How difficult? Dunelt -> Fixie

Vincent M said:

How hard would it be to make an older Dunelt frame (it's just the
frame and fork) into a fixie? I know their an English bike, and I've
read everything about them at Sheldon

_Everything_? ;-)

Quoted message said:

- but is there anyhting I'll
have to look out for when scrounging/buying parts?

Unless it's a _very_ old Dunelt, it will be a Raleigh product, with the
Raleigh proprietary threading. If you really have _only_ the frame and
fork, it's not a pratical choice. If it has a headset and bottom
bracket cups, it _might_ be a fair candidate.

There's nothing wrong with the performance or ride of these frames,
indeed they're rather sweet, but the interchangeability issues can be a
deal breaker if you're missing the key Raleigh-threaded bits.

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26 if you haven't already.

Sheldon "Nottingham" Brown
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| It is good to learn from your mistakes; |
| It is better to learn from the mistakes of others. |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How hard would it be to make an older Dunelt frame (it's just the
frame and fork) into a fixie? I know their an English bike, and I've
read everything about them at Sheldon

_Everything_? ;-)

hehehe. Well, I read all I could find searching for Dunelt. 🙂

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

- but is there anyhting I'll
have to look out for when scrounging/buying parts?

Unless it's a _very_ old Dunelt, it will be a Raleigh product, with the
Raleigh proprietary threading. If you really have _only_ the frame and
fork, it's not a pratical choice. If it has a headset and bottom
bracket cups, it _might_ be a fair candidate.

If my mind isn't playing tricks on me, I believe it did have the
bottom bracket cups on it, but no axle or cranks. Is there anything I
can look for to see if it's a Raleigh-era Dunelt? It has a Dunelt
logo on the down tube, much like this one: (but obviously not as
nice!) http://www.cyclart.com/DuneltTranspDT.jpg

The badge on the front end is all a non-shiny silver and says
"Dunelt".

Quoted message said:

There's nothing wrong with the performance or ride of these frames,
indeed they're rather sweet, but the interchangeability issues can be a
deal breaker if you're missing the key Raleigh-threaded bits.

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26 if you haven't already.

Just did, thanks!

I didn't think to look at the dropouts any closer than to confirm they
were horizontal... would this bike fall in the roadster category you
mention on that page? You also say to look at the diameter of the
seatpost - I'll do that as well. Should I assume a non-Raleigh Dunelt
would have use another diameter?

Thanks Sheldon - you have no idea how many times I've found myself
looking something up on your site, then spend the next hour or so
bouncing around from link to link learning as I go! 🙂

Also, have you heard of a bike called the GlobalMaster? I can't find
anything on it anywhere on-line.

Vincent

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Unless it's a _very_ old Dunelt, it will be a Raleigh product, with the
Raleigh proprietary threading. If you really have _only_ the frame and
fork, it's not a pratical choice. If it has a headset and bottom
bracket cups, it _might_ be a fair candidate.

Ok, I went today to give it another look. The drivetrain side bottom
bracket cup is there, although rusted. The other side is missing, but
I tried 4 or 5 standard cups and they all screwed in with no problem.
I would take this to mean that it's a non-raleigh era dunelt. I tried
to pull the seatpost out to measure it, but it was stuck. I squirted
some liquid wrench in there for when I go in tomorrow.

Vincent

Quoted message said:

Ok, I went today to give it another look. The drivetrain side bottom
bracket cup is there, although rusted. The other side is missing, but
I tried 4 or 5 standard cups and they all screwed in with no problem.
I would take this to mean that it's a non-raleigh era dunelt. I tried
to pull the seatpost out to measure it, but it was stuck. I squirted
some liquid wrench in there for when I go in tomorrow.

Well, I left the drive side bracket in, and used a newer other side
with a new lockring, worked out fine - although had to rule out a
sealed bracket. *pout*

Spent about 2 hours trying to clean the frame and fork. There's some
surface rust where the grody brackets were to hold the chain guard and
various other missing bits. Spent another hour trying different front
wheels trying to get a match. I'll be damned but EVERY wheel I tried
was too wide once I got the cones and lock nuts on. I think it was
under 100mm when I measured it last thursday. One of the things I
wanted to do when I went in today was write down as many measurements
as I could, and of course I didn't do that. Doh!

Same on the rear wheel. I want to say it was 110mm. Does this sound
right? (actually, looking at Sheldon's site this appears to be
perfect for a track/single speed hub. yay me!)

I swear I tried using a freewheel hub with a single speed freewheel
and it was still too narrow, but now I'm starting to doubt that I
check that one after I put it on. I'll have to wait till Monday and
check again. Do they make quick-release skewers to fit this narrow of
a fork? The front is still vexing me.

I'm getting really confused when I see information about track
sprockets. I keep seeing that they'll fit on track hubs and standard
freewheels, but when i see a "track hub" it looks like they have two
levels of threading - one for the sprocket, one for the lockring.

Now, I got a track sprocket (at least that's what he told me it was)
and tried to put it on a few freewheels and it was way too big. Was
this something else and not a track sprocket?

Vincent "Sorry 'bout all the questions" Macaluso

Vincent M said:

...Spent another hour trying different front
wheels trying to get a match. I'll be damned but EVERY wheel I tried
was too wide once I got the cones and lock nuts on. I think it was
under 100mm when I measured it last thursday.

Yes, if you had read my article at http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26 you
would have known this.

Quoted message said:

Same on the rear wheel. I want to say it was 110mm. Does this sound
right? (actually, looking at Sheldon's site this appears to be
perfect for a track/single speed hub. yay me!)

Yes, BMX hubs and some (mostly older) track hubs use 110 spacing.

Quoted message said:

I swear I tried using a freewheel hub with a single speed freewheel
and it was still too narrow, but now I'm starting to doubt that I
check that one after I put it on. I'll have to wait till Monday and
check again. Do they make quick-release skewers to fit this narrow of
a fork?

No. My Moulton Stowaway fixed gear was like this. I used a Campagnolo
120 mm freewheel type hub. The Moulton has very short chainstays,
didn't want to bend them, and I wasn't eager to cut down the Campagnolo
axle in any case. Instead, I left about 12 mm of axle sticking out on
the right side, but slipped a 10 mm axle spacer on _outboard_ of the
dropout! The acorn nut presses on the spacer, the spacer presses on the
dropout, and it works fine. (I left the little conical springs off of
the skewer.)

The Moulton has a 53 tooth chainring, so the chain pull is not as severe
as it would be with a smaller chainring, can't guarantee that you might
not have axle slippage issues with smaller chainring.

http://sheldonbrown.org/bicycle.html#stowaway

Quoted message said:

I'm getting really confused when I see information about track
sprockets. I keep seeing that they'll fit on track hubs and standard
freewheels, but when i see a "track hub" it looks like they have two
levels of threading - one for the sprocket, one for the lockring.

Right. The _sprocket_ thread is the same as standard freewheel thread.

Quoted message said:

Now, I got a track sprocket (at least that's what he told me it was)
and tried to put it on a few freewheels and it was way too big. Was
this something else and not a track sprocket?

Very likely. Some older U.S. made coaster brakes used threaded
sprockets with different (proprietary) threadings. These are often
mistaken for track sprockets. I'm sure whoever sold it to you did so in
good faith.

Sheldon "53/12" Brown
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the |
| unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world |
| to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the |
| unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com