Wheels

The wheels are almost the most important thing on a bike, if not a fixie. You can be ultra pro and build them yourself, or you can buy a wheelset. I decided to buy a wheelset from bike island. What makes a fixie a fixie is the hub on the rear axle.

Rear hubs that you've dealt with, unless you have a track bike or a fixie will be a freewheel type hub, that is, you can coast on it. If you get a wheelset you'll probably have better luck looking for a track hub wheelset. This means that when you put a cog on the hub, it won't coast. As long as the chain is pulling it, or the wheel turning, the hub will keep moving. Viol
à! It's a fixie!

Another option is to get a flip-flop hub. This will allow you to put a freewheel on the freewheel side of the hub, a cog and lock ring on the fixed side, and be able to flip the rear wheel, and convert between a single speed bike, and a fixie.

Finally the reason I ordered the wheels second was that there isn't a large variety of wheels that you can get sizewize. I measured the distance between my rear dropouts to be sure. If it's 120mm or a little more (125mm or so) you'll be fine with 120mm wheels, as the dropouts will squeeze in a little bit when you screw the wheel in.

If you get track wheels or other wheels where the rim is so narrow that it's drilled for presta valves, here's a quick bit about presta valves.

Being a guy who only rode bikes that his dad got for him, those all being single speeds and eventually when I was old enough, a bike with gears, I've only known shraeder valves, so prestas, though, I knew how they were different I had no idea how to actually use them.

To inflate a presta tube first unscrew the valve. Then clip your pump to the valve (I'm not sure if/how the screw type of pump works on presta valves, I ended up with the Park Tools Professional Floor Pump, which has a clip). Pump the tube up to the desired pressure (usually marked on the tire you're using, at least by a maximum psi). Then simply close the valve by screwing it closed. If you push down on the screw while the valve is open that's what lets the air out. That was my mistake.

Now I suggest that you put your wheels on your frame. This will let you get a feel for your bike finally and help you sight your chainline etc.. It's just really nice to put some shape to your bike.

Now the first thing I said after I tossed my wheels on was "wow, my bike is long!" I ended up mapping some dimensions out and found that my seat tube has an angle of about 73º-74º with repspect to the top tube, which ends up being on the high end. My consolation was that the wheels obviously fit in the frame so that was the natural design.

From this picture I sighted my hypothetical chainline. From what you see up by the bottom bracket you'll offset the bottom bracket by hopefully just the distance from the beginning of the crank to the chainring. The chainline should be straight from the chain. This is critical.

Of course that depends on the bottom bracket, crankset and hub on your rear wheel.

More later

Cleaning and Painting

You can by all means skip this part if you want, but since I had a couple days with my frame so I figured I might as well spend some quality time with it and clean it up. Since it was a used frame, there was some rust on it, which was to be expected, being used.

Cleaning your frame is a good idea because even if you don't care how it looks you should at least de-rust it, otherwise the rust will continue to mess up your frame. Not a fast process, but it also weakens the frame, you should get rid of it.

I used a #0 fine grade steel wool (I'm not sure if the #0 etc. is a standard of grading steel wool, but it should still be labeled as fine grade). In the case of my frame, the steel wool didn't scratch the finish on my frame and that gives you a lot of lee-way when trying to get rust off of little spots. When you use steel wool you don't need to use the whole pad of steel wool and just tear off a small piece so you can focus your work on some spots. Steel wool has a few limitations, it's hard to get into the corners and small spots (if you have fancy lugging like I do, or rust on things by the bottom bracket (place for a kick stand, like I do)). You can, but I really don't recommend using a steel bristled brush, which will definitely get the rust out, but I think will almost definitely scratch your finish.

If you're trying to keep your workplace clean, take note that steel wool when you use it kind of sheds tiny pieces of steel, making a bunch of gray dust, and might also irritate your hand, so if you have leather work gloves (not the kind that use cloth, like gardening gloves) you might want to use them.

No pictures for the steel wooling, it's kind of not that interesting to look at.

Regular cleaning I did the good old fashon way.

With a toothbrush.

Now once again, this part is totally unneccessary if you just want to ride something. Of course, I just wanted something to ride on, but I was bored, so I did this.

Put a towel down, take an old tooth brush, mix some water with dish soap and go to town on it. Make sure that you dry it off though so it doesn't rust. A lot of stuff that may have looked like rust might have just been dirt in hard to reach places, which is a good reason to do this. There's a good reason why you should keep your bike clean, but having ridden a mountain bike for most of my life I don't mind the dirt.

A great reason to do this, is if you're going to homepaint (spraypaint) the frame. If you spraypaint over dirt, the spraypaint can flake off because the dirt would flake off.

Now I decided to spraypaint a few small areas in the frame, the areas that through paint chips and bare metal from steel wooling the rust spots mainly so that they wouldn't rust. For this purpose I used Rustolium (huh, go figure).

If you want to paint your frame, and money isn't an issue, I'd recommend powdercoating the frame. Powdercoating is really hard to come off and looks great, but it can run a little expensive, I had a friend's frame and fork powdercoated and it was $140, plus some if you got a special color like sparkles or something. Plus they sandblast the stuff you have powdercoated so that they do a good job for you.

A cheaper option it wetcoating it, but I suggest spraypaint touchups or powdercoating. The pricing runs the gambit between the two from $5 (spraypaint) to $140+ for powdercoating.

THINGS NOT TO PAINT:
1) Parts you won't see (the tube of the fork that goes into the frame)
2) Anything with threads on it
3) The inside of the frame (seatpost etc.)

Dropouts are fine, and anything else that doesn't have threads, the paint will wear off whenever it does. If you get it powdercoated, don't expect you get a nice paintjob with the decals still on the bike. At least not if you want it to look good.

If you're spraypainting, then you're not too concerned with looks and can mask off the decals, or spraypaint over them. If you want a good spraypaint job then you can sand down the frame, which is something I don't know about too much.

Chuck: Actually, just a rough sand will help, it makes the old paint act like a primer.


I used trusty orange masking tape that I had laying around to try and set the bounds of where I'd be spraypainting over this huge gash showing the metal. Note also that I spraypainted it outside and not over the towel inside.

An important thing is to try and paint with the surface you're painting face up as much as possibile or you might get dripage. Even though this is spraypainting, it still can look uglier than it needs to be. Try and apply two coats.

Now this kind of approach is nice if you're doing it for a while, or only have a few specks of paint missing, but my frame was full of chips and I was getting a little bored of painting small spots. So I decided to mask off the decals and try and do some spot paint, kind of eye-balling it.

The only thing I could complain about was that the Rustolium White is a little shinier and whiter than the frame's white. Which since I was contemplating an actual patch looking paint job. As you can see I masked off all the chrome, the decals, and stuffed the seatpost, fork tube and bottom bracket with paper towels and tape in order to make sure I didn't get any paint stuck in there.

Next: Wheels

References and resources

These are the references and resources I used through the project. I'll try and keep this updated.

1) Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintainance by Lennard Zinn (ver. 2) - A reference book on bike repair, kind of like a Chiltons for bikes. Useful for the standard bike stuff such as bottom brackets and forks and removing stuck seatposts. I chose the book on road bikes as opposed to the mountain bike edition because fixies have more to do with road bikes than mountain bikes (plus, I already had the mountain bike one and half of the book deals with shocks, which fixies don't have).

2) Chuck - a guy who has built a fixie before and knows a lot about bikes. I would recommend you find your own Chuck, not necessarily a guy who has built a fixie before, but would be able to answer your bike questions especially on buying things and if you have any problems that your reference book isn't clear about/doesn't talk about.

3) Dad - a handyman. Probably knows a fair amount about bikes, more general knowledge though. Such as how to prevent rust, or clean things, or get a seatpost unstuck.

getting the frame

I got my frame from eBay. It seems you can consistantly find frames with horizontal dropouts. The only issue is getting one moderately cheap. If you find one that fits you for under $50 (including shipping) seriously seriously consider it. craigslist.com is another really good one if you can find a frame in your area. They're usually cheaper because there aren't looked at across the country and such. However, horizontal dropouts are really really important.

The key to a fixie is maintaining chain tension, otherwise the chain slips and you're surprised and maybe crash or break a chain or something. Horizontal rear dropouts allow you to adjust the tension by actually changing the position of the rear hub to tighten the chain. Granted you can work around this, or get the chain pretty close, but this is usually easier and less expensive than fancy weird hubs and luck.

I got mine for a bit more expensive than I'd like, but it was the right size, had beautiful dropouts and I was really excited about building a fixie. Here's a picture of it.


The guy who sent it to me did a ridiculously good job shipping it to me, he put spacers (a small poweraid bottle and some yellow thing) inbetween the rear dropouts and the fork blades to make sure they didn't get mashed in shipping, and then wrapped everything else in bubble wrap. It was really good and he got good feedback because of it.

Anyway, there was a snag. The frame came with a seat post, and I wanted to take it out in order to clean the frame. Since I got the frame last Saturday and the wheels I ordered (more on that later) probably won't get to me until later in the week that gives me most of the week to clean up the frame.

But the seatpost was stuck. As you might be able to see the seatpost wasn't a nice knobby one that you would be able to throw a saddle on for torque, it was basically just a steel tube, no real nice way to grip on a twist.

After squirting some WD-40 in there and grabbing on really hard and trying to pull the seatpost out, it didn't work out, my hand just hurt a lot. I knew that the seatpost wasn't rusted in because I could take my hammer and tap the seatpost down a little bit. After consulting Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintainance by Lennard Zinn and a call to my Dad I decided my next course of action.


1) Almost soak the seatpost in WD-40, both from the top and from the bottom, through where the bottom bracket should have been. I was lucky that when the frame came, the bottom bracket was left out. I put the WD-40 from from the top first, let it soak in a little, and then from the bottom bracket, propping the frame upside down like in the picture.

2) I left the frame outside so that the entire frame, the seatpost inparticular, would cool down. Then I drove to Target and got a $9 hairdryer and came back, probably about an hour.

3) Then I brought the frame inside and got my pair of pliers. Using the hair dryer I heated up just the seatpost tube. Now, heating up doesn't mean you have to get it hot, that'll take a while and isn't necessary. Remember that while you're heating up the seatpost tube the seatpost is heating up both from the hairdryer and just being inside.

4) Now take the pliers and grab onto the seatpost the best way you can. Since mine was hollow and round I took hold of it so that one prong of the pliers were inside the tube, and the other one was outside.

5) Twist and pull. If this doesn't work more extreme measures include taking the frame to a machine shop and having them mill it out or something, and Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintainance details more extreme measures to get the seatpost out.

Since I still have the better part of the week to clean up the frame, next: cleaning up and de-rusting the frame.

roadmap

Chuck was the one guy I know who had actually finished building their fixie at the time, and has a lot of bike smarts, so I said, "Hey Chuck, lets build me a fixie." He replied with this fairly explicit email:

From: Charles
Subject: Re: bike
Date: February 12, 2007 10:29:53 AM EST
To: Dieter Laskowski

here are the steps in an easy to read fashion

1) Get frame with horizontal dropouts (also the frame should be the right size for you, otherwise you compensate with a long (or really short) seatpost and headset.

2) We need wheels to roll around on. Try and get a track wheelset or Flip Flop hub wheelset. Flip flop hubs are cool cause they are threaded for freehubs on one side and straight cogs on the other. So you could buy a freehub if you want and just flip the wheel around and *POOF* singlespeed. Wheelsets can be crazy expensive or not so expensive. expect to pay $150+ for a wheelset.

3) Find a seat thats good for you (or that is cheap, like I found for 15 bucks in rochester).

4) To go with the saddle get a cheap seatpost of the right length (i suggest kalloy, as they have every size needed, and my seatpost is pretty cool and cheap)

5) We need to get power to your wheels, Get a singlespeed/track crankset. Sugino makes a $60ish good singlespeed crankset. I would suggest a square taper one (thats why i suggest the sugino, cheap for singlespeed and fixies are all about being cheap)

6) Pedals to go with your crankset. This is a preference thing, but if you do get clipless (ie you clip in with special shoes) hope they have a platform enough on them to keep you stable. So if you get eggbeater clipless get candy SLs. I ride around sans special shoes all the time and am pretty comfortable. PEDALS ARE YOUR PREFERNCE AS THEY ALL SHOULD FIT. k

7) You need a bottom bracket to go into your frame. So Figure out how wide your BB Housing is. Mine was something like 67.5mm or something. Make sure your bottom bracket is a square taper one to fit your cranks (or whatever your crankset is). BBs dimensions are funny, they'll say 67x110. its all on the same dimension, the 67 is how wide the bearing part is and the 110 is how far the edge of the square taper is from the other side
here is a picture
,................., 110mm
==|||||||==
.....'''''""""68mm

The second dimension affects your chainline, which is really important on a fixie, you want it as straight as possible (better in every way).

8) Tires are easy, just get cheap ones that fit your wheels. FYI My wheelset handles 18-30mm wide tires. 700x23c wheelsets are the cool roadsets you see me riding on. Those are the dimensions. I buy cheap tires from nashbar.com in "bulk", cause skidding is fun and i go through tires.

9)You need a cog to go with yourwheelset. I am running a 16 tooth cog (i think 11 is the smallest). The smaller = the higher the gearing. My crank is a 48 tooth crank, so i run a 3.0 ratio. Higher is pretty crazy, although in really flat places totally doable. smaller ratios (ie bigger rear sprockets) is better for hilly places. You can always change it later pretty cheaply

10) Now i have no idea what to do when it comes to a good headset. I have a shitty one that works for me. I also have a really old style headset so you're sorta on your own for that one.

11)This one is important. Your handlebars. This is what characterizes a fixie. It also affects the feel of your ride (along with the fork and chain) and can make or break long term riding. I have bullhorns, i think they're fun (they're known as time trial bars). Drops are pretty cool too, they're the standard road biking handlebar. You could be crazy indie and go for a flatbar fixie (ie mountain bike bars). There is also the old school moustache bar fixie, very rare. This is mostly a comfort and aesthetics issue.

12)Fork. If your frame didnt come with a fork you could get a carbon one as they provide smoother rides (so i hear, i believe it too knowing how they flex). Or stick with a normal old steel one just like your frame (probably). Aesthetics and ride.

13) Brakes, I started out with no brakes. But at most all you need is a front brake (as it does 80% of the max braking force anyway). Get a cheap brake that fits your fork and wheels. Get a cheap lever to go with it. That lever style depends on the handlebars. If you get bullhorns dont do what i did and get a crosstop lever. Getyourself a bar end timetrial lever, much better looking and more functional. If you have drops get hooded levers. Get some cabling to go with that lever.

Almost finished

14) Lights. I'm all about playing in traffic, and so i dont really wanna die so i have some lights. I have a flashing armband light thing, its pretty nifty. I also have a rear light, the most important i think, as I can control where im going and who im flying into, I cannot control what car comes careening into me. The mars 3.0 light is my favorite for rear lights. It has cool flashing abilities and is easy to mount (and remove for when locking up the bike). Im not a fan of cateye front lights as i have one now, but i cant remove it easily. I broke my goodlight and am considering buying it again.

15) most important. Helmet. Considering how much we pay for education, might as well spend some money to insure we dont lose what we paid for. A good helmet is key. Good helmets are comfortable and light. Go try some helmets on and dont feel bad about spending 100 bucks on a helmet. 100 bucks is easily what my head is worth. NO DOUBT, they also last longer than tires, much longer.

So far I'm basically following it step by step, we'll see how it goes.

why?

Why build a fixie? A fixie, a fixed gear bike, well, is for fun. I'm building mine because I've ridden mountain bikes and road bikes, and think that a fixie would be fun. I'm also a masher so a fixie kind of appeals to me to begin with. You could say that fixies are a kind of hipster thing to do, my friend said that he when he got back to school after winter break the bike racks were full of fixies. And college is pretty hip too.

Sheldon Brown's site has a section on fixed gear bikes, which is very useful for converting or building a fixie, which also has a testimonials page about how much fun it is to ride a fixie. I didn't read the testimonials, but my friend Chuck rides one, and I rode it once, it was weird, but interesting. Chuck says it's really fun though, which is good enough for me.

Fixies are supposed to be cheap. They're supposed to be fun things to just mess around on, it's a fixed gear so you're not trying to climb hills, fast, or steep. They're supposed to be really good for cities (i.e. urban) riding, though if you're in Seattle on Capitol Hill, or really any hilly city setting I'm not sure how well a fixie is in there (I'm sure there are many more citys that are hilly, like Pittsburgh, but I'm from Seattle).

There are lots of fun things you can do on a fixie, like track stands, skid stops and skip stops (all on Sheldon Brown's site), but fixies are a lot more dangerous too. The fact that as long as the bike moves the pedals, chain, and cranks are moving, which means that things get dangerous when the bike is moving. There's pedal strike, where since the cranks have to keep moving around turns and such, they can hit the pavement as you round a corner. Or if you're cool and wear normal pants (i.e. jeans) if they get caught in the chain going into the crank, either the bike stops, or your leg gets screwed up by the bike continuing to move while your pants are caught in the crank.

Also Sheldon Brown has a bunch of gruesome pictures of people's fingers that have been lopped off while working on them and hand pedaling the bike. Those pictures are just gross, so I guess I'm saying be careful and exercise some common sense.

So I guess either these accidents are easy to avoid if you're careful, or they just plain don't happen very often, or they're just ridiculously fun. Regardless I'm building a fixie, and it's going to be up here for everyone to watch.

Speaking of which, I plan for this to be used as a guide, FAQ, whatever, as long as you don't chop your finger off and sue me. I'm building my fixie from scratch, and in addition to just putting new parts on it I'll talk about my decision making process along with any snags I ran into on the way (already ran into one).

Later!