So I’ve started riding to/from work again recently and I’ve been given my dads old 10 speed road bike and decided to jump on the fixed gear bandwagon (at least 3 years too late, but anyway). The frame is a Custom Built Cycles ‘medallion’. I’ve been able to find very little info about it but it seems a fairly standard 10-speed lugged steel frame, Australian made. I’ll post up some photos tomorrow.
The rear axle spacing is 126mm which is easily taken care of with some spacers, but the front is 96mm which seems to be impossible to find a new hub for. It does seem as though I could just stretch the forks apart a couple of mm on each side without too much trouble (ie can easily do it by hand), I was just wondering if this is a bad idea or not?
hopefully it will be okay to fit onto a standard 100mm hub. also just a quick question about the front brake, it has 27" wheels on it but I am putting on 700c, do you think the brakes that are on it now will reach that far? they look to have a fair bit of adjustment space…
i guess i’ll find out when i get the wheels anyway.
Squeeze in the rear to get 120mm spacing. Sheldon’s site shows you how to check its straight afterwards. Just look up “cold setting”.
As for the front. Just pull it as much as you need to when putting the wheel on. I don’t think there would be any point trying to permanently space the forks for 2mm on each side. Having said that - the same argument could be used for the rear.
A lot of people think you should stick with 27in wheels as the bike was designed to take them. There seems to be wheels available at that size.
Sheldon answers the about the brakes on 700c: “lower your brake shoes by 4 mm”
I’d keep as much of the original parts as possible with a conversion; bars, stem, seat, brakes. Why not get a 27inch rear (track) and keep the front original?
Looks like your brakes will have sufficient reach. Spacing the fork is cake, just pull the blades apart by hand (don’t try bashing or levering them).
Other issue you might face if the fork has forged drops, they may not be wide enough to accommodate the diameter of a modern axel. I needed to file away a few mm to fit the axel in. Some people recommended filing the thread on the axel but that worried me and opted to attack the dropouts. All sweet now - except for the unsightly gap between wheel and fork crown
My housemate and I just did the same thing to an old europa and we just stretched the forks by hand and filed out the dropouts to get everything to fit. Did a bit of a dodgy job but I only ride it to cruise to the pub or supermarket and stuff because the frame is way too small and the seatpost doesn’t extend anywhere near enough.
The only thing is the 700c wheels drop the BB a little bit so watch out for pedal strike. And it looks a bit silly with huge gaps.
I’d second the 27in option unless you have some 700c wheels floating around. Otherwise use those and see if you can find a nice lugged 700c fork to go with it?
You’ll be fine springing the front over a 100mm hub. You could cold set the rear but I agree with you, just space the hub with a few washers. Put the washers in between the cone and the locknut.
Looks like those brakes have plenty of reach, should be fine with 700c.
If you do find that your new wheels are a tight fit for the drop outs as Drew did, IMO you should file the thread on the axle before filing the dropout - just file the section of thread that sits in the dropout.
i guess staying with 27" wheels would be ideal but i’ve already ordered some deep v’s (yes i’m a tragic hipster, sorry). anyway when they get here i’ll see how i go, should be fine from the sounds of it.
the frame is actually too small for me but i got it for free and wanted to try my hand at building it up myself. if i end up enjoying the fixed gear experience i might sell it down the track and build up something that fits me properly.
