Title – the dropout seems pretty horizontal but I'm not super sure. I have nice road bikes to ride, but just thought it would be a fun pet project to convert this crappy bike to a fixed gear that I would occasionally ride.
Edit: Also, how much would it roughly cost to get a new back wheel, replace the crankset and the chainring, etc. to get this fully up to a nice rideable fixie?
Thanks!
by lofthemof
15 Comments
You can, it’s not a great idea as the metal used isn’t very strong but you can
A lot of my friends used these old Raleighs for fixies. They were (and still are) a dime a dozen and the colors were pretty fun. As an added benefit, they fix massive tires when converted to 700c and tracklocross became a thing. Good memories.
Note that some older versions use a 5/16” front axle and might not fit a modern 9mm front wheel without modification
Horizontal dropouts -> yes, you can.
Yes you can. The cottered cranks might be tough to work with so I’d plan to either not touch them or replace them completely.
When you say fixed gear, I’m assuming you’re referring to a bike that has no coasting capability. The rotation of the wheel is directly tied to the rotation of the cranks. While this technically can be converted to fixed gear, there isn’t really a good way to do a true fixed gear conversion safely. To safely convert to fixed gear you need what’re known as track dropouts, pic below. If you converted this bike to fixed, you have the potential to pull the wheel out of the frame as you apply breaking force through the cranks. You could however convert to a single speed bike which is still a pretty sick bike.
https://preview.redd.it/bfya52x4ewsg1.jpeg?width=516&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7cc7f5533c212c271a4c9ec99084bc6f65c4ecc
Yes. You just need a track wheel with a threaded or flip/flop hub with a solid axle.
Sure if you want to spend the money and buy a new wheel. The rear hub spacing is probably 126mm or 130mm which is not always the easiest to find for a fixie wheel as a lot of them come as 120mm which is the track standard. Beyond that you are mostly removing parts not adding them.
And regardless of what people tell you please run a front brake if you’re riding it on the road.
You could, and this is a decent conversion option. You’ll want to keep the bb height as high as possible, so if you change it from 27″(630mm) to 700c(622mm), you should run as big of a tire as possible to retain the total wheel diameter.
Yeah you bet! There’s a couple constraints that you’ll run into, I’ll flag the ones I see and you can make a more informed decision:
1) wheel size, looks like the ol’ 27” wheels which come with a few challenges… it looks like you’ve found the first one, with a short reach brake in the front, it doesn’t work particularly well. You’ll either need to find a long reach brake (tektro makes one) or *gasp* go brakeless, which is a contentious topic and not for the faint of heart. I’ve never done it, personally, but it’s a choice. The other challenges are: tires are not easy to find and are rarely performance oriented, rebuilding to a modern fixed/free hub in the back is rarely worth the effort, so low-brow solutions like red-loctite to keep the cog on, and a BB lockring for some double-nut assurance is usually the way to go. All this trends towards a new 700c wheelset, but that makes the brake problem WORSE.
2) Crankset – this is a ‘cottered crank’ which aren’t very friendly to modification. So either you keep a couple extra decorative rings and live with whatever drive ratio the middle ring gives you, or you change the whole lot… bottom bracket, crank, sprocket, pedals, everything. Being a Raleigh it probably doesn’t have an obscure BB thread (that’s good!) but square taper BB’s are not the easiest things to find, and you might have to play around with length to get the right chain line.
3) Dropout thickness – in my humble experience, these old steel frames tend to have very thin dropouts, to the point that modern hubs sometimes have a hard time getting enough grip. A solid nutted axle is very preferred over a Quick Release, but I have made it work both ways.
That’s my experience anyway, happy to chat more about options, or if you have a vision/plan in mind. You can make it work, sometimes it’s just a lot more effort than you think, or it doesn’t turn out quite the way you wanted. Cheers
To help you find a chainring cog combination that will work for the spacing of your bike, https://eehouse.org/fixin/formfmu.php
You can, but this is a pretty entry level frame. I would try to find something with 700c wheels and a more modern crank that can be converted to a single. I would try to find something maybe 5-10 years newer. Another thing if you run brakes on a 700c wheels you might have trouble finding brakes that work. I remember having to make something to make it work on an old Peugeot.
Yes, you can make it less functional.
Horizontal dropouts can compensate the loss of derailleur, and you just need to find a wheel without coasting ability if that’s really your thing.
Keep the brakes.
Depending on the year of the bike, the bottom bracket might be Whitworth threaded (26tpi) which isn’t used anymore, rather than the standard 24tpi You’re probably ok since it’s a Rampar Raleigh, but there’s a chance. If it says made in England, better the chance. There’s ways around it.
Though really there’s likely no reason to touch the BB, and you can leave the cranks alone. Just pour some (tbs or so) of a lube down the seat tube, and it’ll usually be fine. Cottered cranks ain’t really that big of deal, and are pretty durable.
Yes, but for every classic road bile that is converted to a road bike an orphan must take a family photo, with themselves. Haven’t orphans been through enough?
Read Sheldon’s guides to fixed gear conversion or single speed bikes here
[https://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixedgear.html](https://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixedgear.html)