FUJI*FIX....
[above: The bike, as currently set up, with the exception of the now-plugged rear brake bridge and the new 44x18 gearing]
This is my Fuji Sagres currently (01/06) 44x18 fixed gear, orgiinally built for the '05 5 Boro bike tour with 42x16 gearing.
.... This is my "practical" fix. Built it for the 5 Boro bike
ride but also for other longer road jaunts. 
The story of my 5 boro ride is
HERE ....
ABOUT THE BIKE: Comfy but "road" seat, Both bottle cages, full braze-ons, front brake... This is a neat little bike. It rides great and turns tight, too. The sloping top tube looks fugly, but saves the crown jewels so don't knock it! Initially I kept the head badge sticker and the "FUJI" decals on the seat and down tubes, but removed the "SAGRES" sticker from the top tube; model designations that are names rather than numbers don't look good to me -- but this fall I removed all the decals and shined up the gunmetal grey paintjob. I recently filled in the hole in the rear brake bridge to prevent it from becoming a rust magnet in foul weather rides. Rather than weld it I used some liquid metal patch, called ultraweld, which I had used in the past on my car, and then painted the area. The silver-grey frame looks sweet and the mismatched road lever w/ the cantilever brake works surprisingly well.
WHY THIS BIKE? The idea behind this bike is to have a good-handling fixie with cantis for hilly descents and bad weather/bad traffic braking. (Plus, cantilever brakes on a road bike look cool and allow clearance for wider tires in the winter or for mild offroading!) I first used inverted cruiser bars and both brakes, but quickly went to cowhorns and front brake only. I put on road drops and both brakes for the 5 boro ride through NYC, because even tho a rear brake isn't used a lot on a fix I had never ridden with 30,000 people so i wanted to be careful! Shortly thereafter I made improvements; a slightly longer seatpost got better leg extension, different brakes outa the parts box helped the front, and I removed the rear brakes and lever. And after the front wheel went on me I replaced it and the handlebar. Thus I set it up in it's current configuration. The small frame, about the lower limit of my size range, actually handles well although it looks tiny; the sloping top tube and overall smaller size give more clearance during dismounts on hills and whilst moving about on the bike in traffic and it's stiffer and lighter at least whilst riding. The dual water bottle mounts are a plus, as most older bicycles are lucky to have one. With the capability for carrying a rack and even mounting fenders (or at least it had this last until I filled in the brake hole in the back -- I can still mount a rack though, and clipon felders remain a viable option) this could be a great long-haul bike -- in fact when I first got it I intended to turn it into a touring bike, but the frame was too small to work with the parts I had. The fixed configuration is perfect, however. Plus, it doesn't look like much so the theft risk is lower... ;)
The compact design -- sloping top tube, etc. -- has recently been used by Giant and others on road bikes. This frame predates that trend, however; but it does resemble modern touring frames, which employ a sloping top tube design in conjunction with a longer rear triangle. Originally a hybrid, when fitted with drops and a fixed wheel, it has become a modern fixed gear tourer. The frame is light for basic welded steel.
SPECS: CRANKS: 170mm - CHAINRING: 44t Salsa - COG: 18t - BRAKE: Front cantilevers off a MTB - BRAKE LEVER: Shimano 105 aero - GRIPTAPE: El Cheapo vinyl, reused twice - HANDLBAR/ STEM: Profile stem, ITM 42 bar - H20: 2 cheapo alu Bottle cages, one from the LBS one salvaged from a Pacific mtb (!) - PEDALS: Old SPD's - SEAT: Vetta junk find - SEATPOST: Generic long post
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[THE BIKE's PRIOR LIFE: Previously, this was geared at 43x16 as follows..... Fuji fixie: Added the finishing touches late on 8/19 -- black cheapo bar tape, old spd pedals and bmx chainring bolts to tighten up the 'ring as the original ones were too long to tighten fully, being intended for two ring widths.
165mm cranks were a bit shorter than I'd like for proper leg extension so I swapped them eventually for 170s. A newer chain and 43 chainring and that's it....
The following shows the evolution of the project... [8/18/04] berift of bar tape and using a triple crank and junk pedals, this is a cowhorn bar, small framed fixie with rack mounts, full water bottle mounts and cantilever brakes on the front. Although it uses a non-aero road brake lever, I looped the cable around and am running it along the handlebar. When i installed grip tape it's entirely covered except for a small one inch loop at the bar tip.
SPECS: Homemade cowhorn bars with cheapo black bar tape, stem from Raleigh Record, long seatpost of unknown origin; no-name seat, stock cantilever brakes. Weinmann road brake lever. Reused stock chain. cranks are 165mm SR Apex from 1976 with a one-piece 52t chainring cut down to be a set of crank arms for mounting the 40t chainring with bmx bolts. Older shimano spd clipless pedals completes the package.
This bike will probably end up running a 42x16 or so gear... I will need to swap out the cranks when i get the chance; currently i do not have any good cranks to use with the desired chainring.
[8/19/04] - The Fuji fixed gear project is now running a 40x16.
The stock cranks had riveted chainrings so I could use the middle one, but not remove the others and set it up with that one chainring. This necessitated replacement. Besides, the stocks cranks with their triple steel chainrings weighed three times as much as a decent crank with removable aluminum ‘rings. My first attempt was to utilize old-school Dura-ace cranks from the 1970s, but the chainring bolts were seized and one pedal gave me grief attempting to remove it. The next option was to use a nice lightweight triple crank, but with the existing bottom bracket on the bike the crank bolt arms were too far out to have any kind of sane chainline. All my other good cranks are already on bikes and I do not care to remove them, so I just put the stock cranks on and consigned myself to utilizing the middle ring of the heavy cranks, which gave something like a 36x16 gear and weighed a ton, plus looked like rubbish due to the extraneous chainrings.
A solution presented itself when I took a hacksaw and a file to a pair of SR Apex 165mm cranks from 1976. These are the cranks that had been stock on the Centurion but they had a one-piece 52 chainring attached to them. However, the 52 ring had holes for bolting the smaller ring on. Cutting off the teeth-bearing edge of the bigger ring but keeping the “spokes” of the ring with the bolt holes, I turned it into a set of cranks and installed a 40t chainring – the 40 ring that was actually the small inner ring of these cranks back when the Centurion had gears.
8/22/04 - replaced the 40t ring and 165mm cranks with 170mm cranks and a 43t ring to give 43x16 gearing and added a Cateye cyclocomputer. Total Cost: $15 for grip tape and bmx chainring bolts. Not bad, eh?]
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Specs: fulifix'd 44x18
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