The orange FG/SS is moving along. Frame has been prepped. Bottom bracket and crank have been installed. Seat post has been cleaned and polished. Stem and bars have had the anodizing removed and been installed. Brake levers and cabling have been installed. Bars have been wrapped.
The few things left to do on the frame are the fork steerer tube still needs to be cut. A starnut still needs to be installed and wheels need to be built. I have most of the parts for the wheels, while others are on their way here.
As many of you know I am a tubular tire fan. That pretty much extends to all my bike with one exception, the carbon hardtail. So in keeping with what I love to ride the wheels will be tubulars also. The missing parts assortment are as follows:
- Hubs – Shimano Dura-Ace 7600 High Flange Hubs
- Spokes – DT Revolutions (silver)
- Nipples – DT Alloy (silver)
- Rims – Velocity Pro Elite Tubulars (essentially DEEP V as a tubular)
- Tires – Servizio Corse (formerly Clement, formerly d’Alessandro)
It is just getting harder and harder to find nice aluminum tubular rims that aren’t box section Mavic’s. Velocity has two rims, they are both fairly heavy, the Escape is a relatively low profile rim and the Pro Elite is their tubular version of the Deep V. Also finding something in silver is getting near impossible. The Pro Elite’s I got were dark gray.
Tires are another matter. There is nothing worse than a cheap tubular tire. The are never round, they are lumpy, and they are usually very stiff. I found these former Clement tires at YellowJersey.org. They are a 127 tpi tires with a relatively heavy butyl tube and the claim is that they are round and roll pretty good for a 300 gram tire. They are bargain priced at 3 for $50.
Other parts used include some Dura-Ace 7400 single pivot brakes, and Dura-Ace aero brake levers. Gearing is pretty much set. Using the DA hubs in a flip-flop fashion I have set them up as follows; Single speed side will be 48/17 and the fixed side will be 48/19T. As soon as the wheels are built and the bike is fully assembled I will take some more pictures.
Another update on the tandem search will have to wait until next weekend.
Tags: fixed, single speed, tubular, wheels
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Cool project. That’s going to be a great looking bike. And Union County needs a few more fixie riders!
If I were seting up a fixed/free flip-flop hub, I’d make the larger sprocket the freewheel. That way if you ever find yourself in over your head while fixed (due to hills, weather, an off day, etc), you can drop a gear and also be able to coast.
If you do the math (and I’m sure hou have…) 48/17 is good for about 20mph at 90rpm. 48/19 puts you somewhere around 18.
I rode the equivalent of a 48/19 around here for years, and just bumped up to the 48/17. But I’m riding with faster people these days!
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Thanks for the advice Bob. I will consider changing the gearing. I was thinking that the SS side would allow me to recover by coasting so the need for smaller gearing would be lessened. I guess I will do a bit more research.
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