How to build a fixie

Last week I built a fixie.  Here's how I did it.

First I went on Craig's List and looked for 1970s-ish steel bicycles that would make good fixies.  I tried a couple of sellers before settling on the orange Schwinn Varsity, which I bought for $120.  This is what the bike looked like:

I took of the wheels, the chain, the crankset, the rear brake, the front and rear derailleurs, and all the shifters.

From eighthinch.com I purchased an Amelia wheelset with a 16-tooth cog on the rear wheel, which cost $109.50, including shipping.  I also purchased a 44-tooth chainring for a one-piece crankset and an eighth-inch-wide single-speed chain from harriscyclery.net for $31.40, including shipping.  From a local bike shop I bought white Fizik bar tape and a new brake cable (I already had on hand fresh brake pads), which cost about $24.  In total I spent about $285 on the bike and parts.

The first step in reassembling the bike was to install the wheels.  The cog on the rear wheel has right-handed threads, so when you pedal forward, the cog gets tighter.  But on top of the cog goes a lockring that is reverse-threaded, so when you push back on the pedals to stop, you don't unscrew the cog.  The rear stays had to be squeezed together a little bit due to the lack of a freewheel.  Next I cleaned out the bottom bracket, composed of the cups and ball bearings, which was full of grime and grease.  The one-piece crank, which is pretty unique to this old style of bike, looks like this:

I greased up the cups with white lightning grease and put the bottom bracket together, ball bearings and all, this time substituting a single 44-tooth chainring for the double that the bike originally came with.  That extra hole you see that looks kind of out of place fits into the drive pin located on the one-piece crank.

Next it was time to install the single-speed chain.  Getting the chain sized appropriately is important because a fixie has no derailleur to take up the extra slack.  Fortunately the old Schwinn had horizontal drop-outs (the C-shaped indentations in the frame where the rear axle sits), which allow some wiggle room if the chain is not perfectly taut.  I erred on making the chain a bit long, so that I could just move the rear axle back in the drop-outs to make it taut.

Once I had the chain on, the bike was ready to ride, but not necessarily safely.  I installed new brake pads and a new brake cable on the front.  I wrapped the handle bars with white grip tape to make it look flashy.  And unfortunately, the bolt holding the handlebars to the stem was missing, which I didn't know about when I bought the bike, causing the handlebars to wiggle to and fro while you were riding.  After going to multiple hardware stores and multiple bike shops, I still was not able to find a bolt that fit the threads.  I think Schwinn literally invented their own bolt size!  So I used a bolt that was a little too small and tightened it down hard with a nut, which seems to work for now.  Finally, I took off a piece of metal that used to be holding shifters by removing the stem temporarily from the headset.

And that was it!  It's going to take a bit of practice to get used to riding fixed gear.  I didn't realize I coast fairly often, mostly when riding around the city.  With the fixie, you have to keep pedaling all the way up to the red light!  I haven't gone up any giant hills yet, but fortunately they don't exist in Michigan.