After being outbid on various frames a few times on eBay, I finally won a very nice bicycle frame for my fixie project. Its a 34 year old Atala Campagnolo with very nice chrome lugs. It doesn’t have any down tube shifter bosses. This means it will be a particularly clean looking fixie upon completion. Here is a picture of the frame:
This frame should take British/ISO parts for everything aside from the bottom bracket, which is specifically Italian. Its not very difficult to find an Italian bottom bracket, the only issue is that owing to a poor design decision (found in both French and Italian bicycles), the fixed cup can come loose unless securely tightened. I have been advised to use Loctite or similar adhesive to secure it. My plan is to have a local bicycle shop build me the fixed wheel, preferably with a flip-flop hub so that I can switch to a freewheel fairly easily if I wish to coast (if I’m tired for example).
Speaking of local bicycle shops, I joined the San Francsico Bike Coalition a few days ago. A very worthwhile cause, and it seems like they have had considerable success in actually improving the lot for SF cyclists - for example, the introduction of bicycle lanes. Also they are trying to introduce coloured bicycle lanes, which are in many European cities (including my hometown, Dublin). These would be great to see in SF as they make the bike lanes far more visible to motorists and should have a fair impact. Another issue they are working on is to improve the quality of the SF roads. I have noticed that the road surfaces in the city are quite poor indeed and there are many awful potholes. Obviously this is an issue for motorists too, so they have teamed up with the AAA among other groups. Its a typical example of long-standing neglect by the city authorities. Road surfaces become extremely expensive to repair once they descend to the levels seen around SF, so unfortunately it looks like a very costly job to fix things. Hopefully the authorities will get their act together and take care of this very important issue. One of the best things about being an SF Bike Coalition member is the discounts you get. Discounts that interest me personally are 10% off the Arizmendi Bakery near my apartment (they do pretty good scones), 10% off at Velo Rouge Cafe which is a nice bicycle-friendly cafe on the other side of the park from me - and 10% off at various nearby bike shopes on Stanyan. This final discount could save me a fair amount of money seeing as I am likley to purchase a few hundred dollars worth of bicycle parts for my fixie project.
Tags: Bicycle
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[...] Bicycle project continues.Many of my bicycle parts have arrived - frame, bottom bracket, moustache bars, SPD pedals and shoes. 700C wheelset with flipflop hub should arrive today. Last night I went to American Cyclery on my way home from work and purchased a Sugino RD crankset (165mm), tires, tubes, a cheap seat post (didn’t know if it would fit), a chain (shop had many different colours, i went with normal), a pedal wrench (big sturdy thing), a bottom bracket tool (with Italian threads, I figure I’ll need to do frequent tightening) and some heavy duty lubricant. [...]