London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Sorry for the delay, replied by PM so you don't miss it...

Wow, this thread is great! I miss my peugeot racer. I'm looking for another but I can't seem to find any decent quality ones in a driveable distance.

The shame!

Yeah, I'm running a 17t out back and it's proving pretty spiny. I kind of thought it'd be good for tricks but as soon as I get to a steep hill my legs struggle to keep up! What's the largest tooth fixed that Surly do?

http://www.surlybikes.com/parts.html

try and look for a 44t chainring.

Do you know if one of those would fit my original crank?

depending on the BCD of your crank, check out sheldon brown for more information on how to find out what BCD your crank is (you can find out if it written on the chainring).

hey

lots of peoples been mentioning building a rear wheel. can someone explain why? is it necessary when converting a road bike?

also for those of you with rear drop outs, how did you know what chain ring size to ensure tension? experience.?? I got a 61cm raliegh (not enough representation on this forum to my mind!) ive stripped down an want to convert to a fixie on the cheap but i nervous about buying chains off t'internet in case proves unrideable/ not tight enough.

i feel bad askin cos it seems to be pretty much the standard "newbie" question, but youre all so nice!

cheers

Cheers Ed, i'll check it out

because you would need a new hubs that designed for fixed wheel (if you're keeping the original rims and spokes that come with the bike), the road one are designed both for freewheel and to hold numerous cogs, so it's not suitable for fixed wheel.


by rear drop out, you mean those drop out that doesn't allowed you to adjust the tightness of the chain?

if your chain isnt tight enough remove some links. what angle are the rear drops? if they are more horizontal than vertical you might be able to slide the wheel back to take up slack.

Just to add to Ed's comment.

It is possible to reuse the old road bike rear wheel as a fixed wheel but a lot of people say that you shouldn't. You have to 'suicide mount' the fixed cog which means that the lock ring is on the same thread as the cog and you use a hell of a lot of loctite to make sure it stays on. I used this method on my original conversion for a good few months without any problems but you have to make sure you know what you're doing and read up on it. Also read up on 'rotafix'ing your cog. This is a method of screwing you rear cog on really tight to make sure it doesn't move.
* The other thing to remember about doing this with the old road rear wheel is that it is dished to allow for somewhere between 5-10 cogs so you may have some trouble lining up your cogs/wheel with frame.

I can't stress enough how much reading up on with other people have done helps you to build your own. Just search for things that you hear mentioned and you'll get no end of really important info coming up.

hey - yeah cheers. I know its all so repetitive. i kinda get lost in all the jargon AND there IS SO much out there. no probs buying a new back wheel just wanted to make sure i wasnt being a pigeon.

edscoble - was look at a peugoet youd converted yesterday (was it this thread?). Looked cool and looked like you had same drop outs as me. Anyway looking at the bike and think i have "Horizontal Dropout Campagnolo 1010" (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html). Talked to Charlie from Charlie the Bikemonger and he said i would NEED a ENO hub for £120 (no thanks!). was thinking drop out angle + half link + gearing would be okay. but "Charlie" threw me. may have been mislead by my claim to have a "vertical dropout".

Those dropouts should be fine for running singlespeed or fixed with regular hubs, at least I do on my conversion (currently SS) without any problems. I think you should be able to get the chain tension right with any chosen chainring by adjusting the number of chain links and moving the wheel in the dropouts.

basically you have this;



singlespeed bicycle in the past use those dropout (without gear hanger), there's plenty of room to adjust your chain tension anyway, so you'll be fine.

you don't need to spend money on the eccentric hubs, just get those cheap Formula/System EX/Zenith etc. hubs, despite the cheap price tags, they're reliable and plenty durable.

coolness. think im getting it. my whole sat is going to be devoted to tuning the bike. ill let you know how it goes

it's like we turned up to a party in the same dress... awkward

There are on-one hubs on sale now for a very good price. Much cheaper than formulas.

my pug has developed an annoying crank noise .. creaking on every push.
I have tightened everything i can see and its still there .. any suggestions.

your annoying crank noise could potentially be an annoying bottom bracket noise? also sometimes pedal bearings can creak? had to retap the frickin' threads in the pug i built up to get a new bb in not cool. or it could be your knees?

well i am pretty sure its not my knees .. not yet anyway :-)
but i have been looking at changing the crank and bb to a sugino messenger so maybe worth it now
they are new pedals so i would hope its not them .. might take it to the lbs and see what they say .. i am passing brixton cycles tomorrow i will ask them.

if you point one crack straight down and push through the bike with your foot you should hear some cracking noises if the bb is super worn. it's lazy man diagnostics. if it's the orig bb i would hazard a guess and say it's def the bb when i did mine the bearings were rectanglular

yeah it is bottom bracket! the bearings come loose on those old french threaded bb. New bb or put up with the sound.

where have i seen this before?

i just stopped at a local shop who told me a new sealed unit for it is £25 + £18 fitting .. that seems a bit high to me .. is it ?
not really worried about the fitting i can fit it myself but the bb seems a bit steep.

the fitting is expensive. the bottom bracket doesn't seem that expensive unless its just a generic item.

Newbie here! Have been offered a 70's Peugeot UO-8 by a colleague. Does anyone have any experience of converting this to fixed? Cottered cranks and almost certainly French BB, how problematic is this going to be? Cheers

Easy enough if you don't want to do too much to it. If the bb and cranks work then leave them on and just change the back wheel. As long as the cogs line up you should be ok. If not then I'm not sure about the bb. If you mate at work is offering it cheap enough (ie £50 or so) then take it and you can always ebay for a load more.

Guys, two of my friends have old Pugs and they both want toe straps, however neither set of pedals can take them because of reflectors, so they need to change the pedals however it's too big for my 15mm pedal spanner, any idea what size they need and where to get them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another newbie here. Trying to get out of the nursery. Have an old Peugeot 'Premiere' that I picked up recently and have stripped it down to the frame, cranks, seat post (seized - YIKES! - a little mild heat'll help. . .) and stem/fork. It's a sky blue metallic which I'd like to replicate, but it needs the paint stripping back and some surface corrosion removing (thought I might get it shot blasted). Question is, any idea where I can find the original Peugeot colour swatches?

Try here.
http://cyclespeugeot.com/index.html
http://www.peugeotshow.com/
http://retropeugeot.com/

Good luck and have fun.

Nice 1 andy.w I dare say I'll have more questions . . . .

Not many people do shot blasting over here (may be able to get it done) but resprays go to Azzy paints, very good and reasonable costs.

Are they in the book? One of the guys in work (Brian Leadley, he's a Peel man) said that Shaun Craig's son had done one for him. I'm making enquiries.

Azzy Paints Ltd 619019

Did mine for £45

On the bottom bracket question, if the cranks need replacing there are a few options. New axle if the cups are ok. I could only easily find jis ones, but haven't looked very hard. Or sjs do french unsealed ones and velo orange do sealed french ones. Combine with you s choice of cranks.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Most welcome. Hopefully getting the bike today and will get started on it soon...worth a go as the bike is a donation, not been used for a while and apparently it made my work mate sad looking at it every day, when I mentioned I was after something she was only too happy to give it a good home!

Daft question of the evening. How'd you remove the gear posts of the downtube? Hacksaw? Gas Axe? Won't it leave a hole that needs brazing? Sorry, new to this . . .

Hacksaw/dremmel/file wet and dry. Carefully.

Oh and UTFS ;-)

Hacksaw to mine. Andy says careful, but if you see my frame, it's only if you want it neatly done that you have to be careful.. I just didn't want to get shorts or gearshifters caught on them..

Sorry Andy, what's UTFS?

Hover mouse over UTFS, good mannered humour.
http://www.lfgss.com/search.php?searchid=3413469

Er, got it. Ta. :-)

does it matter what stem i get for my pug? just had it re sprayed and putting it back together. looking for something a bit shinier than what was on it before....

if it those threaded one not really, quill stem are usually one size.

Was thinking of polishing the stem that's on mine (thanks andy.w).Will that work? I mean, does it need lacquering to stop it tarnishing?

Autosol. and re buff once in a while.

Keeps it retro . .