RFC

Check out this thread.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=507599

Looks like a whole new generation of C&V fans. Too bad, they will buy up all of the garage sale bikes.

Best Regards,

RFC

High Fist Shin

There may be hope for them there hipsters after all.

Panthers007

Hipsters don't do that. The designation you're hunting for is: Vandals.

Blue Order

The advice re the crankset is pretty funny.

roccobike

It's,,,,,It's,,,,,It's.....Like.....Visiting......Another world.

Panthers007

Bio-Spheroidal Cream...

cyclotoine

Most of those posters are people I associate with this forum!

riva

What happens when you try to run one of those chainwheels on a fixie?

patbateman

I may get booed out of this thread right now, but I have a 1987 Trek 400 elance that I converted to fixed gear.

I just got a new, more suitable frame for that purpose though so I will probably be throwing my derailleurs and rear wheel back on to restore it to its original vintage glory, but I ran the same chain ring the whole time, just had to space out the back wheel to get the chain line right. It works fine though. I love the old trek frames, so when I decided to try out fixed gear, I just went with what I knew.

Just bought an '83 Trek 400, silver with red panel, I'm gonna strip the paint, sand the surface rust, and paint it. Should be fun.

mugatu

we are already among you

rotharpunc

I openly admit to posting in that thread. I would rather give someone good advice and inform them of the importance of a nice old frame rather than have them go at it blindly and mess things up beyond repair. There is nothing wrong with changing the drive train of a bike as long as nothing is permanently damaged or discarded and I think that due to my and others posts that point was made quite well.

Blue Order

On a fixed gear, there's no way to get the tension right with a Biopace chainwheel. The tension will be either too loose to work, or too tight to work.

due ruote 

Seems counter-intuitive, but Sheldon had this to say on his Biopace page:

I run Biopace on several of my fixed-gear machines, where high cadences are quite common in descending hills. In practice I have found no less ability to spin fast with Biopace chainrings, and, if anything, they permit me to spin faster without bouncing in the saddle.

[edit] actually, here's the better quote:
People are often astonished to learn that I ride Biopace chainrings on fixed-gear bikes. They imagine that there will be tremendous changes in chain tension as the chainring rotates. In practice, this is not the case. A 42 tooth chainring will generally engage 21 teeth against 21 chain rollers, regardless of its shape.
There is a slight variation in tension resulting from the varying angle between the two straight runs of chain as the axis of the chainring rotates, but this has not generally been of a sufficient magnitude to cause any problem in practice for me.

Blue Order

I stand corrected.

mkeller234

I think that was a pretty reasonable thread, I was waiting for the horror but it never came. I recognized a few forum members and think they gave good advice, It sounds like the OP will probably leave the frame in-tact.

Matt

mkeller234

I just re-read the title of this thread.... I think I miss-understood and thought this was going to be a bad thing.

sonatageek

It nothing gets hack sawed off and it keeps a bike on the road and getting ridden, in my book, that is always a good thing. Now, some of those color schemes make be pine for the good taste of the 80's.

Grim

If they are not hacking the frame and grinding off the bosses and saving the parts I see no harm. Most of those were very clean bikes that were taken care of.

Honestly I have been looking for a bike to do that with. I want to play with a Fixed to see if I like it or not. I live in a very hilly area so I'm not sure if I am going to enjoy it. I'm trying to find something without brazed shifter bosses just to look cleaner. My problem is I keep finding bikes that are not my size or too valuable to even think about doing that to it.

miamijim

Dont stand corrected. Not everything on that site is gospel.

Road Fan

I agree! Why is this worse than taking say a 1980's Bianchi and replacing the drivetrain with modern Campy 10 or DuraAce? Or a late '60s Raleigh Comp and "upgrading" the shifting system with Shimano?

Road Fan

rhm

No, that's not really true. I used to run a Biopace ring on my folder, with a Sturmey-Archer XRF8 hub, and the Biopace worked fine. It is true that the chain tension changes a tiny bit as crank turns, but the difference is very minor. I was using a 48T ring; with a smaller one the fluctuation would be even less.

I like Biopace!

rhm

+1; and so we see classic steel bikes upgraded to internally geared hubs, like my '82 Trek 720, of which I am proud. If the Nexus hub had been available at the time, I probably would have built it that way when I got the frame new.

That said, some of those fixies have color schemes that border on offensive....

Skylar

That's how I read it too, but that's probably because of the jab he took at the older C&V folks.

RFC

Get a sense of humor. I'm 53.

Old Fat Guy

That's young in this forum.