I Laughed at you all when you said turn my CAAD 8 Into A Fixie BUT

[Deleted member 1258]

A pair of very sevicable drops costs about £30 I may even have some h-bars that I can do without.

Im not sure what spacer kits you are refering too, if you are refering to the spacer kits I am thinking of (see here: http://www.velosolo....shopsingle.html), they look fugly, and with respect I consider that a bodge job.

I primarily ride fixed and an not adverse to hillier rides, so I agree on the benefits, I just dont think fettling a very nice road machine (I own a CAAD9 as a geared bike so I know how nice they are) to run fixed/SS is the way to go. but yes its Gaz's choice, his bike, he is riding it etc.

I'm thinking more of the spacer kits at the bottom of this page

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/shophub.html

they get your spacing right on the axle, I suspect you couldn't convert the caad9, vertical drop outs I think, would need bodging with an eccentric bottom bracket.

 

[Rob3rt]

How different are the CAAD8 and CAAD9 frames? They most likely have the same dropout and hub spacing etc. The 9 is only a small evolution.

I had a quick poke around last night, out of curiosity. My Mavic Ellipse and stock Fuji rear wheels dont appear to have a big enough axle to seat in a CAAD9 frame (I couldnt be bothered to pull the wheel of my CAAD to try sit it in, I just did some eye ballin' and a bit of rough measuring, looks to be about at least 1cm to 1.5cm wider at the rear of the CAAD to a true track frame) You might get them in the dropout, but you wont get the nut on properly. Maybe with a longer axle you will.

The vertical dropouts arent a deal braker, just an inconvenience. You would need to tension the chain by removing links. This means you can only have 1 ratio. No flip flop hubs. Either that or you need one of those mech hanger style chain tensioner things.

Also you wont be able to run true track cranks without a big BB like you said (with a CAAD9 is BB30 so I dont think you can put track cranks on whatsoever, the CAAD8 isnt BB30 I dont think so you might get away with it if you have a wide BB, but I'm far from a techie so probly wrong), else the cranks will twat the chain stays. But you can still run normal road cranks and just remove the mech and the non-required chainrings.

Will be a very nice fixie anyway


My boss wrecked his rear mech, all he did was remove it and runs the bike single speed without any modifications bar shortening the chain to suit the gear ratio he wanted.

 

[gb155]

but then I need to change levers too no ?

and are the brakes the same ?

What might be a better idea is to get a Cadd-5 and SS that ?

Its gonna be a few months anyways, so I'll be beating up the 8 for a while before I decided what I a gonna do

A pair of very sevicable drops costs about £30 I may even have some h-bars that I can do without.




Im not sure what spacer kits you are refering too, if you are refering to the spacer kits I am thinking of (see here: http://www.velosolo....shopsingle.html), they look fugly, and with respect I consider that a bodge job.

I primarily ride fixed and an not adverse to hillier rides, so I agree on the benefits, I just dont think fettling a very nice road machine (I own a CAAD9 as a geared bike so I know how nice they are) to run fixed/SS is the way to go. but yes its Gaz's choice, his bike, he is riding it etc.




Point one, respectfully dissagree. I dont think there is a great deal of snobbery at all (at least in the sections I ever read ), and in this thread I cant really detect any whatsoever.

The rest I pretty much agree with, the CAAD8 is a crit machine, built for the road, designed to run gears. The groupset itself is race material. If you are looking for a fixed wheel bike that is as light and possibly as stiff as a CAAD (maybe not quite ), they can be found for as little at £300 for frame, fork and headset (as long as you dont mind some agricultuaral welding). Planet X were recently (not sure if they still are) selling track worthy chainsets for £50.

You could always reverse the conversion of the CAAD8 though


Do whatever makes you happy Gaz, just offering an alternative really.

 

[Rob3rt]

Iim not sure what you mean by are the brakes the same, so I'm just going to splurt a load of crap and you can extract the best words to answer your question hopefully

The brake calipers on fixed/SS are exactly the same as a road bike, I run 105 on my Fuji with a Cane Creek TT200 time trial brake lever on some bullhorns (Profile T2 Wing). My new bike will run STI style hooded brake levers on drop bars with 105's or Campag's equivalent.

If you add drops to a bike with flat bars, you can either slap the cross top levers from the flat bars on the tops of the drops, this is fine because you can modulate your speed using your legs when on the drops if running it fixed, or you can buy some brake only STI style hooded brakes (look exactly the same as STI's minus the gear lever and a fraction of the cost).


The original CAAD5 is not a SS frame, its a road bike. But Cannondale stopped making their track model (which was a sweet looking machine), but it appears that with the increase in popularity of fixed gear/SS riding they have re-introduced a newish model called the Capo, its basically a modified CAAD5 frame with track dropouts (rear facing) and correct track hub spacings. Its a very nice bike, its supposedly very much a road bike and road geometry but set for SS (their old track model was a true track bike with tight angles to my knowledge), it should ride pretty much just like your CAAD8, still super stiff, harsh and quick, but not so twitchy as a proper track bike.

There are lots of options out there for ending up with a fixed wheel or SS bike that is just as fancy and "technical" as these fancy road machines, they dont have to be steel conversions or plain looking commuters, just have a look around. No need to rush into anything, especially with that nice Peaguot.