Buy Fixie

We have discussed buying a fixed gear wheelset and mentioned that there is another way to go about the process of making wheels for your fixed gear conversion. Now we are going to discuss the process of wheelbuilding. This is a very delicate process that requires a lot of time to get it to work right. The payoff is great knowing that you have built your wheel by hand. There are two ways you can go about your wheelbuilding process. You can go the cheap way and use your old rims, or you can buy new rims and have a completely fresh wheelset.

Rims
The first step of this process is to get new rims. You may be able to use your old rims if you would like. Since rims are typically not in very good condition on a very old road bike, i would recommend buying new ones. You want to buy just the rims and not the whole wheel set for this. The most important part of this is getting rims that have the same number of spoke holes as your hub has. There are often great deals on rims on ebay:

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Hub
On the hub, the big two things to look for are the width of the hub itself to fit onto your frame, and the number of spoke holes. The number of spoke holes have to match the number on the rim that you chose. Make sure you get a fixed gear hub, these are hubs that have dual directional threading.

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Spokes
This is an item that you are probably best off buying at a local bike shop. Bring in your rims and hub and they should be able to hook you up. Also get the brass nipples to hook the spokes to the rim when your in there.

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That concludes our post on wheelbuilding parts. On the next post we will show you how to go about building your wheel.

If you are serious about biking, then you should consider getting a bicycle maintenance book. There are many options out there for you. One option is
Bicycle! Manifesto which describes how all the parts of a bicycle work together. The book is written in a form that flows well together and should be a pretty enjoyable read.

Being properly prepared for your fixed gear conversion will make the process a lot more enjoyable. If you know more about what your doing it will probably make you a lot less frustrated if something is not working out quite right.

The easiest and most important bicycle maintenance that you can perform on your bike is cleaning the chain. This process is important because a properly lubricated chain will reduce wear on the bike's drivetrain.

Measure your Chain
It is possible for a bike chain to wear out. So the first step you should take before you clean your chain should be to make sure it is still in working order. The way you do this is measure the distance between the center of the pegs on 12 links. This should be right on the 12 inch mark. If it is less than 1/16th an inch different then the chain is in good condition. If it is between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch different it is time to replace the chain. If the chain is past 1/8 an inch off, then it has probably done damage to some of the sprockets and the cassette should be replaced as well.

Cleaning Your Chain
The easiest way to clean your chain is to use a bike chain cleaning tool:
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To use this tool you simply fill with degreaser, attach to your chain, and spin the pedals. It does the rest.

The lowest tech way to clean your chain is with biodegradable degreaser, a rag, and a toothbrush. First, take the rag and soak it in some degreaser. Then wipe the grime off the chain. This should take a few minutes. The second part is to take the toothbrush, adding degreaser to that or directly onto the chain and brushing in between all the nooks and crannies.