Road Fan

Another thread is making me think that there's something in this fixie thing (invented maybe 1870 as the safety bicycle, but I'm only 150 years late in figgering that out!) that I might want to try. I have a few frames unused and needing attention:

PX-10, UO-8, Trek 610 with low-trail fork, Trek 720 needing paint and alignment. We got long and flexy (UO-8 and Trek 720), compact, light and supple (PX-10), and some would say, stiff and not too comfortable (Super Course and Trek 610). To set these up fo geared drivetrains I would think of these and their configuration details like dropouts, cable guides and such, as well as ride and handling points.

I've thought of a few more points (just opinion), but I'll take all the help I can get!

Mods, if we need to move this over to the Single Sped and Fixed Gear section, I'm ok with it.

bboy314

Assuming they all have horizontal dropouts, all should work. So the question is, do you want a comfortable, supple fixed gear, or a light, quick handling one, or…?

My fixed gear is a Columbus tubed Schwinn Prelude frame, so on the light, quick end of the spectrum. It rides similarly to a true track bike and suits fixed gear riding, but if I regularly wanted to ride long distances on a fixed gear I’d probably opt for something like the Trek 720.

Road Fan

This is my first fixed, but since I have a lifetime of experience with very lightweight bikes and components, such as light tubular wheels, I think I’d go with the PX-10. As well, it’s fitted for a front brake (well, all of these frames are). So I’d use it as a road bike as well as on a track. I think the Lexus (Detroit) track criterion is that you have to be able to ride at a minimum speed. I don’t recall th actual criterion, but I’m sure I have some work to do.

Also important, I have pretty much a full set of the bike’s original headset, bb, and chainset components and fittings. Would need a rear hub, however!

Anyone have a decent 52 cm track frame, surplus to needs?

Trakhak

Yes and no. I have a complete bike, a 2009 aluminum Felt TK2, that measures 54 cm to the top of the seat collar (see photo in linked page) and 54 c-to-c for the top tube. Head tube is 11 cm. The aero seat post limits how low the saddle can go, but a round post would eliminate that limitation.

Haven't ridden the bike in years, never raced it, rode it on the road (the carbon fork is drilled for a front brake) a total of maybe 500 to 800 miles.

Edit:

Come to think of it, I also have a somewhat beat-up-looking Reynolds 531 Peugeot pro-level track bike from the mid- or late '60's (haven't been able to pin down the age by the serial number) that measures 54 cm c-to-t for the seat tube and 56.5 for the top tube. Head tube is 13.5 cm.

French-threaded Campy Record group, including headset, pedals, cranks, BB, tubular wheels with high-flange Campy Record hubs (rear is the original track hub; front wheel was stolen years ago, so I replaced it with a high-flange road Campy Record wheel, with an oil clip).

I literally bought it from a little old lady many years ago whose husband used to ride it around Paris when they lived there in the '60's. The shop where he bought it must have drilled it for a rear brake, since there's a Mafac brake back there. Cable is held on by zip ties.

In the late '90's, I had the alignment checked by the ex-Brit framebuilder John Hollands. He fixed a minor fork alignment problem but said that the frame was about the straightest production frame he'd ever measured. He speculated that Peugeot might have had a master builder who built the road and track frames for sponsored riders.

The gearing (50 x 15) might be a problem for doing anything other than track racing. The right crank has a long-obsolete BCD, and rings are all but unobtainable, as far as I can tell from cursory searches. And the hub thread would strip if a BSA sprocket were to be installed.

I know that from personal experience, having immediately stripped the rear hub thread when I installed a larger rear sprocket on my first track bike, a Helyett with French-threaded components that I got in 1964. The local bike mechanic fixed the problem by wrapping the thread in aluminum foil, which worked perfectly, but that's not something you want to have to do with a vintage Campy hub.

Steel Charlie

Why would you bother building anything? Complete SS sell for peanuts on CL

Road Fan

‘Cuz I have a pile of decent quality vintage frames that I want to have working for me.

Road Fan

Very interesting, TrakHack! Let’s talk PM.

Road Fan

Hi, is there a point here?

bboy314

I think there was an AI gibberish post above that has been removed.

shelbyfv

Yep. I've removed my post, thanks for the heads up.

tcs

While the obscure chain-drive Lawson Bicyclette dates to the mid-1870s, the start of the safety bicycle era is generally dated to the Rover of 1885~87.

Lawson:



Rover:

roadcrankr

You could save yourself some grief by threading on a single speed to an existing road wheel.
With many miles and years under the belt, the freewheeling habit never goes away.
Hopefully you can install caliper brakes to the front and rear, even if you go the fixie route.

mstateglfr 

I haven't owned/ridden fixed. I've built up 5 single speed bikes from old steel frames and use a regular wheel with spacers on the freehub with a 1 cog placed between the spacers.

I've used some 80s road bikes that built up fine but weren't a ton of fun because they were limited to a 28mm tire and I just didn't use the bikes much.
I've used a modern steel cx/gravel frame with canti brakes that was fun for having a 50mm tire on and riding smooth flat twisty single track.
I currently have an early 70s Peugeot set up as a single speed with 32mm tires and use it 1 time per week to commute to an activity that's about 8mi round trip.

It's a lot of fun- the frame angles are pretty aggressive and the chainstays are 460mm. It's an odd geometry for sure.