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How did you get on? I'm thinking of doing it too.

its important to check the length of the spokes.
Some wheels use shorter spokes on the driveside.
So youll find it pretty impossible to redish it. If the wheel is cassette, then its better to simply get a SS cog.

there is a "mechanics & fixing" section here by the way..

but in regards to your problem. my local bike shop tells me shagged out BB's are quite common amount all these cunts on fixies.

I have encountered none of these problems however, I run a standard shimano sealed BB. I hear Miche Primato (real track stuff) are pretty cheap too.

But traditional looseball BB's are a staple of track riding, as most old frame and keirin bikes seem to come with them. So I doubt whether the BB has anything to do with it.

Too much chain tension causes damage to your WHOLE drivetrain, chain, chainring, sprocket, BB all get worn out much faster.

Plus it feels like shit.

why are you all being, ssssoooo complicated?

an un machined rim is fine, most bmx rims are either chromed or painted these days. The shiny surface gives superior braking in the dry, and not so strong braking in the wet.

This is a perfect situation, id leave things as they are. You see, clamping down on a very strong brake in the rain is usually a bad idea, especially on the front.

In the case where you DO want stronger braking, just change the pads.

Eventually the paint will wear off anyway! leaving you with a all-weather aluminium rim.

Actually now you mention it, you do look a little bit like a squirrel in that footage.

http://www.vimeo.com/1313493

Crikey, look at him go! I think he saw a nice girl squirrel with some track nuts..

The Vans sole was made to work with the DX skully. I had a shimano set on my Haro but it got teefed.

I think was the other way round, vans and similar shoes been around since the sixties.

DX was and still is the Shimano line of bmx racing products. I imagine it was introduced in the 80's when skateboard & bmx kids were already wearing Vans.

In terms of riding the flat pedals, you really are missing more than half the joy of riding a fixed wheel. Dont get me wrong flat pedalled fixed bikes can be good in their own right, I have a path racer style bike with flats. Also experimented with flats on my more sporty 80's raleigh fixed. You can fool about riding backwards circles and doing edwardian circus tricks. But it never feels "right" going at speed. Plus id say it only feels 40% as efficent as riding with clips.

Once you get up to speed, with flats you have to keep pushing to keep good contact with the pedals. And your never in true "control" and *harmony *with the road that fix-nuts talk about.

I seem to remember you mentioning riding freewheel though? (excuse me if im mistaken) but still, being clipped in gives you full control of your positive pedalling motion at least. Having the FULL cycle of upstroke & down stroke with your legs gives you a harmonious "cadence" too (first time ive used that word) so much more power, so much less fatigue.

Plus you ride a track bike!

Each to their own, but I think your missing out on a lot.

pearlecent? pearlescannt? purl-s-ant?

I can do pearlescent, green, blue, red, purple

Im based in Birmingham, but I reckon I can still beat London/Armourtex prices including postage/train fares.

Right...... being far up north from you folk and coming on lfgss i see a lot of threads with "stolen bike"..... just out of curiosity why are so many bikes being stolen, is it because people are using the wrong locks with a mentality of "it will never happen to me"

like cable locks or something?

Do bikes managed to get stolen that are locked up with mini D's.....i know its possible to eventually get through a mini D but it takes a lot aren't i right in saying? do they go to the effort to cut through mini D's?

ALSO....what are the mini D's that halfords sell like?

those halfords ones feel really good. Very heavy and good locking mechanism.

I wouldnt pay any attention to the included insurance though as you have to provide the broken lock as evidence and all manner of awkward stuff.

In every incidence of bike theft I have encountered, the thief has taken the lock with them. Plus with a strong lock like a mini-d its far more likely that the railing etc will be cut.

In terms of cables, there are a very few decent ones. Not ANY of these armoured ones from ANY brand , at an COST. All the armoured ones have a piss weak 7mm cord inside which a determined person and a pair of sharp scissors could get through!

The only cables worth considered are the ones with the steel cord actually visible and a diameter of 30mm. Also the expensive ABUS ones. It will be just as heavy as a good D, and still not as strong. The only benefit of having one being you can wrap it around yourself.

dammnit.

I know what you mean about Rolls vs. suede Kashimax,

kashimax look great on track bikes and old school race BMX's but if you actually try and 'SIT' on one your likely to feel like youve been dry bummed by a pack of apes.

Kashimax only good for "sprinty" type bikes where you dont fully weight yourself on the saddle for too long.

Give me rolls anyday.

I just sized myself up with this:

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/

it seemed extremely detailed, and gives you frame sizes for classic and modern bikes.

Thought it might be useful to some others as "what size" threads seem to appear with some frequency.

I came out as : 50.5 - 51.0cm for a classic "eddy" style bike.

Im only 5'8" but this really surprised me as I thought Id be something like a 56" at least, and had been considering 58's even, while looking for my new frame. Quite lucky I checked i out.

keep on eye on gumtree & ebay especially for your electronic bits.

http://www.gumtree.com/cgi-bin/list_postings.pl?posting_cat=2477&search_terms=ipaq

man, you really manages to cram your life in there!

Did you do the graphic on the bag yourself? It would help if its unique.

also

Those cranks will snap like twigs

Is the chainring made from MDF?

as ugly as that bike is, those cranks are probably stronger than what most of us have on our bikes.

1pc US/BMX style cranks are made of chromoly steel.

But they are WIDE!! 61cm!

most of the width on them seems to be the handles, you could easily lose half.

If you're using normal shoes, get some bungee laces. They'll make it a damn sight easier for shoe changes than fiddling with laces with wet fingers and when you jump off the bike.

bungee laces + fixed wheel a bit dangerous perhaps?

Who bothers to undo their laces on trainers anyway?

My best sugestion would be to get hold of a cheap mbt rear wheel. You should beable to get hold of one cheap or even free. You will have to use a different tyre though.

Your 26" X 1 1/4" rim has a diameter of 547 mm with a 1" 1/4 tyre give you an outer dimaiter of 31.75*2 +547 = 610.5 mm

A mbt rim (559 mm) with a 1.25" tyre will give you a 31.75*2 +559 = 622.5 mm outer diameter or with 1" tyre 25.4*2 +559 = 609.8 mm.

So if you have the clearance you of an extra 6.25 mm at the moment you can keep the same balloon of tyre on the bike and use an mbt wheel or drop down a tyre size and have a wheel 0.7 mm smaller in diameter.

You should have enough travel in your brakes to beable to cope with the small 6 mm shift in brake block height.

edit the 31.75 is 1.25" in mm and 25.4 is 1" in mm

very good advice indeed.

If the bike will run 26's it would be well worth using mtb wheels instead as you could get hold of much better quality modern wheels for very little money.

crackin' avatar dude. but why do you want to swap?

36H in mucho demand, as all the wheelsets etc available on ebay are 32's

Enjoy your stronger more reliable wheel.

They havent got many spokes, and they are normally spaced out far apart so when one goes, the wheel untrues itself.
I know someone who broke one spoke and his whole wheel went from being perfect to rubbing the side of the frame as he went along, broke when going round a courner.

its pretty obvious that the fewer spokes you have the more fucked up you wheel would be without one!

Thats why I find comfort in the sense of reason shared by most fixed/SS urban riders in running either 36 or 32.

I personally go with 36 everytime. Reliability for me is far more important than a tiny bit of weight.

The fact BMX'ers have gone from 48 down to 36 as standard, and now into 28spoke territory is just silly though.

yup, have a pair of kona p2 forks. Black, with disc mounts. used.

And a pair of brand new unmounted, chrome BMX style forks for 26" wheel. Pretty rare, dont know where they are from. 100% Chromoly. With canti mounts.

£20ish each? not based in London, but can bring em on saturday if you are definetly interested.

the frame looks tiny, if its still small with the stem hoisted up that high maybe you shoukd consider something better fitted?

On a well sized bike, its a joy to use the drops. Thats what they are there for.

slack chain..

actually been looking for a cat recently, not local but am in london on saturday. It would be a bit strange, but we could have a cat transfer rendevous, and then id be left carrying a cat in town and back home on the train.

Maybe ^jonlubi is your best bet, but I am up for it.

If he had the time and the opportunity to avoid the girl then he should have done regardless of the girls position.

We dont have any pictures of what the site looked like. So its hard to make a judgement about any of this.

But I know that a group of kids walking into the road can obscure most of the view, and I at least dont make a habit of looking a great distance into the right hand lane for oncoming traffic (even if I should) rather just stick to a good position on the left and keep an eye out for junctions. If a bunch of kids walked into the road how I am imagining, I would be very hesitant to swerve into the other side of the road, I would either try to stop. Or if going to fast, shout something out to hurry the group along.

I can imagine a situation here, where no one really is to blame. There press articles are pushing a sense of outrage, but I feel it is more to do with the fact that it is so unusual for a bicycle to cause a pedestrian death.

If a group of teenagers walked into the street in front of a car travelling at speed, the whole group wouldve been seriously injured or killed. Yet the driver would not have been expected to stop in time, and the 'blame' wouldve fallen on the "unruly teenage kids" who run into the street in between sessions of happyslapping.

In the worse case scenario, of there being lots of space and time to brake. Yet the rider being a cunt wants to speed through the group of kids. The £2200 fine seems just about right, as I doubt most cyclists would expect to cause serious injury to pedestrians travelling at 17mph. When 1tonne metal boxes are carreer through tight residential street at a minimum of 30mph.

oh, I have two pairs of rigid mtb forks.