I have an old Dawes Galaxy frame that I acquired from a friend a number of a number of years ago that has been gathering dust and as a Fall project, decided to turn it into a fixed gear steed.
I
already had a collection of odds and ends and most of what I needed to
transform it from a bare fork and frame to a complete bike. Among the
assorted parts, I used an SR 165mm triple crank with 45T ring, Shimano
catridge BB, Cinelli stem and bars, Campagnolo non-aero brake levers,
and Diacompe front caliper brake. With these parts I was able to get a
partially built bike:
I
happend to also have a pair of 36H Rigida AL1320 rims (narrow box
section, black anodised), and an old Shimano Exage front hub, and just
needed an approriate rear hub. Urbane Cyclist in downtown Toronto is a
unusual shop that sells fixed gear bikes and parts and I went down in
to see what they had. I wound up picking up a rather nice Miche Primato
36H track hub:
On a later trip to Urbane, I picked up most of the remain parts to complete the bike: short chainring bolts, crank fixing bolts, seatpost clamp bolt, seat post, 18T rear cog (for 3/32" chain), cog spacer, and appropriate length spokes to lace both wheels. I had to exchange the seatpost for another, after finding the 26mm post was too narrow - it turns out the seat tube has a 26.4mm inner diametre. I wrapped the bars with green Benotto cello tape, and placed a Specialized Comp saddle on the seatpost. With the addition of those parts the bike now looked like this:
Still on the list to get were chain, pedals, and and tires.
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The next stage was to lace up the wheels. I did this on two different nights, lacing the rear first, then the front the next day. I still had to tension up the spokes and true the wheels, but to get a sense of what it would look like, I mounted the wheels on the bike. I found the Diacompe front brake I was going to use was not long enough to reach the rims fully , so I purchased a set of Universal 175 sidepulls from Bicycle Specialties ($25/pr) which with a reach of 60-70mm, which fit perfectly:
With the wheels finally trued, tubes and a set of Conti Ultra 2000 tires mounted on the rims, and a set of mudguards added, it now looks like this:
November 18th - Latest update: took the bike for a 30 km spin. All seemed to go well until near the end of the ride, when I suddenly found the cog started "freewheeling" as I powered from a stop at a traffic light. As feared, it seemed the cog had stripped the threads on the hub. Luckily Cary Chen of Urbane Cyclist was able to salvage the hub - he installed a Miche cog adapter which accepts Miche splined cogs and then found a 16T cog, plus necessary spacer. I also bought a 40T chain ring to get the gear ratio back to the 67.5 gear-inch. Adapter was threaded on with red Loctite (permanent). Rebuilt the rear wheel - should hold this time! With these changes, it now looks like this:
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Below are a couple of more pictures of the bike
A wild shot
I took (accidenly) while on the Randonneurs Ontario 2003
New Year's Day ride. This was the 4th ride it did on the bike.
May
24th 2003 - a recent picture of the bike nearing the end of a
fleche on the May 17/18 weekend. Since early March, I have ridden it on
all but one club rides which included two 200 km and a 300 km brevet.
Rear bag is a Rivendell Little Joe, with a rear rack someone built for
me. Saddle is a Brook Professional, which has proven quit confortable.
For the fleche I borrowed the front wheel from my Trek which has a
Shimano hub generator, and added a switch unit and Lumotec headlight.
Since the 300 km brevet I have been using a 40x15 gear ratio (about
72"). Currenty retired from brevet duties, but working quite well as a
city commuter.
Winter
2004 - took the frame to Bicycle Specialties and had the frame
modified with the addition of two water bottle mounts and a pump peg.
The frame was repainted green (as close to British Racing Green as
possible). I laced a set of 32 spoke wheels with MA2 rims, a Suntour
XC900 front hub and Miche Primato rear track hub and 14/15g "double
butted" spokes. I replaced the Campagnolo brake levers with a pair of
Shimano Exage levers, and the crank with a Sugino XD2 165m. Green paint
scheme has gold pinstriping around the lugwork and at the borders of
the paint and chrome. Original chrome was kept. About to see another
season of rides.
Early
autumn 2004 - stop at Whittamore's Farm market, surrounded by
pots of mums.
Mid-December 2004 - Dawes with Bluemel
fenders
Dawes, as it looks now, with Esge fenders and new Diacompe long-reach
centre-pull brakes
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