Been wanting a fixie on the cheap and as of yet had yet to find anything. This morning I found an old abused Schwinn road bike. Handlebars not straight to front wheel (I think this is an easy fix) one brake lever broken off (of course its the front one). Chain off, derailure looks bent (who cares).

My plan. remove the derailures, and gears in back, spin on a cog tight (what thread/pitch where to buy?) and use locktight green, adjust chain size to appropriate size (or buy a new chain), fix handlebars and front brake and ride. Do I have to replace the BB / cranks or can I just put the chain around one of the two in front? How do I line up the front and rear cog? Anything else I am missing. If I enjoy Fixed gear riding I will then look at modifications and upgrades, but this seems to be the lowest cost option into the world of fixies.

Comments, thoughts suggestions?

Thanks

First, make sure that the frame and wheels are safe to ride. No cracks in the frame, rims are true, spokes tensioned, etc. If you plan to use the old hub and loctite a cog, you should probably run a rear brake, just as an insurance policy against the cog spinning off. If you can still use one of the old chainrings, you need a 3/32 cog and chain--trust me, you'll need a new chain. In fact, if you can keep the cranks, it'll be easier to buy 3/32 chainrings as well--that's the standard guage for shifty bikes.

You may not need to replace the cranks, unless they have a strange BCD that's impossible to find rings for. They could also be cottered or something, who knows. New chainrings can be had pretty cheap, so you shouldn't endanger yourself to hang on to an old one.

The chainline on the inner chainring should be pretty close. Since it's a 5? speed hub, it won't be perfect, but you could in theory space it with an old BB lockring, or maybe some slices of pipe.

Also, you might want to find an old BB lockring to spin onto the hub, you can loctite that on, too.

Sheldon Brown. Read all this stuff:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html

I got into fixie riding the same wayas you: built the first one as cheaply as possible, to see if I'd like it, then upgraded (a little) after I got hooked. One inspection point I'd emphasize: take a good look at the fork; in my experience, abused bikes often have damaged forks.

Sheldon Brown's site is a treasure trove.

This site also has some usefull info about converting your rear hub:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/wheels/

I did this to an old 7 speed wheel and it worked great, although the re-dishing took some practice.

Best of luck.