De France. They looked sweet on Laurent Fignon's bike, so that's what I wanted.

Was that the year he broke his bottom bracket and racked himself on the top tube? That guy was such an ass! Sean Kelly and Phil Anderson were my heroes form that era - they'd probably be villians now based on their drug use

Nice bike. i have the same chain tensioner on a single speed mountain bike and it's never skipped a beat.

they have this style of bike at WalMart now- complete with bright orange tires..

does this mean that this trend will be over shortly, or will it just add an extra level of what the kids call "irony"?

the one at wal-mart also has a flip flop hub and skinny flat bars... honestly for the $100 they want (I think thats what it was) not a bad way to try out the SS/Fixie world... but it will never be a quality frame... or any other bits for that mater lol

fifty wrote:

gamby wrote: I decided on bullhorn bars (also Origin 8) after watching footage of the final time trial in the 1989 Tour De France. They looked sweet on Laurent Fignon's bike, so that's what I wanted.

Was that the year he broke his bottom bracket and racked himself on the top tube? That guy was such an ass!

I dunno--I'm not enough of a cycling historian. I was going by this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvwtOQYQ-E

Pretty gangsta to ride a time trial like that--no helmet, ponytail in the breeze. How times have changed.

He's dead now, so I shan't speak ill of him. He was a baller, though:

As for that walmart bike--eesh. Scary 1985-spec brake calipers FTL. The concept of a $100 new bike in this day and age is terrifying to me.

... it's supposed to be a fixie so my guess is they designed it without then someone thought they should for liability reasons put em on lol...

I've seen it discussed at length in the SS/FG forum on bikeforums. Oddly enough, there isn't quite as much negativity toward it as I'd think there would be. I just have major problems with walmart-level stuff.

When I was a big-box bike tech/sales guy, I'd constantly say "a bicycle shouldn't cost less than a decent pair of running shoes".

That said, it seems like a couple of mega retailers offer some sort of fixie option online.

The ones that get built have more soul, though.

HOLY HELL,we have a bike page on GRM,WOOT!! I've been cycling all my life and a few years ago opened up Rustytubes bike restoration.So for the past several years Ive beed building custom bikes for all walks of life.Anyway cool to have this page.BTW I have several fixies :)

In reply to speedbiu:

Oh my--yeah, there is a treasure trove of bike people on this board.

Do you have a website for your business??? I had some fairly serious thoughts about doing a bike service shop in my town, but RI in general is a bit saturated with bike shops. I'm still going to flip bikes off of craigslist, though. Regardless, I'd love to pick your brain.

I was a big box bike tech for a LONG time. It doesn't have the cache of working at an LBS, but my work was at that level. Let's just say that when I recently quit, that bike department crashed and burned in glorious disaster.

Anyway, I have no intention whatsoever of going fixie, but I'm NUTS about riding singlespeed. I'm having a blast with it.

Luke wrote: Nice, love the v-brake chain tensioner. Very clever, that. My new MTB is going to be 1x9. I was tossing around the idea of SS, but decided my skinny-ass legs probably aren't up for it .

Check out the Shimano HG61 "29er" cassette. 12-36

I'm using one with a Sram x9 short cage rear derailleur and it works fine

In reply to gamby:

My website is www.rusty-tubes.com.I have it down for construction right now but will be back up shortly.All I do is restore vintage road bikes,build single speeds,re chrome,repair tubes,and paint them.I do race eams also but usually I have to schedule them due to the size of the teams.As for flipping bikes that would be in comp. with the companys and LBS's I do work for.

In reply to speedbiu:

Oh wow. That sounds really cool. I think I'd really look forward to work if I had that gig. I don't even know if there would be much demand for resto around here (RI).

In reply to gamby:

Gamby,I do it all over the world.People ship bikes to me from all over the place.I have been doing it for quit a while now.I use to be a CCU Paramedic and did it on my days off but several years ago I had a brain tumor and was out of work for 2 years so I just started advertising and went full time.I moved overseas to Poland for a couple years with my wife who is from Poland.I couldn't speak Polish so advertised on a website over there and started painting bikes in our basement.When we moved back I landed in a town called Palatka FL and there was nothing to do so I just started advertising again and started right back up,then people who I had did work for before started to call again to.The rest is history.lol.Rustytubes was a name I came up with because every bike in Florida is rusty or the aluminum ones are gasing so the name stuck.My companys slogan is "Recycling the world one bike at a time" I work out of a two bay garage at my home.I just got a new computer but I will dig up some old pics of bikes i have done and post them.

Hears a few I have done.

In reply to speedbiu:

Awesome work. I have the mechanical skillset, but in terms of painting/chroming (well, I assume you outsource chroming), I don't have anything.

Who do you use as a source for wholesale parts??? That's a big speedbump to me working out of my home--cheap parts. I'd start building clones of the singlespeed I just did if I could get parts cheaper.

Check out my Trek post link on the first page of this thread to see my mechanical skills.

Such a great gig.

Glad you made it through the brain tumor mess so you could get to do this!

on a side note... most of the bicycle stuff ends up in the "sprockets" portion of the forum (which is mostly motorcycle stuff)

very kewl restoration work...

In reply to gamby:

Parts come from Quality,J&B, and ebay.I'm always buying NOS stock from LBS's around the country.When I travel I always hit the LBS's in the area to see what they have.Lots of the really old stuff I buy from Europe when were there.Honest to god I take a half empty siutcase and bring back parts.lol.Bike frames come from everywhere but I hope to make it to Oregon/Washington this year to the bike building school so I can start building my on frames.Thats a cool Trek,I love taking the old steel bikes and upgrading the groupo's on them.

I always thought you needed an actual shop to have a QBP/J&B account. Do you also have/need liability insurance?

Yeah, the Trek is a great ride. I love how it turned out. I scored some nicer Forte aero wheels for it a little while ago.

BTW--I thought the Sprockets forum was for motorcycles. I guess I need to check that out more...

I do work for all the LBS so I can buy my parts thru them at cost.For some reason Central FL is the hub for importing bikes so I work with companys like Roadbikeoutlet.com and 3G there a great group if guys.

Maybe the powers at GRM would do a sub topic forum just for bicycles??

speedbiu wrote: I do work for all the LBS so I can buy my parts thru them at cost.

Ah, see, I don't have that hookup.

I have an '06 54cm Raleigh R700 that I bought from CL for $450. The wheels went on my Trek, the Ultegra Brakes are on my main road bike (a Decathlon), the Ultegra derailleurs will go on the Decathlon in the Spring (when I get a cassette and chain to go w/ the 10-speed 105 levers I scored for $100 on ebay).

9-speed Ultegra levers will go on ebay

Ultegra double crankset has a really worn big ring and will likely go on ebay.

That leaves the aluminum frame, carbon fork, BB, seat, seatpost, bars, stem and headset. Part of me wants to sell that for $175-200 on ebay. The other part wants to build it into a singlespeed and sell it that way. I dunno if I could recoup much profit, though.

The wheels that came off the Trek were some budget Alex R450's that are heavy, but strong. I could probably only sell them for around $50. I think the bike would make a ripping singlespeed, though.

What say you???