Getting there...

Yesterday I ordered a ton of parts:

The color scheme is going to be: polished steel, blue and white. One of my classic favs.

So the Bulletproof cranks and the 105 brake arrived also. But the brake is recessed so I'll probably have to drill the crown of the fork and get a recessed nut for it.

From IRO:
IRO Wheelset - Flip/Flop
IRO Cogs - 14 and 16. (The 16 will be my primary I think, the 14 for days on the boardwalk)
IRO Lockring

From NYC Bikes:
KMC 1/8" Blue Chain
10 Hole Silver Rockt Ring, 46t
Chainring Bolts
Toeclips w/ blue straps.

From Ebay:
Set of Blue Michelin Speedium Tires



















Pretty sweet lookin eh???

Now last night I stripped down most of the paint on the fork and bike w/ Aircraft Remover. That was easy enough. A little metal brush to touch it up and now to sand off some kind of coating. The bulk of the tubes are done but the butting seems to require a little more work... photos and more info to come.

Break...

So I'm headed off to Peru in less than 24 hours so the Fixie project will be on hiatus until I return. But it'll go full steam once I do get back in 10 days. The frame is ready to be stripped of paint and parts are in the mail. I got the Shimano 105 brake caliper today. Everything looks good except it's missing the recessed cylindrical nut and the adjusting barrel. Oh well. Those shouldn't be too tough to get.

A Bulletproof Crankset off eBay is in the mail and will arrive while I'm gone (to my work address so it's ok).

Need to Buy:

• Chainring - probably a Sugino
• Lockrings - Dura-ace
• Cogs - IRO, 17t free and a 15t fixed
• Wheels - IRO - fixed free silver set
• Chain
• Toe Clips - metal w/ white straps
• Brake Lever
• Decal Paper

Planning on getting back on Saturday the 12th. I can strip the paint Saturday night. Polish and clear coat it Sunday afternoon. I'll order the parts above then too. Turning out not to be too expensive. The biggest thing is really the wheelset.

More when I get back...

Bare bones

Ok. Got the bottom bracket tool and a new seatpost tonight. The seat post is 27.0mm and fits seat tube perfectly. Much nicer. And it's shiny. That's good considering I'm trying to make this bike entirely chrome.

Speaking of which... that is the next direction. I figure I should do the things to the frame before I put it together. So off went the bottom bracket, stem, headset, wheels, and fork tonight. The BB tool worked perfectly and I just took off the other side (drive) with an adjustable wrench. Masked off the Fuji emblem on the front and other key threaded and open areas. The headset was tough to get off as I didn't have a second wrench to steady the fork. So i just used the wheel as leverage against my legs. Worked fine. A little trace paper and masking tape and voila!



The sanded metal portions are where I've sanded off braze-ons for cables and such. I wet sanded with 400 grit sand paper and then tested the Mother's Mag and Aluminum Billet to see how well of a finish I could get. It looks pretty good.

Anyway. The plan is to get this bike all shiny bare metal. Strip it with "Aircraft Remover" and then use the Mother's Billet to polish the metal. Then I'm going to print a few decals on my inkjet that I will design in Illustrator CS2 and pop those babies on. Then clear coat w/ this stuff intended for wheels. Materials shown below:

Things that've happened...

Had to try to adjust the seat post and that was a pain on Sunday the 23rd. Had to bring the bike to a workshop w/ a vice and clamp the seatpost into the vice with the frame upside down facing up. Then lift (really yank) the frame off the seat post. Turns out the seatpost is a 27.2mm seatpost and the seat tube takes a 27.0mm. I found this out by trying the seatpost from my Bianchi Alfana (early 90s model?) and it fit perfectly. Lo and behold that seatpost says "27.0" stamped on it. In the mean time i've sanded maybe a millimeter off the Fuji's seatpost with a power sander and it CAN come out... hopefully I'll pick up a seatpost today.

I went to the Bike Kitchen on Wednesday evening (the 26th) to get some things done and get advice. Orlando was very helpful though I got there a bit late and we worked on the bottom bracket. It definitely wasn't easy to get the lockring and cups unscrewed but we got it done. I emptied the bearings from the cups and cleaned them with new grease. Filled the cups back with new grease and put the bearings back in. Screwing the BB back on was a pain as the threads would get jammed up. Last thing I wanted was to strip the threads on the frame...

So the BB is done and I started getting a parts list. I was recommended a beginning 42t/15t ratio for starting out. I think I might give myself a little more flexibility and challenge by going to 46t/16t...

42/15 = 2.8 and 46/16 = 2.875 so it's just a LITTLE tougher, and I think 46t gives me a little more freedom and options later.

Over this past weekend I ordered a Shimano 105 front brake (used) from ebay and a Bulletproof crankset.

Parts to buy from NYC Bikes now:
Rocketring Chainring (46t)
Blue KMC Chain
Flipflop Wheelset
16 and 17t cogs
Brake Lever

Also picked up "Aircraft Remover" (paint stripper), a Mother's Billet (metal polisher), and a clearcoat spray from Pep Boys. The clearcoat is for wheels so I think it's designed to be a little more resilient to chips, etc. We'll see. Decided not to professionally powder coat as it's another $100. This is my first bike and we'll see how well it does. I 400 grit sanded some parts of the bike where the guides for the shifter/brake cables were held. Then used the metal polisher on the bare metal and it really works well. Gives a good mirror finish to it all.

I think that covers most of it! Psyched but I'm going out of town on vacation for a week. So more later...
(pics to come)

Starting my first fixed gear...

The purpose of this blog is to document the process of converting a road bike to a fixed gear. To preface things. I don't have any real wrenching experience with bikes. I tinker with all sorts of stuff but never have done more than change a tire tube on a bicycle. Wish me luck.


Picked up a Fuji Supreme from the mid 80s (Serial No: Sl 111133) from a yard sale that I found on Craigslist last Saturday (July 22, 2006). Measured out around 58 cm. I got it cause the Fuji uses a Valite steel which is nice. The ride was really quite smooth. Horizontal dropouts for ideal Fixie conversion. The spokes are corroded, the seat was shot, and the tires' sidewall (natural rubber color) had something weirdgoing on.

Brought it home and started taking off the parts I didn't need. Seemed like a lot of Suntour and Dia-Compe parts. Brakes, pedals, cranks, derailleurs, shifters, grip tape, all came off. All this came off pretty easily with an adjustable wrench, pliers, screwdrivers, and allen wrenches.
Shown above, the brakes, shifters, grip tape, pedals, and derailleurs have all come off. I couldn't really get much further. Went to the local bike shop and got a saddle from their saddle bin to replace the gross piece of foam that came with it. Also got a crank puller and pulled of the cranks now and removed the chain rings.

More pics and details to come...