suggestions for single speed

SPMA

Hey guys,

Been cycling on a spech sirrus in and out of work/college for two years now and looking to replace it with a single speed/fixie.

Went lookin at langster/bowry/plug and capo, but would be interested in building a custom instead. I have a budget of around 500 euro with room to go as far as 600 euro.

Do I go into a shop and ask them to build me up a custom or do I just buy a frame and do it myself? If you guys have any suggestions or advice on how/ where to start that would be great.

Thanks

blorg

I went off the peg for my two simply as it was easier and I knew I would get something that worked.

Most people building custom build themselves and use it as an opportunity to learn about the process of building a bike. You will end up with something more different and perhaps more what you want although I wouldn't do it because you think it will be cheaper as it generally won't- especially if you need to buy the tools.

Do you have any idea of what you want? Doing a conversion of an old bike or starting with a track frame?

lukester

Kinda like blorg, I considered doing this and had read up on it a good bit, and then the Bowery came along

But you could easily do it yourself if you're happy to tinker and learn as you go. Also agree that it's not worth doing if just to save money. If anything, once you start looking at components, if you're anything like the rest of us your budget will start to inch up as you crave nice track hubs and blinged out components.

Ideal would be to buy the frame you lust after and just abuse the credit card thereafter. Cheapest way is to find a suitable old frame. For your budget, if it's pegged at that with not much room, you'd be looking at the old frame option really.

TinyExplosions

I think you'd find it tough to put a fixie together from scratch for 600 unless you had some components yourself (and by that I include tools, as there's easily 50 quid minimum to spend on chainwhips, lockring tools, BB tools etc if you don't have em).

For example (and I'm taking reasonably priced components here -decent quality, yet not 'expensive')

Miche Crankset: £89.95
Chainring: £36.25
Miche BB: 12.67
Chain: 6.84
Rear Sprocket: £9.94
Carrier for Sprocket: £5.94 (though a threaded sprocket could be got negating the need for this at about 20 quid)
Wheels: £120
Saddle: £20
Seatpost: £15
Stem: £20
Bars: £20

That's a total of £356.59 / 412.31 euros

Not leaving you very much for a frame and fork.

I'd get a Langster personally, and possibly upgrade down the line

penexpers

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Miche Crankset: £89.95
Chainring: £36.25
Miche BB: 12.67
Chain: 6.84
Rear Sprocket: £9.94
Carrier for Sprocket: £5.94 (though a threaded sprocket could be got negating the need for this at about 20 quid)
Wheels: £120
Saddle: £20
Seatpost: £15
Stem: £20
Bars: £20

You forgot the brake!

TinyExplosions

I knew I'd forget something! That's another 40 quid, easy

SPMA

These suggestions are very helpful.

I didn't consider bike tools. Of the new single speeds; langster/bowery/capo and plug I would most likely go for the langster as I also [try] go for saturday spins on a spech allez and find the ride very comfortable. The langster is going for a good price in cycleways too,
425 euro I think, so I'd definitely have some change. The langster comes with standard alex race rims and I understand mavic aksium wheels fit 10 speed shimano or 9 speed campag, can I still put an aksium wheel set with a sinlge speed bike?

Another question.... whats a decent gear ratio? 42:16?

TinyExplosions

SPMA wrote: »

These suggestions are very helpful.

I didn't consider bike tools. Of the new single speeds; langster/bowery/capo and plug I would most likely go for the langster as I also [try] go for saturday spins on a spech allez and find the ride very comfortable. The langster is going for a good price in cycleways too,
425 euro I think, so I'd definitely have some change. The langster comes with standard alex race rims and I understand mavic aksium wheels fit 10 speed shimano or 9 speed campag, can I still put an aksium wheel set with a sinlge speed bike?

Another question.... whats a decent gear ratio? 42:16?

No, you couldn't use aksium wheels on it. The Langer, like most track bikes has a dropout width of 120mm (standard for track), a road bike is 135mm as standard, so the Aksiums would be too wide to fit. You'll need a track specific wheelset, but tbh the Alex Rims aren't all that bad.

42:16 or 42:15 are grand -I'd say it'd good for you out of the box

flickerx

SPMA wrote: »

Another question.... whats a decent gear ratio? 42:16?

I think thats too low. At the moment on my Masi I ride 44:15 (just right), and on my self-build I have 46:14 (a bit tough starting off sometimes, but fine for flat cities, incl. Dublin).

blorg

Gearing is a personal thing and depends on both the terrain and youself, your preferred cadence and what you want out of the bike. 42-16 (70.9") is certainly on the low side. It _could_ work OK for you. Personally I would be spinning out on descents and even flat with that though and would swap the 16 for a 15 (this is very easy to do.)

I have 42-15 (75.6") on my commuter with racks and mudguards but that rarely goes up much of a hill and whenever it has been doing distance it has been loaded mini-touring and not been at too high a speed. Have 46-17 (73.1") on my racier Bowery which I take on longer/faster rides and for me this is perfect, gets me up any hill without killing me on descents and keeps a reasonable cadence around the 90-100 RPM mark at cruising speed. Higher gearing I would be feeling my cadence was too low.

One the benefits of the fixie was to make me much more comfortable with a faster cadence so I wasn't inclined to go for much bigger gears. With either of mine I will regularly be up over the 100 RPM mark so depends whether this is what you want really.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Have 46-17 (73.1") on my racier Bowery which I take on longer/faster rides and for me this is perfect, gets me up any hill without killing me on descents and keeps a reasonable cadence around the 90-100 RPM mark at cruising speed.

Do you really "cruise" at 34kph? 'cos that's what Sheldon says 46-17 gives at 100RPM.

DirkVoodoo

I use 44-16, but my route home along the N11 is somewhat "up" (actually 2.5%). I spin out quite easy but when I am tired it is nice not to have to struggle.

I think 42-16 is a good starting point for most singlespeeds, you can upgrade as you see fit.

lukester

Personally I'd favour a lower gear inches figure, as it can take your legs a while to get used to a higher ratio, and they can be hard on the knees. Most OTP fixers come with a user-friendly ratio anyway, I'd stick with that for a while and see how you fare.

72hundred

This bloody thread has me looking the Specialized Langster. Christ that's a good looking bike and I've seen one locked up at the bike shed at work. Caught my eye in the middle of a hundred bikes. Really nice in the brushed option.

Listed in cycleways at €500, but only available in a 54.

http://www.cycleways.com/store/product/41634/Specialized-Langster/

Just out of curiosity where could one get the Langster at the lowest price? Internet?

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

Do you really "cruise" at 34kph? 'cos that's what Sheldon says 46-17 gives at 100RPM.

90-100RPM- gives a cruising speed of 30.6-34 which is very easy to maintain in a bunch on the flat. The Swords randonee (175km for me door to door) I had an overall average of 29.5km/h; I was finding it very difficult to keep with the geared bunch after lunch when the pace upped and we were doing closer to 38-40km/h on the flats (110-120RPM+) and dropped back to a more leisurely paced bunch.

fillup

i just bought a langster in cycleways, 499 yo.. cheapest i saw online was 503. i was going to buy it in a bikeshop anyway, somethings just ain't worth getting online
they ordered in the 54 for me and the one they have left in the shop was the last one availabe in the the ireland/uk (or so they told me) so if you thinking about it ya wanna get in there pronto

BRENT_EAGLE

Im trying to build a fixie at the mo but i dont think its going to cost me E400 im just gonna try scavange parts and try get most stuff second hand .. i think the whole project should come to about 180 at most cos i found the frame in my attic;)