Ultimate Hybrid Bike Now For Sale On Ebay
Check it out! http://bit.ly/pFqeS1
"Buy it now" price $1,500 or "Bid Start" price $800 if you fancy your chances against Ebay's 5 million or so Aussie members.
This Blog is about my hobbies. I'm into bikes (motor & pushie), surfing and long walks with my dog Benji.
Check it out! http://bit.ly/pFqeS1
"Buy it now" price $1,500 or "Bid Start" price $800 if you fancy your chances against Ebay's 5 million or so Aussie members.
After riding the bike around my games room last night, I decided West Head Road would be a bit ambitious for a first run. The last time I rode a fixie was round a velodrome in Herne Hill south London quite a few years ago. So I decide out to Dobroyd Head would be a good test run. Its light, smooth as silk and nicely balanced. Everything works well. Problem with fixies generally though is that you really need a flat run and my area aint flat at all! One speed really does mean one speed with a fixie, so when you go downhill you have to use the brake a lot to slow down, because your legs can only go round so fast before throwing you and the bike in the ditch. Pretty crazy feeling actually. This frame has always climbed well and now its better than I ever remember. A few loose bits and bobs, but she's ready. Fun ;-)
I've always loved the geometry of this frame which is one of the reasons its so satisfying to see it spring to life again. I had it made especially for epic 80 mile rides in the Lake District, in the UK where the trails were a mix of firetrail, singletrack and a fair amount of road. This is gonna be a fast, exciting ride and a cool little street bike when you flip the wheel over onto the freehub. First thing in the morning its getting the maiden run out along West Head Road from McCarrs Creek. No doubt there'll be a few things loose by the time I get back. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed following the story. More to come...
Cool, the Cane Creek headset fell into place nicely. Smooth as silk action on the front end now and the Manitou forks look great in white with the orange frame. Pretty sure the colours on this will work together. The handlebars needed to have about 5cm taken off either end to get that city sleek streamlined look, so I found a 13 year old that wanted to learn how to use a hack saw... amazing job he's done as well... used a file after to smooth the sides and everything. There's hope for this new gen me thinks.
OK, so now I have the correct single speed chain with this nice little snap-close connection link on it and it fits the super wide fixie cog. Something to bare in mind with a single speed is the length of the chain. Remember 80's BMX's had slide-in rear wheel slots, so you could adjust the tension on the chain by moving the wheel position. This is necessary for single speed. Fortunately, this fits real nice so not too much fiddling every time you need to take the wheel off. Tasty slicks all set on the rims, so the wheels and back end all ready to go. Next up, headset, forks, handlebars & front brake. Can't wait to ride it now!
Always read the detail people! I ordered a standard 9 speed MTB chain for the single speed fixie and guess what... the chain don't fit. Go to the Velo Solo website and check out the description and there it is in black and white. "NOTE: VeloSolo 3/32" chainrings have a tooth thickness of 2.3mm and are therfore NOT compatible with 9 speed or 10 speed chains." No drama, chains the last thing to worry about, new SRAM PC1 on order. Started stripping down the old headset on the frame and realised pretty quickly this is beyond just a clean-up, its worn and old. I want this bike silky smooth so new Cane Creek S8 sealed bearing headset on its way. Check out the outside bottom bracket tool, freakin' awesome. Amazing control over torque to ensure those Funn Downhill Cranks don't start wobblin'.
Forgetting to order a front disc brake. Do! Anyone that's ridden a fixie before around the streets will know that at the very least you need a front brake as back-up for back pedal braking. Good progress now that most of the parts are here. Need an external bottom bracket tool to finish the crankset, then its onto the front end. Funn cranks look great, super light too. Checked out @trend_land NY for inspiration, they've got a gallery of fixies. Mine's gonna bounce though ;-)
Buying bike components in a shop is a mugs game. Buy online and save hundreds if not thousands. This arrived today from www.chainreactioncycles.com and it has all the bits and pieces to make-up the rest of the bike. Its like Christmas, my birthday and fathers day all rolled into one. Hope everything's in there, Ballyclare is a long way away for returns!
And there it is, the heart of the hybrid. You can see that as I haven't changed the freehub body, you could run a 9 speed cassette and hang a derailleur very easily. So as well as a fixie, its a single speed street bike and fully geared mountain bike. Cool huh!
The rear wheel hub was feeling really rough. Maybe something to do with being in a bag for 5 years. Anyway, easy job, strip down and rebuild with new bearings and grease.
