I recently scored an old Raleigh 531 road frame on "trademe" in NZ, paid the equivalent of US$25 for it. The frame had been in an impact and needed a new downtube and had to be realigned.

A frame builder friend of mine did all that and also put in an internal rear brake cable routing. He's also cold set the rear to 130mm as this wasn't initially going to be a fixed project.

She's off to be repainted in a metallic version of Bianchi's Celeste and have retro Raleigh decals fixed.

Now for my questions;

1) Will the new 130mm rear end scupper my fixie aspirations?:mad2:

2) I also won a NOS campag Athena chainset on ebay recently. I thought about using it for my fixie project. Would I be able to get a reasonable chainline if I mounted the inner 42 ring in the big ring position. Aesthetically this would look better, but would it work? Does anyone know Athena's BCD and will it be easy to find compatible rings (see gearing Q below).:blush2:

3) I'm not sure what chainring/sprocket combo is ideal for 'general' riding. Most of the terrain I hit is fairly flat apart from the odd short sharp hill here or there. Thoughts? On my roadbike I guess I rarely use the small ring unless on a hill when I might spin 39x21/23. Most of my time is spent on the 52 unless there's a killer headwind or big hill.:idea:

4) Can road hubs be converted for fixed use, I seem to remember seeing conversion kits a while back? I have some American Classic 420's that have rooted rims. I thought about utilising the hubs if I can find a pair of 24/18 hole rims on the cheap (any ideas).:confused:

My build will ideally include the Athena chainset, an old Chorus post rather like C Record, some C Record aero brake levers, probably Centaur or Veloce calipers (unless I can find some retro campy cheap), a black Reagal saddle and Cinelli quill stem and bars. Some of this I've got, some I don't.

Thoughts and advice very much welcomed..........I'm very excited about this as it's new territory for me...................:thumbsup:

DannyBoy.:D

1) Will the new 130mm rear end scupper my fixie aspirations?:mad2: Not at all. Formula hubs are inexpensive and come spaced in 120,126 and 130 spacing. They also look great

2) I also won a NOS campag Athena chainset on ebay recently. I thought about using it for my fixie project. Would I be able to get a reasonable chainline if I mounted the inner 42 ring in the big ring position. Aesthetically this would look better, but would it work? Does anyone know Athena's BCD and will it be easy to find compatible rings (see gearing Q below).:blush2: 42 tooth ring will work on the outside but you'll probably have chainline issues unless you find a rear hub that is wide. Most fixed rear hubs are designed to work with the chainring in the inner postion

3) I'm not sure what chainring/sprocket combo is ideal for 'general' riding. Most of the terrain I hit is fairly flat apart from the odd short sharp hill here or there. Thoughts? On my roadbike I guess I rarely use the small ring unless on a hill when I might spin 39x21/23. Most of my time is spent on the 52 unless there's a killer headwind or big hill.:idea: Shoot for around 70 gear inches. That will be 42 x 16. It's a good place to start

4) Can road hubs be converted for fixed use, I seem to remember seeing conversion kits a while back? I have some American Classic 420's that have rooted rims. I thought about utilising the hubs if I can find a pair of 24/18 hole rims on the cheap (any ideas).:confused: Yes. You'll have to weld the freehub body to the hub.



DannyBoy.:D

See reply above in bold

To answer #1.... Formula hubs come with 120 spacing... but the axle may be long enough for you to add washers to space it out to 130mm. To clarify what Dave said, IRO hubs (which are rebadged Formula hubs with longer axles) come in 120mm, 126, or 130mm prespaced, not Formula.

4) Can road hubs be converted for fixed use, I seem to remember seeing conversion kits a while back? I have some American Classic 420's that have rooted rims. I thought about utilising the hubs if I can find a pair of 24/18 hole rims on the cheap (any ideas). Yes. You'll have to weld the freehub body to the hub.
Perhapse the kit you saw was the Surly Fixxer (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/fixed-hubs.html). At $80 though, I would just get a real fixed gear hub.

I would not recommend welding the aluminum freehub. Keep it for geared use and get a formula/IRO.

Hopefully I'll be 'fixed up' within the month.

surly hub? is 130 or 135 regular mtb spacing?

MTB spacing is 135, current road 130. 5 and 6 speed road is 126, track is 120. Fronts are 110. Surly sells hubs at 120 and 135. 120 spaced hubs have a chainline that matches the inner position on most road cranks. 135 spacing would match an MTB middle ring. A 120 hub is easily spaced to 126 or 130 as needed. There's no point to respace the frame to 135 unless you're dead set on running your mtb cranks, but you'd be limited in what size chainring you could run, which may or may not be a problem.

Anyway, the fixxer would be needed to convert a shimano freehub (130mm) to a fixed gear, but it's just as cheap/easy to buy a fixed specific wheel and add spacers to the hub.

Fronts are 110.

Not to knock OverStuffed's advice which is spot on as usual but fronts are 100. Some older Japanese NJS speced Keirin track bikes have 110 rear spacing.

A Surly Fixxer will only work on Shimano hubs...not "Shimano compatible freehubs". The Fixxer replaces a genuine Shimano freehub body.

That means that any branded Shimano hub, with the exception of the new 7800 DuraAce, will work, any non-shimano hub will NOT work.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, some early Zipp hubs, Spinergy 4 spokes, some Ringle and some Bulleye hubs used genuine Shimano freehubs. any non-shimano hub made in the last 5 years will not accept a Fixxer.

Front hubs are normally 100mm, however 20mm axle hubs are 110mm.

Not to knock OverStuffed's advice which is spot on as usual but fronts are 100. Some older Japanese NJS speced Keirin track bikes have 110 rear spacing.
Oops. That's how little I need to think about that issue. Of course, we could start talking about thru-axles and pugsleys, too. But that's a different board.

I would not recommend welding the aluminum freehub. Keep it for geared use and get a formula/IRO.

Your setup may be different, but if it's a cassette style hub you can remove the cassette, then remove the "cassette carrier" (my name for it, maybe it's a "freehub") from the hub with an allen wrench (have to remove the axle and bearings), then weld the outer shell to the inner core from the back side. Put it back on the hub, disassemble the cassette and select your favorite cog, and put it back on with a bunch of spacers (I used sections of electrical conduit for my singlespeed mtb, left over spacers for the fixed road bike). The "cassette carrier" was steel and welded nicely. Cheap, and infinitely adjustable chainline!