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I've never owned a workstand, yet I've somehow managed to build and rebuild a whole fleet of bikes from bare frames without one.

Fair play to you, but my experience is it's much easier to work on a bike if it's held still. Buy one, and you'll get even better at working on your bikes.

A workstand was a revelation for my bike tinkering. Lots of jobs that I thought were beyond me became really easy once I'd bought one.

Beyond that, it depends what bike you own. Really good allen keys at about £20 are a good investment. The rest of it I managed to pick up at car boot sales.

you screw the hanger in the hole over the droput

Yes, but does it come with a hanger?

Is there no mech hanger for it?

Where my boat is moored now, the nearest house to me is the on Kate Bush lives in.

I think she's great. I particularly liked Pi on her latest album. Who else would have the nerve to sing a song about maths?

A 1958 Raleigh Lenton:

23" c-t. Reynolds 531, with the classic Raleigh "dimpled" fork. It's been professionally powdercoated, not as good as an enamel finish but will keep it solid for a few years. Designed to run 27 x 1 1/4" wheels.

Perfect fixie fodder. It originally came with a Huret Alvit mech, which could be included for an extra £5. Look at the gorgeous wraparound seatstays and slack angles, this would be great on something like one of the tweed runs.

£85. And yes, my dad's choice in decor is rubbish. (:

Build options are available, if you'd like a prebuilt bike.

I stand corrected.

I'd still have a Carradice though.

... my experience of anything too vintage on the bike front is closer to the triumph of hope over experience....

Let me show you my daily commuter:

62 years old and still in regular, hard daily use, or it was until recently.

Ah, my dear old dad's house. Going there is like visiting Wickes, circa 1990.

I can't tempt you with it fully built by me?

A freshly resprayed 1958 Raleigh Lenton? Reynolds 531, frame forks and headset for £115. I have lots of parts, so I could build a complete fixed/ss/derralieur/hub geared bike several ways, depending on what you like.

Is that interesting?

Yes, but it'll be a singlespeed and not a fixed gear. It's a good solution, because you can pick your chainline to whatever suits.

Alternatively, if you have a couple of knackered cassettes, take them apart and you will have enough spacers to enable you to just buy a singlespeed sprocket.

No offence, but spending more than the purchase price of your bike on that would be like putting lipstick on a pig.

Why not...

1. Remove the freewheel you have now
   
2. Fit a fixed cog/lockring
   
3. Redish the wheel
   
   

What gearing were you planning to run with your 48t chainring?

Bargain! Quite a late one though.

What's the date on the hub?

Why anyone would buy a Mercian when you can have an Edisons for less is beyond me.

Edisons doesn't have an ounce of the attitude of Mercian, and the frames are a match in quality for any other custom builder anywhere. You never hear of him because he doesn't advertise, but that's because he doesn't have to.

And before you ask, I've nothing to do with him commercially. No freebies for me!

Yes you could. Use a lockring though.

They're both very good, but Carradice is the best pannier money can buy.

Unlike all the other top brands, they make no promises with regards to waterproofness. But they are made in Lancashire by a woman who gets paid a living wage, and there is a reasonably priced repair service for when you do damage them. Seriously, no cheap manufactured goods have a repair service. Lifetime guarantees are just another way for companies to say "See this item, we can make it very, very cheaply".

Probably.

What sort of bike?

JIS Stronglight crank in 170mm?

Weinmann vanquer centrepulls?

Spodalp silver brake levers, as fitted to old Raleighs?

I can do you a Ritchey seatpost in 27.2 as well, but it is black.

Personally, my favourite was Suntour. Anything with their power ratchet.

I've got a pair of barend shifters with them, but downtube ones were made.

The new, "safe" Nitromors is rubbish. The job is rubbish. It's such a pain in the arse stripping a bike frame back to bare metal.

I'd look in the yellow pages and look for someone to sandblast it. Outside of London, it shouldn't cost more than £5.

If you wanted to do a bare metal finish, how about using engineer's blue? Really nasty chemical, though, be careful applying it.

If you have to file your frame's dropouts down, it's probably something very old designed for a Sturmey-Archer hub. If the frame's a lightweight, it's a pity to do this, IMO.
But if you are going to file do the bottom of the dropout, otherwise you might have alignment issues.

It shouldn't be that expensive a fix. You need to be friends with someone that works in a bike shop, and go in when they aren't busy.

^what he said^

The thing people forget about a lot of really lightweight stuff is it was never designed to last a long time.

Ride it. Enjoy it. Break it. There's nothing more depressing than a garage queen. After you've built it, where's the fun in owning that?

There's a special tool, which all good bike shops ought to have:

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Park%20Tool-Bottom-Bracket-Tapping-&-Facing-set_11155.htm

It cuts the faces of the BB shell so they're dead parallel.

As you can see, it's an expensive tool, but a shop shouldn't charge a lot to do it, it isn't particularly hard for them.

All of the BBs for use with stripped threads really need the BB shell to be faced before they are installed. They shouldn't work loose if you do.

Same goes for external bearing BBs, incidentally.