Pace RC200 F5 Singlespeed

Really like those rims and brakes, Mikee......... .

A box of shiney wheel parts arrived for my Pace yesterday. I took the liberty of artistically arranging for a photo shoot before commencing build.

I took a while to decide on hub, spoke and rim colours. All silver looked, well, too silver, All black made the hubs look too big and very obvious against the frame so in the end I plumped for silver Surly hubs, black DT Supercomp spokes, black DT steel nipples (hard and expensive to get hold of alu nipples in 1.8mm) and black Stans ZTR355 rims.

The shop made a mistake and sent me one of the "Ultra New" rear hubs which have an internally threaded axle for allen bolts to go in to rather than the old style extrenally threaded axle and track nuts. Looks much neater. Unfortunately, they didn't make the same mistake with the front so that will have to be updated at some point to match!

The ZTR355 rims were on special at Merlin and although they do not have the machined braking surface, I am reliably informed they will work fine - although I guess they will look a bit scruffy as they wear in so might have to intevene with the wire wool.

Built the rear wheel up tonight and the silver hubs were a winning move - they look great against the frame.

I'm going to experiement with trying to run the Specialized fatBoy tyres tubeless. Hopefully we'll find out if that works or not in the next couple of days.

Its just a chainring, sprocket and chain to get me rolling then.....

Nice.....how is that Sulry chain tensioner?? Is it quiet or a noisemaker??

The Surly chain tensioner is brilliant. Its quiet and very good quality - like all the Surly stuff I have. I bought a cheaper one first but sent it straight back becuase there was so much play in it.

The Surly chain tensioner is brilliant. Its quiet and very good quality - like all the Surly stuff I have. I bought a cheaper one first but sent it straight back becuase there was so much play in it.

Pace RC200 Singelspeed MTB Morphs to Fixed Gear Road Warrior

Well the new wheel parts arrived and were built up well before Christmas but I've been having such fun riding it, I've not got around to posting any words or photos.

So, to recap, as I like riding a fixed wheel bike over winter, I decided to sell my Mercian Pro-lugless fixed road bike in order to fund conversion of the Pace . I really liked riding the Pace off-road but tbh, as a local woods bike, steel or ti works better for me (hence the Explosif and Saracen Ti builds written about elsewhere). I was also scared about my immaculate RC200 frame succumbing to the all too common alumnium frame crack.

So, some horizontal drop-outs were sourced from Gil_m, I built some spangly new wheels and off we went.

I've been using it 2 or 3 times a week as my work commute bike for the past month or so. Duration between 30 minutes and 1:30 so far, often followed with a "brick" run (I'm an MTB du / triathlete).

I've gone for a 36x13 gearing system which approximates to the around 70-75 inches most people use on a fixed road bike. I'm going to up the chainring to a 38T as a bit of a strength training machine.

The stretched riding position is great and means I train in my racing MTB position, which the road bike never allowed me to do. Its also a better commuting proposition as you sit a bit higher at the front with more bar leverage and slightly fatter tyres to take care of the poor road surfaces around here.

The only things I don't like are the rattly XTR brakes and the tyres are a bit sketchy at times but it is cold and wet at the moment so not sure anything else would be much better.

Enjoy the photos.

BTW, the black band on the top tube is gaffer tape to protect against bar swing marks. I need to better tape the bar ends but that is a job for another day...........

As Guy Martin would say, it looks 'proper'.

Nice job

Pace had my F3 back in 2001 to remove the faded anodising and refinish it and it was returned with those decals fitted.

Made a couple of mods to the Pace recently. A 38T Goldtec chainring (with a 13t fixed sprocket) makes it even faster and a Black Thomson stem and King headset makes it look a bit more balanced vs the grey RC45 previously fitted and better adheres to my "2 out of 3 must match" for stem / bar / headsets.... Still need to convert the front hub to take allen bolts rather than the hideous track nuts but the conversion kits is nearly the same cost as the hub in the first place at £40!

I also changed the XTR M950 brakes for some Avid Mag's to release some funds and make it a bit lighter................

This was my regular winter commuter bike last year and I was looking forward to using it again this year but I nearly came a cropper on the roundabout outside work last week so not so sure now. Oh, it not just due to the bald tyres as a few people on motorbikes lost it as well......

That looks sooooo fast