I think I’m going to convert my old road bike to single speed.

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It’s my BSA Tour de France from the mid 1980s, and my first road bike. I really haven’t got the time or inclination to do a full resto, so I’m going to convert it to single speed, when I get time.
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
Easy and cheap enough to do
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Excellent idea!

My singlespeed bike project was a way of doing something with a spare frame/fork/wheels and wasn't really intended to produce a particularly useful bike. I thought that I would just ride to the shops on it and up and down the local valley roads but it turned out to be such fun that I regularly use it on imperial and metric century rides.

I have ridden 4,210 km (2,617 miles) on it since November 2016.

I find a 52/19 gear ideal for 24-32 kmph (15-20 mph) on the flat but if I didn't use the bike on hills I would go for a higher gear, maybe 52/17. I can get up 5% ok and short ramps of 8-10% but anything steeper than that and it feels way overgeared.
 
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OP
OP
Racing roadkill
That’s some sabatical

What’s the story?

I was given it as a Christmas present in about 1986. I rode it a lot for a year or 2, including my first ( accidental ) 100 miler, then my old man split from my mum and disappeared ( with the bike ). Many years went by, with no real contact between he and I, then a couple of months ago, I got a call from a hospice to tell me he was at deaths door. A week later he croaked, and I got the keys to his house. In the garage, lo and behold, was the bike. Funny how that works.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Wow, that IS a story!

I wonder if he actually rode the bike, or just took it to spite you and your mum ... :whistle:
 
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