Bristol Alleycat

>> Tuesday 19 May 2009

Who's up for entering this? I know I am!


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Fixed Gear Wales Drawing

>> Monday 18 May 2009

Jack Kirtley, doodler extraordinaire, winner of Swansea's first big game of S.K.A.T.E and head honcho of Horror Skateboards has drawn up this awesome picture for me, I'm gonna use it for spoke cards, posters and flyers to promote the site and some limited edition t-shirts. Stay Tuned...

jack kirtley fixed gear fixie wales swansea drawing skid illustration

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Fixed Gear Wales iPhone Theme

>> Tuesday 12 May 2009

Here is a nice little present for everyone out there with an iPhone, I've knocked together a Fixed Gear Wales iPhone theme, it's nothing special really but it is nice. It is a springboard theme, not a full one. It features a lockscreen background, a bike slider button with modified "skid to unlock" text and, finally, a springboard that resembles this here blog.

To use the theme you need a Jailbroken iPhone, then SSH the FGW-THEME folder to Library/Themes and using Winterboard drag it to the top of the list and select it. If you don't understand any of that then use Google, pretty please don't ask me because this is a bike blog, not a geek blog :-p

fixed gear wales fixie iphone theme winterboard

fixed gear wales fixie iphone theme winterboard

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My New (Old) Frame is back on the streets

>> Saturday 9 May 2009

So I sold my white frame the other day and, while I wait for my new Bob Jackson to arrive, I've set up my o.g Raleigh 'Kellogs Pro Tour' frame. This frame was part of my first ever build and I forgot how much I dig it.

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Sun Worksop Frame Fixed Up

I picked up this snazzy 19.5" Sun Worksop frame at Re-Cycle, it had seen better days, in fact it looked like it had been stored outdoors for the last 20 years but that didn't put me off. It proved to be quite a project, the cottered cranks were well and truly stuck so I 'employed' the services of my good friend Julian who is a real man with tools.

The crank arms had to be angle-ground off the spindle, then one of them welded to a bottom bracket cup in order to unscrew it, he then went to work on the pump arms, cable guides and the hideous light thing on the right fork. Next he beat the living daylights out of the worst of the rust using a wirey attachment for the grinder. Last but not least he got the head badge off for me.

I then did a terrible job of sanding the remaining parts of the frame before masking it up and spraying it Montana 94 Valley Green (9r-6018) which is a super thick, sweet smelling graffiti paint available at Exist. The colour is awesome but its a bit knobbly bobbly cause I really really hate sanding, it's gotta be the worst thing in the world!

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
I'm not afraid of a bit of rust!

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Angle grinding the cottered cranks off

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Off comes all the "faff"

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Welding a crank arm to the seized bottom bracket cup

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
A gentle whack and...

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
...out it comes

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Removing the snazzy head badge

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Sweeeeet!

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Sanding the worst of the rust off

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Before

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
After

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
Ready for graffiti-ing

sun worksop bicycle frame bike swansea wales
"Heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power!"

green sun worksop fixie clase graffiti
Lookin' fresh with the classic 'Kids of Clase' graffiti, booyaa!

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Broken Chainring

>> Friday 8 May 2009

Oliver from Cardiff added this photo to the Fixed Gear Wales Facebook group. He was riding with only 3 chainring bolts, did a skid and KABOOM! You have been warned...

broken snapped twisted chainring fixed gear fixie

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Tyron Francis' First Build

"This thing ended up taking forever and costing waaaaaay more than I had thought it would but it has changed my life. Cycling is perhaps the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I hadn't ridden for 15+ years before I built this fixie, I suppose I jumped on the bandwagon in a way cause a few of my buds had them, its hard skating at the same speed as a bike! It was built up from an Apollo Challenger that I found in the paper for £30 (I thought it was ok at the time but after a couple of months came to realise that it was a pile of crap frame, the dropouts starting wearing out, it rattled and was a bit big for me). I bought everything else new. Since these pix were taken 5 months ago I have changed the saddle to a Charge Spoon, the tyres, destroyed the back hub which I've replaced with a System Ex and gone from risers to horns to drops and back to risers."

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
Apollo Challenger

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
All the useless bits: gears, brakes, cables etc.

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
JT getting busy with the angle grinder

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
Sanding, boooooooooring!

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
Mach 1 Omega wheel set

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
Primed, ready for paint

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
All the bits: chain, tyres, tubes, grips, seatpost, saddle, peddles, clips, bars, 18t

fixie fixed gear bike parts buy swansea
All built up (pretty much) and ready for action

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Beynon's First Build

>> Wednesday 6 May 2009

'This is my first fixie build and a return to cycling after a number of years out of the saddle. Have bulit BMXs as a younger man and ridden a hard tail MTB for several years.

The frame was bought from ebay after about 2 months of searching for a fairly decent frame at reasonable money. After some research i believe it is from a Raleigh Pursuit 12 speed from the early 80's. Its a reynolds 501 frame, not the best but good enough! I stripped the bike to its bare frame, used 'green' Nitromors to strip the frame of its paint and removed the majority of the protruding metal work with a grinder then filled the resulting nasty bits with a smooth car body filler.

The frame was rubbed down with Scotchbrite pads before given 2 coats of Plasticote grey primer. After drying the frame was wet flatted then given 3 coats of Plasticote gloss black, then given 2 coats of Plasticote gloss protector.

Components:
- A new SRAM GXP30 track crank (Bought from Schmoos, Swansea)
- Chain is a Charge Mash item in black (Wiggle)
- Cog is a 17 tooth item bought from Schmoos (the only one they had in stock!),
- Wheels (Charge) were bought from Sion (originally sourced from the London Fixed Gear forum-cheers Sion) cos he couldnt afford them at the time that i was looking for alternatives.(green wasnt my first choice but i do luv em now!)
- Shimano Exage front brake with Dia Compe cable and Dia Compe Tech 99 straight brake lever (gay or not, its staying for the time being!) (Bought from Velosolo)
- SR Laprade 27.2mm Fluted Seatpost (Velosolo) with Charge spoon cromo rail saddle in black (Wiggle)
- Tyres are Vittoria Rubino 700c x 24, standard black (Wiggle)
- Current gear ratio 48 x 17 (17 skid patches)
- Drop bars (Charge bar tape in black) and current stem are from Sions pug.

Soon to add new quill stem and maybe new bars....oh and maybe a chrome finish head set. Then the process starts all over again with a new paint job, new
wheels.......:)'


fixed gear build components swansea wales
80's Raleigh Frame

fixed gear build components swansea wales
The all important Reynolds 501 sticker

fixed gear build components swansea wales
Nitromors doing all the hard work

fixed gear build components swansea wales
Plasticote black

fixed gear build components swansea wales
Sram s300 GXP cranks, charge wheel

fixed gear build components swansea wales
All done

fixed gear build components swansea wales
With a 747!

fixed gear build components swansea wales
First lesson learned!

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Sion's First Build

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
54cm Peugeot road

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Nitromors Attack!

Photobucket
Socks, sandals, nitromors, perfect

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
This stuff is awesome

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Beynon being a real man's man

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Sion on spray duty

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
You know a good paint job when it glows

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Velocity Deep V

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
The "can't wait to build it up" shot

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Magic invisible chain

fixed gear build parts swansea wales
Completed, looks great!

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Metal!

>> Sunday 3 May 2009

Had a good "trick session" on Saturday with Ric, Ev and JT. Everyone was trying the both legs on one side of the frame skids with not much steez. There were some leg over the bar skids from the other dudes but I'm still not happy about the slam I took on one the other week. I failed terribly at Keo spins, how the fluck do they work??? I've even frame by framed some on video but instead of the wheel coming off the ground all that happens is that my arse comes off the saddle, they are haaaaard!

Ev managed to snap a toe clip after going through all the effort of finding one of the nut, bolt and washer combos that held it together, luckily there was a handy metal recycling facility close at hand. Then later on I realised that I'd snapped one of the serrated spacer / nut things on my System Ex rear hub, quite a common problem apparently, I've replaced it with a track nut for now which is way wider but does the job.

broken metal toe clip fixie fixed gear swansea wales

broken metal toe clip fixie fixed gear

formula iro hub spacer nut snapped broken

formula iro hub spacer nut snapped broken

formula iro hub spacer nut snapped broken

Anyone up for some bike polo? Get in touch.

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