Archive for December, 2012

The Rando explosion continues, this time in fixed-gear flavor. Truly a return to tradition, seeing that well into the 1930’s most bikes were fixies. 650B wheels, Henry James lugs, Pacenti PBP crown, SON generator hub, Paul and Phil components… this is a nicely trimmed light tourer. New for us was the SON SL hub from Peter White – no pesky connectors at the hub, a special dropout conducts the juice to the lights. More on that in a sec, first some pictures. I left the rear fender struts long to handle chain stretch, gear ratio changes, and the fact that Jeff will also occasionally be running the 42c Hetre tires from Compass (show here are 38c Lierres). It can be a bear getting a good fender line with horizontal dropouts.

  

  

  

  

  

  

Other things to note: Supernova E3 lights, Campy Cross brakes, and a painted-to-match Lezyne pump. So about those dropouts: one is specially machined to accommodate in insulating washer and a contact that runs up a wire thru the fork blade. Similarly, the drive side of the generator axle is isolated and provides juice for the lights. Here it is going together:

  

Now, this means that this wheel will only work as a generator in this fork. But come on, if you have that many 650B bikes around you have bigger problems than that… the advantage is quick and easy removal and installation of the wheel, which is especially great if it gets packed or put on a roof rack a lot. And it just looks smoove.

I also installed a frame break to adapt this Soma for belt drive use:

  

And finally, I’ve been doing a dropout replacement on Bobby’s Wojcik. He’s going to use it as a single speed, with Black Cat Rocker dropouts. They’re pretty cool:

  

Next: Bobby’s finished, Tim’s Bottecchia repaint, and it’s 29er o’clock!