So my bike survived the flight from Sweden and is now sitting safely in the shed. I took the rear wheel into abbortsford cycles today to get the cassette off and had a good chat with the mechanics there. I told them my plans and basically the mechanic was a little disappointed, he felt I should be keeping it as original as possible as the components were of such a fine vintage.
So I want some other opinions.
Am I murdering a classic by converting it?
The bike consists of:
Frame: Reynolds 531 tubes, Nervex lugs & campag. dropouts
Mafac centre pull brakes
Campag. super record hubs, the rear is a high flange.
Regina 5 speed cassette
Fiamme red label rims (tubular)
Sugino Super Competition 171mm cranks
boring bars and replaced shimano brakes.
So that is it. I would like to ride track, and maybe commute to uni on whatever fixed gear bike I end up with. I also want to learn how to do my own bike maintenance and thought that a fixed gear would be the place to start.
My options as far as I see are:
-Replace with period pieces and keep stock.
-Replace vital components with new gear so I can at least commute on it.
-Fixed trying to keep whatever old parts I can.(Will I need to do many irreversible modifications?)
I am also afraid that the frame will be a touch too big for me (ahem, I know it will be by a couple of cm) so that makes me think tearing it up might be a bit of a waste.
I have no real desire to sell it, I just want to end up with a bike that doesn’t sit in the shed whatever happens. I owe it to the previous owner.
Can anyone find a question there? Maybe I should take a leaf from CraigC’s book: “fucking give me some fucking ideas. Fuck, I want to get my fucking hands dirty”
It would look pretty cool fixed, you shouldn’t need to do any mods to the frame that would hinder it’s return to geared life if you so desire. Maybe just get it going for now, come for some rides and see how feel later…?
that’s such a nice bike.
if it was me, i’d leave it as it was, just get some period bars and cloth tape to suit.
but i already have a fixie and another utilty classic old bike,
i guess ask yourself if you only want one bike, or if you’re prepared to have several.
i mean for pure pose factor imo, that bike is already much cooler then 90% of the 250 (guestimate) fixed gears/single speeds floating around melbourne,
so, i guess, if you really want a fixie, take it apart, oil/clean all the parts you don’t need and put them in a strong box, and you’ll probably find yourself reassembling it back into a road bike in 12 months, because you’ll have probably have upgraded to another fixed bike
If you want to ride track, you’ll need something more ‘track’ like. Fuji track bike is a shade under $600, ride it on the street, then when you up for a rondy-roundy session, you’re set. (take your front break-off if you have one).
