Fuji Sports 10

Goodwill purchase for fixed gear conversion.

...and now back to geared. Updates at bottom of the page. Update: 2/2007 I killed it! Broken Frame. See below.

After riding out with some friends in early Feburary, I discovered that my frame had broken at the seattube/downtube lug. Bummer! The parts will be stripped and used on other bikes.
Here is a photo:

Here is what I did before I broke it:

After having no road bike except my folding Raleigh Twenty for several years I got the urge to start looking for one. I had been around to the shops and was a regular visitor to Goodwill, and I finally found this old girl there.

Here it as after getting home from goodwill:

Here is an ad from the Dec 1976 Bicycling Magazine for the Sports 10:

Since there were a lot of scratches in the paint I did a paint job with some testors I had around. Close enough. To make the conversion I purchased a 27" fixed gear wheel from Harris Cyclery, and a used front from Mt. Airy Bikes. I pulled the Brooks saddle from whichever bike it was on then, and dug up some pedals from the parts box. I kept the original brakes and seat post. I took a super long stem I had and put a WTB off road bar with Tektro brake levers up front. Throwing on the Carradice Nelson Longflap Saddlebag I had, the bike was ready to go.

The first time I took it out fixed I had not tightened the seat post bolt enough and it slid right down. Raising it and tightening it shifted the rear brake hanger and locked the brakes. A true comedy of errors, but I got it all sorted out. The rear wheel broke several spokes over the first few months I had it. Harris offered to do good by me, but I had already taken it to another local shop, Wheelebase, and they rebuilt the wheel with new spokes. Nary a problem since.

I had also recently bought an Arkel Handlebar Bag. Mounting it on the bars made them very unbalanced, and the bag sat up way too high. I dug out an old threadless stem and made a shim, and mounted the bag lower. It worked ok, but not as well as I would have liked. I also added a stem/shim to the seat post as a hold off for the Carradice, otherwise it hit the rear brake cable and caused braking issues. This was how everything was set up when I sent it to the very cool Fixed Gear Gallery web site.

After I got my Rivendell Quickbeam in June of 2005, I took the handlebars and the 17t cog to use on it, and the poor old Fuji sat unused for several months. In early 2006 I got it back together and on the road again.

It is a nice riding bike and I'm enjoying riding it. I am thinking of switching back to a 17t rear cog. 75 gear inches is a bit high for me. I am also seriously considering a three speed rear wheel, edging back into geared bike territory.

Here are the current specifications for the bike.

Frame	Color: Testors rattle can blue repaint Braze-ons: Front and rear fender. That's it. Tire Clearance: Pretty good. Will fit 1&3/8 inch knobbies. Rear Spacing: 126mm
Brakes	Original Diacompe Center pull, Kool Stop Continental Pads
Crank	Original 6.5 inch 42/52 steel monsters. I only use the 42 ring though. I might grind down the 52 into a bash guard.
Rear Hub	IRO flip/flop, spaced to 126.
Front Hub	??
Rims	Rear: Weinmann
Stem	Nitto
Bars	Nitto Noodle from my Quickbeam
Seat post	Original from the bike
Brake levers	Shimano Tiagra from the Quickbeam
Freewheel	Shimano 18t. Rather useless, because I always end up walking the hills I can't ride. I have yet to flip this wheel.
Headset	Original
Bottom Bracket	Original loose bearing. Works great.
Tires	Bontrager 1&1/8
Bar Tape	Cork
Saddle	Brooks B17 Honey
Pedals	Wellgo SPD clones
Fixed Cog	15t Dura Ace
Rear LED Light	Cateye LD1000
Saddlebag	Carradice Nelson Longflap.
Saddlebag Support	Carradice Bagman Quick Release.
Fenders	Planet Bike
Front Light	Cateye EL500
Computer	Cateye Wireless w/ Cadence (a nice Christmas gift from my wife. Thanks Honey!)
Front Rack	Blackburn Mtn Front.
Bottle Cage	Blackburn B72 and some hose clamps.
Pump	Blackburn
Bell	A nice loud one originally on my Raleigh Twenty.

Update 5/2006

A note about the front rack. There is frequent discussion on the i-BOB and other lists about the utility of front racks as handle bar bag supports. I confess to being influenced by folks on these lists and was considering dropping a bit on money on one. I was cleaning out the basement of accumulated bike junk and came across the front rack from Blackburn, which had never fit well on the tandem, for which it was purchased. A bit of fiddling with clamps and such and it makes a nice addition.

Update 10/2006

In the fall of 2006 I found myself doing more and more group rides, some of them with slightly faster riders. These rides really put me in a bind, as I was slow going up the hills and even slower coming down them. I decided I needed to convert at least one of my three fixies back to geared. The Fuji was the logical choice since it had derailleur gears before.

Once more I headed into the parts bins in my basement and found enough components to try putting something together. It's good that I never throw anything away. I found:

The only things I had to buy were derailleur cable housing and a new chain. The whole thing went together suspiciously well, and has been working great. This could be the bike that gets me into regular centuries. Coasting can be fun too!

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