Reality of converting a track frame to a SS road bike...??

[LikeClockwork]

Got my eye on a couple of old track frames, 50's through to 80's, thinking they would make good road single speed bikes. I can't ride 'fixed' due to knackered knees (and lack of confidence!), so a couple of questions -

Are the angles/geometry of a pure track iron going to make the thing exceptionally twitchy on the road?

And as they aren't drilled for a rear brake, how pricey, or even possible, would it be to get the thing drilled or have a new drilled brake bridge added, has anyone ever had to do this?

Cheers in advance!

Kaz

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Well, the handling will be "different", it's something you get used to, or not.

My only experience of track frames are modern ones, with fairly standard track geometry, some of the older frames I think can be a bit bonkers though, so be careful what you choose.

Try find a frame with a brake bridge, or already Drilled, although there are a couple of bolt on rear brake bridge options I've seen (OK they may have been home-brew now I think of it... :?).

 

[LikeClockwork]

Re:

There's a Dia Compe bolt on brake adaptor thing I've seen, Jim, but it gets mixed reviews as it can distort the bridge if it's not made to handle the forces of a rear brake.

Starting to wonder if common sense says find a single speed road specific frame or even convert a SS MTB frame like an On One to drops. Or sumat :? :facepalm:

 

[hamster]

Any older (say pre-1990) road frame likely has horizontal / sloping dropouts and convert happily to singlespeed without a tensioner. Use stock freehub wheels and a singlespeed conversion kit.
Personally that's what I'd use as it keeps it all simple and interchangeable.

 

[LikeClockwork]

Re:

Yes, starting to think this would be a far more sensible approach, although there is just something about the 'clean' look of rear facing track ends, isn't there

 

[mattr]

TBH, your range 1950 to 1980 will cover all sorts of different concepts of "track bike".
Some will essentially be single speed/fixed road bikes with brake drillings and so on.
Some will be 76 deg parallel hardcore fag paper clearance track frames.

Until you know which frame you are looking at, it's difficult to say.

 

[FiveAlpha]

I rode a late-80s track iron for a while, geometry was such, that it was hard to ride the thing slowly, and it was always exhausting. I swapped to road bikes permanently after 5 months, as I was tired of always hanging over the front of thing, as it twitched on every road imperfection.

Lesson learnt.

 

[LikeClockwork]

Re:

Thanks for the input and comments guys, I think I am going to be patient and wait for a nice 50's road bike in my size to appear, I used to be in the VCC years ago and did a lot of riding with them in the area that I now live in half the week. Just keep thinking how lovely it would be to have a simple, nice old bike to potter about the lanes on....

From the above, it appears a track bike isn't really the way to go for 'pottering'

 

[Old Ned]

What you need is a 'Road/Path' frame from the 50's/60's, built mainly for time trialing with sensible angles and fork rake, clearance for guards and heavy tyres. The rear brake bridge may be a problem but I have seen them drilled out to fit a brake.

 

[biggs682]

Re:

I have a 1970's Woodrup track frame that Lee Cooper replaced the rear bridge on and renovated the paintwork at the same time . With the right gearing nothing to stop you from using it as your main bike .



I also have thus unknown frame waiting in the wings

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