Well, we just got a digital camera at work, (a Sony Mavica FD88) and I'm supposed to give a demo on it, and it has this cool "Email" feature where it makes a 320x240 JPEG mini version of each regular sized picture you take, which would make for perfect thumbnails, so I took some pics of my fixed gear (the nicer bikes are at home) and here they are. Each little pic is linked to a 1024x768 big pic.

The Bike

It's a 1984 Bianchi Professional that I bought new last year (Sept '98). It had sat un-used in the corner of Slough's Bike Shop in San Jose for all those years. I got it for a good price, modified it for a fixed gear, and have been commuting on it for almost a whole year now.

The Cog

42x15, for those of you who care.

The Bell

Yes, those bells are threaded the same as standard downtube shifters. I didn't need the shifters, and couldn't fit the bells to my handlebars (the clamps are too small, they're designed for Japanese schoolkid bikes), so here they are! Jitensha Studios of Berkeley CA carries bells that are very much like these, that they say will thread onto downtube shifter bosses. See http://www.jitensha.com/eng/bells_e.html.

I've recently taken some detail pics that might help folks who are trying to get fenders to work on a bike without any eyelets.

Here's the front fender attachment to the fork blades using zip ties. It works quite well, although, as you can see, I first thought about mounting the zip ties higher on the fork (note the tape) but they sort of shifted to the bottom, and work better there anyway. The black thing with "SKS" on it is a piece of plastic into which the fender stays are press-fitted. If something jams in the fender, the stays just pop out of these little plastic fittings, somewhat reducing the chance that your wheel will lock and you'll pull a header. Fortunately, I haven't yet tested this feature, but it seems like a good idea.

Deep down under all that filth is the rear fender attached to the chainstay bridge with yet another zip tie. It rattles a bit, but I could fix that if I wanted to by replacing it with a tighter zip tie. The "guard ring" is a former 52-t ring de-toothed with saw and file. A Dremel© would have worked much better.

This is the Blackburn rear dropout adaptor, which they don't list on their web site, but you could probably get them through your local bike shop, or have them ordered. I got them from Rivendell when I bought the ESGE/SKS fenders. It fits into rear dropouts (or rear fork ends, if you prefer) with holes in them, which not all rear dropouts have, and acts as an eyelet.

Return to my bike page.

Return to my home page.

URL: http://www.stanford.edu/~dru/fixie.html