Hivemind: Another build?

gtvlusso

Hivemind required:

My current Fixie, that I love very dearly, I am considering running as an SS - I have a matching rear brake and levers, all I need to buy is a freewheel. However, running a rear brake on my rear non-machined rim, will wear the rim and look a bit shoddy.

However, I am still very keen on riding a fixie - for some reason, I feel that riding SS is a bit of a copout, this is completely unreasonable on my behalf, but I guess that I like to challenge myself.

So, I need another bike.

I have found a suitable steel track frame; circa £160 - 531 steel, needs refinishing, £75 for powder coat.

I then need some wheels - Navigator pista street £119....All other parts, I have.

The question really is, do I need to run a separate fixie and SS or should I just live with a flip flop hub....?

veronese68

How can building another bike not be a good thing?

dhope

Buy a 2nd (machined) rear wheel and swap as required, just try not to use the rear brake when running fixed?

Sounds like you've budgeted £355 for a new bike, so that can now go toward upgrading the fixed

flimflam_machine

I'm currently building something similar but at about 1/4 the budget. I'll be running it SS, although I'll probably put a FG on the other side of the hub just to try it out. I've no desperate urge to go FG permanently and I've found that on my commute I often have to lift my left pedal to filter between cars and the pavement so FG wouldn't work (don't worry, I don't do this next to HGVs or at junctions etc.)

You shouldn't really be using your rear brake anyway. Sheldon Brown has some pretty compelling logic on this and I've found that real life bears out what he says. However, putting a back brake on for SS for emergencies and to remain legal is obviously a good thing. Perhaps you could go flip-flop and fit the rear caliper with brake blocks designed for carbon rims? I've never actually seen these, but my intuition suggests that they're much less aggressive and so won't appreciably wear your rim unless you get some grit caught under them. It may not be as effective but should be enough for a "panic button". I'll leave it to someone with the cash to buy carbon rims to say whether this is true or not.

EKE_38BPM

Flip flop the rear wheel and use butterfly nuts to attach the rear brake lever and calipers.

I wrote that as a joke, but it does seem feasible.

gtvlusso

Hmm - all good thoughts;

My other idea was:

Change forks to 1" Aheadset type and get a 26mm stem. Run 2 sets of handle bars - 1 for fixie and 1 for SS with brake lines attached and run 2 rear wheels - 1 fixed and 1 SS.

Am I being completely tarty?

flimflam_machine

gtvlusso wrote:

Hmm - all good thoughts;

My other idea was:

Change forks to 1" Aheadset type and get a 26mm stem. Run 2 sets of handle bars - 1 for fixie and 1 for SS with brake lines attached and run 2 rear wheels - 1 fixed and 1 SS.

That's probably more hassle than just building a new bike.

Am I being completely tarty?

Yeah, a bit.