Getting ready to Convert! Need your help!

Hey everyone,

My name's Andrew and I'm looking for some advice and help.

I'm about to buy a used road bike off craigslist to convert to fixie. I've never ridden fixed before but I really want to get into it. I know general stuff about what I'm going to need to convert, but I'm not too knowledgeable on the specifics of the process.

I currently make handmade retro-shaped skateboard decks and I decided I don't want to just buy a complete set-up cause I really enjoying the process of building. I also really want to know how my bike is gonna work rather than just trusting someone else to build it for me.

With that said, I'm gonna need a lot of help from you guys to figure out when I fuck things up

Heres a pic of the bike I'm considering. Its a 52cm and I like how small the frame is from wheel to wheel. The guy is asking 120 for it and he says its ready to ride condition.

The reasons I've picked this bike are that
A) I don't want to have to buy/install a new headset or drive
B) I'm pretty sure the frame fits me well
C) Everything seems to be in pretty good condition

But before I buy it, I was hoping for some input. Let me know what you guys think! I need all the advice I can get!
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120 isnt bad in my opinion.

What...
crankset
wheelset
handlebars
cog
are you planning on getting?

I'm not sure of any of those things yet. I'm on a really tight budget, being a poor college student without a job

I was hoping to be able to salvage those handlebars, I kinda like the shape. As for the rest, got any suggestions for a beginner with limited cash?

i had a bike shop take care of my first fixie. i bought a bike just like the one you posted above for $40 from a garage sale and took it to the shop. for $200 total they converted it for me. they charged me for new front and back rims/tires and a cog + labor. i didn't want a whole new crank set so i stuck with the biggest chainring on the bike. my ratio ended up being 52:16 so i only stuck to flat roads haha. my second (current) bike i built myself and it also ended up being about $200 total for all the parts.

good luck with this and post pictures when you finished!

Is there anyway I would be able to convert it without having to buy a new wheelset?
Like if I strip the cassette off and remove the freewheel and then put on a new cog?

if i were you i'd go with a new wheelset. you don't know how reliable the used wheelset is on the bike you bought. better go the safe rout and get a new set.

but that's just me.

Yeah I'm concerned. But at the same time, I might just try and make them work till I can afford a new set.

I think you can just change the hub then re-spoke the wheel. Not sure though. Instead of buying a new wheel set...

That would do it. Only thing that would be reused on that wheel is the rim, in that case (unless you're trying to re-use the spokes, which is probably better to just get new ones and make sure the length is right). You can get a shop to rebuild the wheel, true it and dish it properly, or you could learn to do it yourself.

Also, if paying for a new hub and paying a shop labor to build it for you, you might be able to find just a rear wheel for a good price. Don't necessarily need the whole set. Something with a track hub designed to take a lock ring and a crankset with the right chainline for that hub (most track stuff is a 42mm chainline - for hubs it's a factor of where the threads put the cog relative to the center of the frame, and for cranks it depends on the length of the BB sprindle {assuming square taper - outboard bearing and other splined things are a different story} and how the crank arm sits on the spindle... most cranks will have information available on what length BB spindle will give the particular chainline common of the use for which the crank is intended), and a chain for it all could be all you need.

It also could be possible to use the existing cranks with one of the chainrings setup in the right position - would need more research on that.


For someone looking to do a conversion who is new to bike work, or just fixed gear particular work, I'd spend some time reading through just about everything at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] . Lots of good stuff there, and even specifically information about fixed-gear conversion. Brown was a big fixed gear advocate.



From the picture, it looks like that frame has semi-horizontal dropouts, which is good for a conversion, but I can't tell completely from that picture.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I'm hoping to pick up the bike within the next week.

Once I actually have the damn thing I'll put up some more pics of the crankset and the wheels.

Then I'll just start pouring the questions into this thread haha.

Mattamatta what's the cheapest you've ever heard of for a rear wheel?

WhatACatchDonny wrote:

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I'm hoping to pick up the bike within the next week.

Once I actually have the damn thing I'll put up some more pics of the crankset and the wheels.

Then I'll just start pouring the questions into this thread haha.

Mattamatta what's the cheapest you've ever heard of for a rear wheel?

You should ask around LBS about possibly having a used rear track wheel. On craigslist I've found track wheelsets for as cheap as $50 bucks. So finding a cheap rear one shouldn't be too hard. You probably will be able to use all the other parts on the bike for the mean time, but you're going to eventually upgrade to track specific parts. I get excited when people build up there bikes!

Yeah i've been lurking craigslist real hard this week.

I'm getting super excited too! I hope I can get the bike ready to ride by summer.

is this the guy in orange county that youre buying from?

Yeah I think so.

Do you know anything about him or his bikes?

i drove up there with fdpval for a raleigh road bike (which is sitting in my garage *cough*)

from what he said he buys bikes from garage sells, storage auctions, and stuffs like that and cleans/rebuilds them and resells them.

his site is in one of my bookmarks. i check it out everynow and then, good information.

the only real bad thing i can say is that his customer service sucks. i mean i get he deals with a lot of people on the daily but we came from san diego so a little less asswholeness wouldve been nice.


edit: i really didnt read anyone elses post or answer the main question.

from the looks of it. you might be able to reuse those crankset, just buy 5mm chainbolts or diy saw it. if you do rebuy a crankset, you have to get a different bottom bracket

you can convert freewheel hubs into tracks. just search suicide hubs.. ive rocked those for awhiles.....

Yeah its crazy to me how many bikes he has for sale.

But thats sucks about him being an asswhole, especially when you drove so damn far...

And the suicide hubs... Depending on the condition of everything, I might end up going with this for a while, just till I start working again in the summer and make some $$$

Do you know if I can use a new cog as part of a suicide? Or am I pretty much stuck with using a piece of the old cassette?

paulmitchel wrote:

i drove up there with fdpval for a raleigh road bike (which is sitting in my garage *cough*)

from what he said he buys bikes from garage sells, storage auctions, and stuffs like that and cleans/rebuilds them and resells them.

his site is in one of my bookmarks. i check it out everynow and then, good information.

the only real bad thing i can say is that his customer service sucks. i mean i get he deals with a lot of people on the daily but we came from san diego so a little less asswholeness wouldve been nice.


edit: i really didnt read anyone elses post or answer the main question.

from the looks of it. you might be able to reuse those crankset, just buy 5mm chainbolts or diy saw it. if you do rebuy a crankset, you have to get a different bottom bracket

you can convert freewheel hubs into tracks. just search suicide hubs.. ive rocked those for awhiles.....

Hey paul, since you know of this guys website, would you mind helping me out in terms of picking a bike? Or do you think this one looks good? I really don't know all that much other than the basics like size and making sure to have horizontal dropouts and stuff.

WhatACatchDonny wrote:

Do you know if I can use a new cog as part of a suicide? Or am I pretty much stuck with using a piece of the old cassette?

You'd actually probably have to use a new cog.

Since you'd certainly be using a loctite (do the research and make sure you're using the right stuff - you don't want that cog to unscrew on you while backpedaling), you'd have to take the freewheel off anyway. On an old bike, chances are you have a thread-on freewheel rather than a freehub and casette - the thread-on freewheel is what you'll want for a suicide hub anyway. Check sheldonbrown.com to learn more about the differences between freewheels and freehubs.

If you used the freewheel rear cluster, you'd have to take it off, somehow jam up the freewheel mechanism, as well as loctite the whole thing on there so it won't unscrew when backpedaling - AND USE BRAKES. Brakes are always a good idea. You don't have to actually use them, but having them on there could be the difference between mad skiddzzz and coma.

On a rim with a freehub and casette, you'd have to somehow jam up the freewheel mechanism in the hub itself, which might not be easy to get to at all - and then you probably would be stuck with whatever is on there and have to find a crank setup to get the right chainline for one of the cogs in the cassette cluster, as you'd probably be unable to find any sort of single speed cog with the same spline structure as any given cassette, as most of them are thread-on to be used with a lockring on a standard track hub, or if they are splined, are for a specific system, such as something like a Miche splined cog carrier.


Another thing I just thought of to keep in mind if looking for a new rear wheel with a track hub is the dropout spacing - many road frames have the dropouts spaced wider to accomade a wide rear gear cluster.

This is getting confusing and I don't even have the bike yet haha.

Once I do have it I'll figure out whether its a thread-on or a freehub.

Oh and if it turns out that my dropouts are wider what kind of hub do I need to look for?

WhatACatchDonny wrote:

This is getting confusing and I don't even have the bike yet haha.

Once I do have it I'll figure out whether its a thread-on or a freehub.

Oh and if it turns out that my dropouts are wider what kind of hub do I need to look for?

its really not confusing, maybe on paper. but once you get a hold of the bike youll get it.

as for the hub all you need are spacers

That bike will almost certainly have a freewheel. Almost all of the old 70's and 80's road bikes out there on the used market will be a freewheel. According to wikipedia, Shimano introduced their first freehub in 1978.... not sure when it was that really became commonplace, but I've never seen a freehub on anything that didn't look modern.

Just emailed the guy about picking it up Saturday.

We'll know soon enough.

also that guy knows his share on conversions so dont be afraid to ask him his thoughts. and he wont care if he doesnt make a sell. he sells enough

okay thanks man. Good to know.

I asked him to let me see these two bikes too.

Both $80

What do you guys think?

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52 Nukata


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51 Huffy Ultima

WhatACatchDonny wrote:

okay thanks man. Good to know.

I asked him to let me see these two bikes too.

Both $80

What do you guys think?

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52 Nukata


[img][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/img]
51 Huffy Ultima

Ooh, I like that Nukata. Mixtes make good townies.