Got myself a single

[Jayhawk]

I decided not to buy a new singlespeed or fixie because I wasn't sure I'd take to it, so I bought a single from a community project place the refurbishes and reclaims bikes. What I've got is a 24.5 inch Claud Butler frame with 700 wheels, reasonable tyres, new tubes, brake pads, chain etc. It's geared 42/18. I had my first ride on it today and was pretty happy. I live in the country and the roads are fairly undulating. I managed the hills fine, but had a fair amount of freewheeling on the downhills. What I really enjoyed was that I suddenly realised that I had given no thought to not having gears. Bloody cold though

 

[Jayhawk]

I'll try to add a photo

 

[Joe24]

Nice one. Get some pics up!
You will find the gear spinny because you only have a 63" gear on it.
So you might want to put a smaller sprocket on the back, a 17t one will take you to 66.7". I used to ride with 65" on my fixed, but its now at 68". Thats still abit spinny sometimes aswell.
Have fun on it and wack some pictures up!
Edit: Just put some pictures up, looks nice!
Just need it to be fixed now

 

[Young Un]

Chain's slack

 

[Joe24]

Chain's slack

+1.

(By the way, it isnt really, its just a common thing to be said)

 

[Euan Uzami]

nice blue color scheme going on. cables look a bit wild! 'spose that goes with the type of lever where they come out the top - but if they don't get in your way fine.

weinman centre pull brakes?

btw you can easily convert it to a fixed wtih very little outlay or trouble, just takeoff the freewheel and put on a fixed sprocket. very cheap. less than £20 from hubjub.co.uk.
also depending on the rear wheel you may be able to have it flipflop (fixed one side, ss the other)

 

[Joe24]

nice blue color scheme going on. cables look a bit wild! 'spose that goes with the type of lever where they come out the top - but if they don't get in your way fine.

weinman centre pull brakes?

btw you can easily convert it to a fixed wtih very little outlay or trouble, just takeoff the freewheel and put on a fixed sprocket. very cheap. less than £20 from hubjub.co.uk.
also depending on the rear wheel you may be able to have it flipflop (fixed one side, ss the other)

Isnt that abit dangerouse because its lacking a lockring?

 

[Euan Uzami]

well yeah put a lockring on aswell.pedantic

 

[Jayhawk]

Thanks for your comments guys. Got the brakes right Euan and yeah pretty wild brake cables, but hey ho who cares. More piccies

 

[Landslide]

Isnt that abit dangerouse because its lacking a lockring?

More of an issue if you're doing a lot of hard leg breaking. Shouldn't be too much of a worry if you're got front and rear brakes.

 

[GrahamG]

What was the damage for it then?

 

[Jayhawk]

What was the damage for it then?

Nothing serious. Kids didn't eat for 5 minutes and the wife curtailed bedroom fun for ......well 5 minutes

 

[MajorMantra]

Looks nice, but you should definitely try fixed - you'll never go back. Are you a giant by the way? That's one big frame.

Matthew

 

[stevew]

Looks nice, but you should definitely try fixed - you'll never go back.

Matthew

Well you my never go back but it wasn't for me. The main thing I didn't like was not being able to go really fast on the down hill bits. I found I needed a 65" gear to get up the hills and was forever frustrated when going down the hills 'cos I can't spin at 200rpm ! !
But having said that I love my s/s road bike and am now converting my MTB to s/s as well.