Suitable fixie frame? (Bidding ending soon)

silver campaign

Would you think the bike listed below, would be suitable for a project fixie?
Cheers

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=150327346495

blorg

It has horizontal dropouts so in theory yes. Looks like a nice classic.

silver campaign

Yea, I'm thinkin of puttin in a bid.
I was thinkin it might be too much of a classic and a shame to convert to fixed wheel but what the hell...

stuf

silver campaign wrote: »

Yea, I'm thinkin of puttin in a bid.
I was thinkin it might be too much of a classic and a shame to convert to fixed wheel but what the hell...

no such thing as too much of a classic to be converted but I would make sure you get a shipping quote before bidding

silver campaign

I see... just thought some of the purists would think it should be restored to it's original condition.
I Have a quote all ready for delivery of £32.

oflahero

Any good sources in Dublin for similar, even if they're not as nice as your eBay find? I wouldn't mind any old 80s road frame, even if the components had completely rusted away. Thrift shops / garda auctions, any ideas? Good luck with the bid.

stuf

silver campaign wrote: »

I see... just thought some of the purists would think it should be restored to it's original condition.
I Have a quote all ready for delivery of £32.

that's a great quote - snap it up

As for the purists - if they think it should be restored then let them buy it and do it themselves. It looks like a great fixie frame and you will make a beautiful bike out of it. Just because something has provenance then it doesn't mean that it's your responsibility to restore it.

Good luck with it but you don't get it then take some advice and never post an ebay item on here or any message board before the auction is over. You never know who might be looking and they might have deeper pockets that you. Even if they don't, just alerting people about it can drive your price up. Avoid bidding now until the last 10 mins and stick to your price.

silver campaign

Thanks for the help lads, I know it can be risky advertising an item your interested in bidding on, but I just wanted to here peoples opinions.
I'll let you know how I get on.

silver campaign

I'm not sure oflahero. I've really just been searching around e-bay and whatever I might find at the back of friends / familys sheds.
I haven't been looking for too long, there are plenty about if you keep your eyes open.

flickerx

In those photos it looks like the bottom bracket is still in the frame - personally this would ring a small alarm bell with me. I guess it wouldnt be too bad if its a cup and cone (which it looks like it is), you can always get a longer or shorter one somewhere and replace it easily enough, but if its a sealed cartridge one and its jammed in there, you're in trouble. I'd post a question to the seller about it.

niceonetom

i'd be slightly concerned about the BB too, if you can't get that out you could have a hard time with cranks and, further down the build, with chainline. if you can get it out and put in a modern square taper, lovely.

the other thing that would bother me (though not everyone) is that the frmae would be built for 27" wheels which are bit bigger than modern 700c wheels. this could make brakes hard to get (need to have a lot of drop) and make pedal strike more of an issue if you use longer cranks (say over 170 or so?). personally i find frames with too-small wheels, as a lot of these older conversions are, a bit ugly too - the proportions are all wrong - so if i was building this frame up i'd be investigating getting wheels built up on 27" rims. tyres used to be a problem, but i think continental have started doing 27" gatorskinz so that's cool.

done right that would be very very classy conversion.

120mm rear spacing too so standard track hubs could be used without spacers which would help get a good chainline if that BB can be sorted out.

flickerx

I wouldnt be too worried about the wrong size wheels in the frame, you can pick up long reach calipers around the place fairly easily. I used to have a link to a site in the UK selling really cheap ones, something ridiculous like £18stg for front and back, but I cant find it any more...

At the moment the bidding price is 35stg + 32stg for postage, with six hours to go. Take it as a given that the price will jump by at least an extra 10stg in the last few minutes (as a weary eBayer I know the drill), 87 sterling at the moment is worth about... what, 110 euro? Do people think thats a good deal? Especially with the bit of rust on the chainstay?

I'm not sure... I reckon you could easily pick up a second hand road bike with horizontal dropouts for that on the likes of buyandsell or your local supermarket notice board, and then strip it off with nitromors for a decent paint job if it looked in bad shape.

stuf

on the 27"-wheel frame - I've got one and got some Dia Compe long reach brake calipers and it's fine - as flickerx says - not as big a deal as it's often made out to be.

Would go for Tektro R556 brakes if I had my time again as they are dual pivot.

stuf

BTW - flickerx might know a lot about fixies but he's sh!t at remembering where he bought stuff

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/productresults.php?dept=50&group=B&PHPSESSID=e025kkvc12r8d6ldm1gd8es6e6

Tektro ones on ebay:
http://sports.shop.ebay.ie/items/_W0QQ_dmptZUKQ5fsportsleisureQ5fcyclingQ5fbikepartsQ5fSR?_nkw=tektro+r556&_sacat=57262&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=tektro+r556&_osacat=109118

although Think Bike on the Rathmines Road did me a good deal on a Tektro crosstop lever once so they should be able to source the brakes.

niceonetom

niceonetom wrote: »

personally i find frames with too-small wheels, as a lot of these older conversions are, a bit ugly too - the proportions are all wrong - so if i was building this frame up i'd be investigating getting wheels built up on 27" rims.

i'll emphasise, as i should have done in the first place, that my dislike for too-small wheels is aesthetic as well as mechanical. they just look wrong to me. the 4" clearances behind the seat-tube make me angry tbh.

Gavin

niceonetom wrote: »

i'll emphasise, as i should have done in the first place, that my dislike for too-small wheels is aesthetic as well as mechanical. they just look wrong to me. the 4" clearances behind the seat-tube make me angry tbh.

I don't think you've been riding your fixie enough. Your zen quotient is ... low.

niceonetom

Gavin wrote: »

I don't think you've been riding your fixie enough. Your zen quotient is ... low.

feic off you ya feicin lousy piece of




you may have a point.

flickerx

stuf wrote: »

BTW - flickerx might know a lot about fixies but he's sh!t at remembering where he bought stuff

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/productresults.php?dept=50&group=B&PHPSESSID=e025kkvc12r8d6ldm1gd8es6e6

Thats the one. Cheers. Have it bookmarked now for future reference.

Very cheap.

silver campaign

Thanks for the help. The seller still hasn't got back to me about the bottom bracket.
Even if it was wedged in there, could it be removed by drilling or hacksawing your way through it. I know it would be a bit drastic and you'd have to be careful not to damage the frame, but in theory it could be done right?

flickerx

silver campaign wrote: »

Thanks for the help. The seller still hasn't got back to me about the bottom bracket.
Even if it was wedged in there, could it be removed by drilling or hacksawing your way through it. I know it would be a bit drastic and you'd have to be careful not to damage the frame, but in theory it could be done right?

In theory yes. In practice, sometimes they just get wedged in there and you cant get them out without damaging the frame. I had this problem with the Tomasini frame, look at the pics on the second page of this thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055296137

Personally I think I'd be a bit suspicious of that frame up for auction, especially as the bike is so old, I'd ask to see a photo of it without the b/b in there before putting a bid on it.

NeilMcEoigheann

my concern about the BB would be that the BB would be 26tpi (threads per inch) rather than the modern standard 24tpi therefore getting a modern BB into it would be impossible unless you use a plastic cupped BB or have it re threaded to 24tpi like i had with my raleigh chiltern, (this is a nerve wracking expeirence inwhich the fate of your bike hangs in the hands of a bike mechanic with a tool that looks like it is used for drilling out of prision)
the rust dosn't look that bad, and why in one pic is the rear dropouts stripped of paint?

silver campaign

I passed in the end. Didn't even bid, the bottom bracket put me off.
Wouldn't have mattered anyway, because it ended up going for £109, more than I would have paid for it. The search goes on....