Obsessed

I am completely and totally obsessed with building the coolest single speed commuter bike. I can't explain it, but if I get the money this winter I want to build a single speed cyclocross commuter bike with disk brakes... It has to have discs, why? I don't know it just does.

You see I am planning to go back to SFU to peruse my PhD come this winter. I went to SFU as an undergraduate and I fell in love with climbing the 800ft mountain (Burnaby mountain) every day on my bike. It was hard when I first started but that morning climb is what ultimately got me into racing. I was in such good shape from busting up that mountain that when I started mountain bike racing I did quite well. Road is another story. By the end of my undergraduate experience the hill was nothing to me, so I move 30 km farther away just to make it hard again.

Well I don't want to live that far away again so the next best thing I can do is make it harder on my self by only using one gear. Yes, I could just not shift a geared bike but that is beside the point. This is a perfect excuse to build up a stelar commute machine. I was inspired by the Kona Dr. Dew, it looks like a kick ass city/courier bike (disc brakes included) but it had gears... clearly it would not do. Next I realized I love riding road bikes but I have always wanted to try cyclocross. Then it hit my why not a single speed cyclocross. Of course. It would be a stellar commute manchine plus I could go mash it out on the local cyclocross circuit. The only thing missing are the disc brakes. I checked around and learned AVID brakes make a road disc version of their mechanical disk brakes that work with the throw of regular road levers. Note to tech heads Diacompe makes some road levers that have the proper ratio to work linear pull brakes. I believe this means you can use the regular version of AVID's mechanical brakes, although I would investigate further.

So what frame to go with? Many manufactures make cyclocross. But, I found only one that offers disk tabs as a default, Vicious cycle's Spider frame. However it has gears so I would have to do a lame conversion thing. Surly makes a kickin cyclocross bike, the Cross-check (gears or SS- your choice) plus it is cheap, but no disk brake tabs. Surly also makes the Karate monkey, a 29er with disk tabs... but it has MTB geometry. No I want a snappier bike for the city when I give the finger, and smack cars with my U-lock. This leaves the alternative of getting a custom frame built. Most custom builders are more than happy to slap on a pair of disk tabs, at of course a higher price. If custom is the route I must take then I will have to go with Spot . You see, I will be moving back to Vancouver, what better gesture to buy from vancouver frame builders. Plus Spot makes one kickin cyclo cross bike, they are a fair bit cheaper than most other custom builders, and disk tabs is an easy addition for spot.

Will any of this come to pass? Who knows. Right now it is a dream. But if my financial situation looks good enough it just may see the day of light.

My New Years Resolution

Soon her gears will be but a distant memory...
[Enlarge]

I gave my New Year's resolution some thought. Did I want to be nicer to people? No. Did I want to save the world? Hmmm, naw maybe next year. How about expand my horizons as a person? Been there, done that, not happening. So what does that leave me? Building my new single speed...

Yes, 2004 has rolled around so it is obviously time to build a new bike for myself. So what will it be? Right now I am obsessed with Fixies. I was going to build one from a cyclocross bike, but that seemed expensive. Instead, I have decided to build the coolest bike for as little cash as possible. I am going to turn my race road bike into a svelte 14-15 lbs fixie road bike for the winter.

Is that cool or what?

So how will I pull this feat off? Simple my friends, build a single rear wheel with one of those funky White Industry eccentric single speed hubs. Instantly, my vert-drop Opus race bike morphs into a fixie with NO stupid add on chain tensioner, the hub takes care of that. Then I simply strip off all those unsightly gears, cables and brakes to be left with a 14-15 lbs uber commute bike that is friggin' a bitch to ride. No fenders of course, because that would mar the lines. I will be riding this super pain machine everyday with a gear that is WAY too big up a fickin' 800 ft mountain to go to school for yet another degree. How cool is that? (Beside the degree part of course.)

I figure this is about as cool as I can possibly hope to get, which is fine because I suspect it will be more than enough to encourage hordes of cycling groupies to hang off me as I ride into campus each day. "Ladies, ladies, two at a time please!" I can hear myself clarifying. Yes, and all this is made possible because no yuppie wannabe would be stupid enough to bother with the pain of such a cool machine. [Edit: little did I know that fixies would become such a phenomenon in Vancouver]

And that brings me to the lesson of the day boys and girls, this is what cycling is all about... spending far too much money to pick and choose pieces of technology that will inevitably leaded a heightened sense of pain. Bring it on!

And of course bring on the beer for when I blow my knees out

Building a Fixie Part I

I have been lamenting for a couple months about building a fixie. I have gotten some good feedback, but unfortunately I have decided not to heed anyone's sound advice and instead have blazed off in my own direction...

So what have I been up to on the one gear front. Well, I finally put my monocog single speed back together after shipping it across the contenent. All I have left to do is get the RockShox psylo fork on it to function again. I have done lots of maintenance, and it was good for about a year, now the seals are going so it needs constant rebuilding (about once a ride it seems). While the fork doesn't owe me (I got it for free basically), I still have a dislike for RockShox. If you anywhere other than California, where it is always nice and sunny, then you would probably have run into similar problems. But hey they are 'cheap,' plus even the venerable Marzocchi blow seals left right and center. So I should just shut my mouth, eh?

Some cool new cranks I scored

Rant aside, I have to admit I have been more addicted to road bikes lately. They are the sports cars of the cycling world. You can build them all sick like, they react on a dime and they seem to last. Plus if you have a good place to ride them (i.e. big mountains) there is plenty O' Adrenaline leaning the bike through a tight corner at 70km/hr. As a result of my recent love affair I have been going on about building fixie for a few months now (Read 1, Read 2). I have ruled out converting my race bike over - only for the time being until I can get another race bike :). All the suggestions to get a custom frame such as Independent fabrication have been well heeded, but I don't have the cash right now. Trust me I would LOVE to go that route, but I can't justify it. Especially since the whole moving across the country thing has left me with less disposable income than I had planned on. But that is life, eh? How about converting over my current commute bike Christine? Well she is just plain evil and wouldn't appreciate the effor.

So that leaves me building this thing up piece by piece by piece, bit by bit. In other worlds I must embark on a journey in search of pieces. I am happy to report I have begun this process.

Step one, I have bought some funky Kooka cranks (pictured right). What makes these cranks especially cool is the fact the company Kooka is deader than a door nail, so very few have these cranks. Plus these are the infamous CNCed cranks that would crack if you installed them wrong. The secret is not to use grease on the spindle or else the cranks would be pushed too far onto the taper and crack. Not to mention these cranks have got to be the lightest cranks I have ever held. Big-S get the hell out. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention I got them for $70 canadian, never used.

In total, swag factor is through the roof on these babies...

Next step... finding a killer frame. I am of course looking for a mid eighties gem that has beautiful lugging and vert drops. Over the next while I will be surfing used shops until I find the 'right' frame. Let the fun begin.

Building a Fixie Part II

I rode up seymour mountain on the weekend. Half an hour out to the base of the mountain, then the glorious 1000m accent from the bottom to the ski lodge. I came for pain, but I noticed that I wasn't hurting too bad, actually I felt dam good spending half my time in the saddle and half out. I even had a good rhythm going, putting in a consistent effort bottom to top without ever feeling like I wanted to puke. Clearly, this can only mean one thing...

Its high time to make things harder!

Potential Frame?

It is now clear to me that riding one speed on the dirt simply isn't enough. I guess this means its high time I put my ass into gear and get a move on build that fixie road bike.

Currently, my search for the perfect frame has just begun but already I have one interesting candidate (pictured). I must admit when I first thought of putting together a fixie road bike, this was not the kind of frame I had envisioned. I had imagined some beautifully lugged frame from the 80's meticulously hand built by some famous frame builder in Italy. Something that had history and was ready to make some more.

However I find it hard to pass up deals sometimes. This frame is a total bargain - A Cannondale (also known as crack&fail) CAD 4 Areo. It lived its life as a shop owners frame, barely ridden with an asking price that is the same as some cheap used steal frame. Since its a time trial frame it is be short in the top tube which fits my weaselie frame perfectly. All I have to do is strip the ugly paint, and get a buddy to do a custom paint job on it. Perhaps flat black with shiny flames... who knows but with those fat tubes.

So did I buy it? Well, not yet. You see I am still thinking. Do I really want to be the kind of guy that builds a pain machine with such a hightech Pimp frame? To me riding fixie is all about pain and simplicity. No fancy technology here just guts and glory baby! But its such a deal, and will be so rigid, perfect for cranking on.

What is a weasel to do? Will I sell out to technology or try and remain traditional? I guess only time will tell.

Building a Fixie Part III

All the lovelies

Well I took another forward step to building a fixed gear bike, a couple days ago I bought the parts I needed to build up the rear wheel. You see the other day was my birthday and if I have learnt one thing thing (and I do mean only one thing) it is to buy yourself the present you want. Sure friends may try their hardest to buy you something (i.e. this classic movie ), and your family members may plain forget, but really if want to get that fixie wheel you've had your heart set on for the last couple months, well its best to buy it yourself.

Incidentally, for the folks in Vancouver I ended up going down to Mighty Riders to get the parts. They were cool I would totally recommend checking them out for cool custom stuff such as building your own fixed gear.

Anyway, lets get down to the nitty gritty of this wheel...

The rundown of the wheel goes as follows... and remember strength and price were my primary consideration:

1. 32 hole Alexrims DA28 rim
2. One Surly Fixie hub
3. Soma Fabrications track cog
4. some DT swiss straight gauge spokes
5. Finally some spoke nipples for fun. I love saying nipple... it just rolls off the tongue doesn't it

Of course the weasel will be building his own wheels (as always), although its been a while and I can't quite remember the trick to ensure that the label on the hub lines up with the valve hole - the sure sign that the wheel wasn't built by a schmuck, such as myself. I believe the secret sauce is created as follows:

1. Look at the hub label and pic the middle of it, draw a line to the right, this should end up between two spoke wholes
2. Count three spoke holes forward. Thread a spoke through so it is on the outside
3. This spoke goes to the rim in the hole behind the valve

I believe that is right... oh well I will find out soon enough when I try building it up.

Ta Da... the new fixie

Hangin' with the new fixie

After some long consideration I decided to convert my evil commute bike over to a fixie. Ed down Mighty Rider ultimately convinced me it was the wisest way to go. I had hesitations because the frame is a bit of a tank and the bike on a whole was evil. Does evilness, reside in the frame, the components, or a mixture of such? I am not sure but I figured it was best to conduct an experiment...

Well I have a sample of size of 1, but I am beginning to believe evilness is a synergistic association of frame and components. So far the bike has been well behaved and I am finding out that riding a fixie that is a tank (I swear this bike weights over 25 lbs) seems to be the best kind of frame. You basically abuse these bikes and ride them into or over anything in the way. What better for the job than a heavy tank. Plus no worries of getting dents and scratches. Really no worries of anything. Just ride the fucker into the ground and hope everyone gets the fuck out of your way!

Anyways, the bike went together pretty easy. After I finished the wheel, I bent the rear stays in a bit (used twine and a wrench), threw in the new wheel, set the chain tension, kill the rear break and it was finished.

Here is another cool picture:

Advice on building a fixie

So you want to build a fixie eh? Well where to start, what to do? While I am highly opinionated, I don't have all the answers. However I do know enough to get pointed in the right directions if you live in Vancouver...

From: Paul Copeland
To: Wonder Weasel
Subject:Fixed Gear Shop
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 19:34:35 -0600

I'm moving up to vancouver soon to go to school. As soon as I get there I'd like to get a fixed gear ride built up. Do you know any shops that specialize in building up cheap fixed gear track bikes for under $200?

Thanks Paul

A fixie for $200 cnd may be hard because to do it right you often have to build up a rear wheel with a proper track hub. Otherwise you can't have a lock ring. For example if you use a cheap multispeed hub that takes spin on cassettes, and put on a track cog when you brake with your legs the cog will spin off because braking will put force on the cog in the exact direction to remove the cog and with no lockring to prvent this the cog will spin right off. D-oh! This is definitely not a good thing. Anyways, To build up a decent rear wheel... you will be looking at close to $200 cnd- ouch!. You could however build up a single speed (not fixed), with a cheap hub that takes spin on cassettes (just put on a BMX free wheel) and be able to patch together a bike for your target price.

Weasel's fixed gear approved shops:

Our community bikes:

• not-for-profit bike shop
• rent shop space and do it yourself or pay extra for hands off.
• might not have a lot of experience building up fixies.
• Location: 3283 Main Street (11:00 - 6:00, 7 days/wk.); Phone: 604.879.2453

Might Riders:

• Best fixie expertise in Vancouver
• Talk to Ed. He is often grumpy, but really know's his shit inside and out and is a stand up guy.
• Location: West Broad Way a 3 blocks east of Mountain Equipment Co-op. I don't know the phone # off my head.

Finally, if you are building up a bike from scratch, a good place to find a cheap frame could be some sort of consignment sport's store. There are tons in Vancouver. For starters try Cheapskates Too Consignment Sporting Goods 3228 Dunbar St. Vancouver, BC (604) 734-1191.

hope that helps

Advice To The Neofixie Hipsters

Fixie + Quick Release = Death

Okay, for all you neofixie hipsters out there, I am only going to say this once so listen up. DO NOT under any circumstances put a quick release on the rear when you have to hold the chain tension. Are you listening? Ah! You are thinking about doing that again...

STOP

I spotted the monstrosity, pictured left, on Friday night after I was leaving the Anza club. I was drunk, but I knew duty called so I got my shit together long enough to document this madness.

The whole thing almost brought me to tears, I cried for weeks afterwards.

Lesson 1

Fixies are a celebration power and stubbornness. Power is when you can mangle your cranks (Yep, its mine and its real). Stubbornness is when you could ride a geared bike to make your life easier, but you don't. Hell, we could also all give in to the man and drive cars everywhere, because its easier. But we don't do we? Who's hardcore... What's Hardcore?

UPDATE: Make that mangle your cranks 2x
Busted Kooka crank Busted Sugino

Lesson 2: Fixin' the Fixie

So lets do an itemized list. Look carefully and you can see that you have:

1. A Track Hub?
2. A Track Cog
3. A frickin' big burly chain

To the untrained Vancouverite eye the above is meant to scream

"Crank the shit out of me fucker, I love it that way!"

As the a fixie setup is meant suggests the rider pocesses a kind of sadistic power. The kind of power, where if you listen carefully you can hear the frame cry out...

"Oh, God NO, Not again!!" Each and every time those cranks spin round.

Instead, to trained eye fixed gear aficionado the above screams something alright, it screams

"COFFEE!"

It's ruined because its all held together with a quick release; a cheap wimpy, mother fucking quick release. I can guarantee you that absolutely NO track hub in the history of all track hubs has ever ever ever EVER come with a quick release.

Can you guess why? Crank it hard while braking and the wheel wheel is going to fly right out of the drops and you are going become a road crayon spreading your art. Especially with this frame since the drop outs are angled forward.

When you use your legs to break the axel wants to move forward, this is why *REAL* track frames have horizontal drops that face towards the rear. The worse that can happen if they slip is that you lose some chain tension, not have the frick'n wheel come off the frame!

This is of course not a worry if you are only going down the street to coffee... In that case this set up should work fine to trick the uninitiated fixie loving hipster.

BLAH, I say... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!