djg
12-16-2005, 08:39 PM
My CSi is not getting the road time it deserves and, for reasons that have little to do with cycling, I find myself pondering. Early last spring, I bought myself a LeMond fillmore and found that I liked riding it quite a bit. The parts are a bit of this and that, and I might have some quibbles, but basically it’s a really nice riding frame, IMO, and a big step up from the traditional fixie beater. I have no intention of doing away with gears altogether, but it seems that I’m always grabbing the Colnago for a geared ride or the LeMond for a fixed ride. The CSi, which is a great bike, is barely getting used. It’s a ’96 (10th anniversary) frame, which got a repaint, a new fork, and Chorus 10, a couple of years ago.
When I bought the LeMond, I may have suggested, if not quite promised, my wife that I’d sell one of the road bikes. I could probably get away with doing nothing—certainly she hasn’t been hounding me to sell a bike—and perhaps (or very likely) that’s what I should do. But I’ve been thinking about possible changes. One possible change would involve converting the Serotta into a fixie. To do that, I could simply buy a rear wheel built around an ENO hub. I have a line on a good price on the hub and the price of the whole thing wouldn’t be terrible at all. Wheel, cog and lockring, new chain, some bolts, some spacers, and maybe a new front chainring and everything should work. I have a spare set of brake levers and I could just pull the brifters, changers, and extra cables. That would probably be a killer fixed gear bike and I could sell the fillmore in the spring. An alternative would be to have the rear dropouts (vertical) replaced with either horizontal dropouts or track forks and, perhaps, to have the rear triangle reset to track width. If I did that, there’d be no going back (without more major surgery), but I’d be able to use some record-hubbed track wheels that I already have, I’d have more flexibility with wheels generally, and I’d have an easier time getting things to line up with a track crank (also handy, which would be a nice way to get shorter crank arms, both for spinning and for cornering). I would not treat this second path as a do-it-yourself in the garage deal, I’d have a serious, professional, non-idiot do it. I think it could be done for considerably less than the cost of a comparable fixed-specific frame bought as replacement.
Thoughts?
When I bought the LeMond, I may have suggested, if not quite promised, my wife that I’d sell one of the road bikes. I could probably get away with doing nothing—certainly she hasn’t been hounding me to sell a bike—and perhaps (or very likely) that’s what I should do. But I’ve been thinking about possible changes. One possible change would involve converting the Serotta into a fixie. To do that, I could simply buy a rear wheel built around an ENO hub. I have a line on a good price on the hub and the price of the whole thing wouldn’t be terrible at all. Wheel, cog and lockring, new chain, some bolts, some spacers, and maybe a new front chainring and everything should work. I have a spare set of brake levers and I could just pull the brifters, changers, and extra cables. That would probably be a killer fixed gear bike and I could sell the fillmore in the spring. An alternative would be to have the rear dropouts (vertical) replaced with either horizontal dropouts or track forks and, perhaps, to have the rear triangle reset to track width. If I did that, there’d be no going back (without more major surgery), but I’d be able to use some record-hubbed track wheels that I already have, I’d have more flexibility with wheels generally, and I’d have an easier time getting things to line up with a track crank (also handy, which would be a nice way to get shorter crank arms, both for spinning and for cornering). I would not treat this second path as a do-it-yourself in the garage deal, I’d have a serious, professional, non-idiot do it. I think it could be done for considerably less than the cost of a comparable fixed-specific frame bought as replacement.
Thoughts?