In case you ever wondered, here is what’s involved in converting an old beater 10-speed into a lean, mean, fixed-gear cycling machine:

• $55 – Used Sakae 2500 Bicycle. Probably late 80’s/early 90’s vintage. Condition: Not bad, if you ignore the patchy rust spots and worn bearings. Basically a mediocre bike when it was made, that hasn’t got any better with age. It looked sort of like the top picture on the right.
• 2 hours – Completely disassemble bike. Remove everything except the headset.
• $55 – One Surly 15-tooth single-speed cog, and one Surly chain tensioner.
• 5 hours – Remove decals, remove brazeons, saw/grind off derailer mounts and rack eyelets. Disassemble chain ring, grind down ring bolts, make track handle bar by inverting drop-bars and sawing off bar ends.
• $14 – Some stickers, a hub locknut, and 15-minutes of shop time to help get the freewheel off.
• $25 – Get local powder coating shop to strip the paint and rust off.
• $14 – One can automotive spray primer, one can “Buckskin” colored automotive spray paint.
• 3 hours – Prime and paint the frame and fork
• $14 – 32oz bottle of citrus degreaser.
• $20 – Two new 27×1-1/8 tires (cheap!)
• 4 hours – Clean and “tweak” various parts, reassemble everything

Total: $197, and 14 hours of work.

This is my new Google commuter bike (bottom picture on right), assuming I can find a place to stow it in Mountain View. Anhow, I’ve been riding my fixed-gear to/from Google every day so far and, boy, what a fun ride! A totally different experience than your average road bike. For starters, you’ve got to be a LOT more careful. There’s about a dozen ways this bike rides differently, not the least of which is that if you zone out for a moment and start to coast, the leg you subconsciously lock at the knee will get pushed back up by the peddles as they come around and try to throw you off the bike. I’ve had a couple near misses already but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Just in time to realize that you stand an equally good chance of hooking your peddle while going around a corner.

Whee!!!