Hi all
You might remember a while ago I picked up this on ebay for £12
Took me a while but I finally got round to doing it.
Stripped it down. Unfortunately the RH crank arm wouldn't come off the axle and I stripped the thread trying to get it off... which meant I couldn't get a bottom bracket tool to take the BB out because the chainwheel was in the way... so I cut the axle apart with an angle grinder... which was unfortunate because I couldn't find an axle to fit it. So I had to fork out £15 for a cartridge-type BB. In my attempts to pop out the little stub of axle out of the crank with a vice I also managed to bend the chainwheel
so it didn't get off to a good start.
The frame was perfect even though it only has cheap pressed lugs. I ground off all the braze-ons except for the ones for the rear brake cable and made everything smooth. Then I painted it in Vauxhall Pearl Champagne, which I have managed to chip already.
The cranks, chainwheel, brakes, levers, seatpost, stem and handlebars are all original aluminium items which I polished up with some autosol on a felt wheel on a drill held in a vice, which worked really well and looked as good as a chromed finish. They are starting to look a bit dull again, they were sitting in the garage for nearly two months before I fitted them to the bike, so they need polishing by hand every now and then. The extension things on the brake levers are really useful for long relaxed rides as you can still brake with your hands on top of the bars rather than in the drops.
I got rid of the incredibly heavy 27" chromed steel rims (which I have sold for £25 - twice what the original bike cost) and got some fairly cheap 700c ones. The rear freewheel is an 18t, the front is 52 which gives me something like 75 gear-inches which is alright as there are quite a few hills around here.
I got a short Bluemels mudguard and painted it red, to keep the worst of the crud off (although looking at the angles I don't think it will actually do anything at all). The last thing I got was the Brooks saddle, for £30 on ebay. It's an older one with copper rivets and quite tatty, which I like. I'm in Bournemouth over the summer where fixies are considered the ultimate cool - I've had a couple of people yell 'FIXIE' at me, I tend to coast past and yell 'no, SINGLESPEED' back.
Now has fitted a red chain and some better quality QRs!
EDIT
Soon this bike will be refurbed as it's a year old and has been knocked about a bit, and I never really liked the colour. It'll be powdercoated in a very light pastel green (RAL6019 if you wanna google it!) with a new crankset and BB. Also got some new wheels - Mavic Open Sports on Zenith double-fixed hubs. This is getting converted into a fixed (48x19/17 if the dropouts are long enough - so 66/74 gear inches and 19/17 skid patches. Brooks is coming off (too nice for a university bike, and along with Brooks leather handlebar tape it's going on my Coventry Eagle restoration) and I'll recover the original in red leatherette to match the components. Will be running with a single bar-end brake lever (Tektro rx4.0 - might have to saw an inch off the end of the bars but I'll see...) to smooth out the front end.
You might remember a while ago I picked up this on ebay for £12
Took me a while but I finally got round to doing it.
Stripped it down. Unfortunately the RH crank arm wouldn't come off the axle and I stripped the thread trying to get it off... which meant I couldn't get a bottom bracket tool to take the BB out because the chainwheel was in the way... so I cut the axle apart with an angle grinder... which was unfortunate because I couldn't find an axle to fit it. So I had to fork out £15 for a cartridge-type BB. In my attempts to pop out the little stub of axle out of the crank with a vice I also managed to bend the chainwheel
so it didn't get off to a good start.The frame was perfect even though it only has cheap pressed lugs. I ground off all the braze-ons except for the ones for the rear brake cable and made everything smooth. Then I painted it in Vauxhall Pearl Champagne, which I have managed to chip already.
The cranks, chainwheel, brakes, levers, seatpost, stem and handlebars are all original aluminium items which I polished up with some autosol on a felt wheel on a drill held in a vice, which worked really well and looked as good as a chromed finish. They are starting to look a bit dull again, they were sitting in the garage for nearly two months before I fitted them to the bike, so they need polishing by hand every now and then. The extension things on the brake levers are really useful for long relaxed rides as you can still brake with your hands on top of the bars rather than in the drops.
I got rid of the incredibly heavy 27" chromed steel rims (which I have sold for £25 - twice what the original bike cost) and got some fairly cheap 700c ones. The rear freewheel is an 18t, the front is 52 which gives me something like 75 gear-inches which is alright as there are quite a few hills around here.
I got a short Bluemels mudguard and painted it red, to keep the worst of the crud off (although looking at the angles I don't think it will actually do anything at all). The last thing I got was the Brooks saddle, for £30 on ebay. It's an older one with copper rivets and quite tatty, which I like. I'm in Bournemouth over the summer where fixies are considered the ultimate cool - I've had a couple of people yell 'FIXIE' at me, I tend to coast past and yell 'no, SINGLESPEED' back.
Now has fitted a red chain and some better quality QRs!
EDIT
Soon this bike will be refurbed as it's a year old and has been knocked about a bit, and I never really liked the colour. It'll be powdercoated in a very light pastel green (RAL6019 if you wanna google it!) with a new crankset and BB. Also got some new wheels - Mavic Open Sports on Zenith double-fixed hubs. This is getting converted into a fixed (48x19/17 if the dropouts are long enough - so 66/74 gear inches and 19/17 skid patches. Brooks is coming off (too nice for a university bike, and along with Brooks leather handlebar tape it's going on my Coventry Eagle restoration) and I'll recover the original in red leatherette to match the components. Will be running with a single bar-end brake lever (Tektro rx4.0 - might have to saw an inch off the end of the bars but I'll see...) to smooth out the front end.
