The Fix-e that Came to be from the ashes of Lookery

So, as readers of R3 know, I rode a sweet black LOOK KG361 for about 6 months in 2007. I had craved this bike since I saw it when it was released in 2000, the same year I bought my Bianchi Veloce, thereafter known as Toro, in use as an AidsRide bike by one Lung. After six blissful, if not-exactly-properly-fitted months of riding, including that las-minute save in Calistoga, I overconfidently, if absent-mindedly, decided to lock it up outside the Metreon, and never saw it again. Before I got the Vervelo, and eventually the new Look, the FIRST decision I made was to have a city bike: something simple, that I could lock up around town and not worry about. Not theft-proof, but at least not theft-fearing, either. Something that was easily replaceable. So, I worked Craigslist for awhile, and ended up scoring a single-speed quick-and-dirty conversion from some fixie guys for a few bills, and I was good.

The bike ended up NOT being that fire-and-forget, nearly disposable city bike I intended. It was doomed to be awesome from the start. See, I loved co-piloting some of Lung’s bike (and other) projects, but always felt like it wasn’t so applicable to my riding needs, because I rode these nice road bikes which didn’t want to be effed with (my opinion, not lungs… you should see Toro now) so I lived vicariously through his bikery. But once I got that single speed, I felt the need for bikery of my own. It was poorly assembled, a quick conversion intended for a quick sale, using around the ManRoom parts, and was clearly so, but it worked for me. It was a prime candidate for experimentation, i thought, since hell, it was cheap to begin with and it was the disposable city bike, after all.

Yeahhhh.

Fortunately, Lung still lived in my building and had the ManRoom next to my WrongRoom so he was able to help me with most of the conversion of this bike, originally called Singl3, into the bike I cherish today as fix-e. While I would shed a tear at it’s loss or theft, despite my original intent, it does remain replaceable in the sense that I’m probably going to be working on bikes evermore, now that I’m so obsessed with it, thanks to Lung’s tutelage. If it were to be gone tomorrow, I’d just accelerate work on the next one. That said, it’s tied for favorite bike with my new Look. And frankly, given the choice, I’d rather ride it than anything else. I LOVES it.

The only known photo of Singl3… as if you can see it behind all the other general awesomeness abounding…

Fix-e started out, in the contemporary period, as a simple converted old timey road bike, a Le Jeunet frame from the early 70s. It sported a lux champagne gold mixed with Martinelli’s paint job, well chipped, with UV-radiated-integrated decals. It had the original or similar stem, a pair of chopped straight bars with old finger-grooved hard rubber grips, which I loved to look at but less to ride for more than an hour at a time, and a single 40-tooth chainring in the cranks, which I’d personally never seen before (typical modern road rings are 39/53) it had plastic pedals, an old beat up black plastic seat, one weak brake in front with an old BMX lever, and for wheels, it had a mismatched pair of a 700 and a 27 (I think) one being a complete wheel by someone or other and the other being an Ultegra hub and a Mavic rim, with blue spoke nipples. It rode, it turned, and until the chain came off, it cranked, too. It needed work, like half-mast needed work.

I don’t remember the exact order of upgrades, the way meticulous (read OCD) Lung would, to his benefit and my detriment, but they included:
-a complete strip down, lube and rebuild, during the painting process
-sand/grind of frame and mask/repaint
-new wheels
-new tires
-new bars (twice)
-new tape (twice)
-adjunks (at one point, a bar extension sitting in front of the handlebars, to which was mounted a drink/fritz holder made from hose clamps (Lung genius again)
-new chain
-new cogs
-new old seat
-new brake cable
-new brake lever (twice)
-spikey half-clip-in, half-flat pedals
-top tube pad
-concealed dope

Doing the math, you’ll see that all that remains is the frame, fork, and three piece crank/bottom bracket assembly.

The process of renovating this fine machine was enlightening. Lung helped me strip it down and separate out that which was initially kept from that which was discarded into my ‘future art’ bin. Heh. I was introduced to the exciting, somewhat perilous world of floating bearings (sorry, don’t have the jargon) and bottom bracket mysteries, of chain tension and gearing logic. We only lost a few bearings in the disassembly/reassembly process. I did most of the stripping of the frame, fairly careful not to grind my femoral arteries open or lose right hand articulation in freak sanding mishappery. It took forever! Finally, probably the most exciting step, the repaint process.

Matte black is the new black. Less reflecty for snipers… except for the chrome. Shown here with optional MEGAHORN for SUV alertery.

I wanted a flat matte black finish, so I got high-temperature engine paint. We primered it and then gave it some coats of the black and it came together nicely, with few drips. I sound vague here because by we, I mean largely Lung, who was blessed with both the enthusiasms, and the free time, to hit the frame on intervals. Awesome.
One lesson learned, though: I don’t care what temperature rating the paint has: seal it with a matte clearcoat. Because that thing has proven quite chippable since.

Here’s Singl3 prior to the fixed gearery… handsome bike stand, too.

The wheels are now a Mavic open pro on Shimano hub the front, new, and in the back, a sweet, sweet ENO Eccentric hub in the back, one side being a fixed 16 cog and the other a free 17. Same 40-tooth chainring, new chain, nice and tight. There was a fair amount of manhandling of the wheelstays because the frame was bent and the spacing back there was deformed. Very hard to get the wheel in there and tightened properly by yourself (if you are me; I was convinced I was screwed, unable to get them wide enough to accept the ENO even on a stand with a breaker bar; I was preparing to HEAT the metal, a bad idea, with Lung at his house when he simply dropped them in, using different leverage. As you can see, I remain not very mechanically inclined.)

Sweet’ knobby tires.

I started with these sweet textured knobby tires, but I longed for the familiar ride of slicks from my road experience, and subsequently sold those to one Lung, and picked up gorgeous white stripe slicks from SOMA Fabrications.

The scheme, clearly, is matte black, chrome, with leather accents. The original chrome on the Le Jeunet ("the the") was taped off and remains, though the lugs were painted.

Original chrome, seen! ENO hub, not yet seen!

The seat is a vintage Brooks saddle, well worn with the asses of generations past. I love it. I’m all Brooks now.

The bars were kept as-is for quite awhile, but I was getting a good amount of shoulder fatigue from that position and ultimately decided to go for something swoopy and funky, so I added Nitto Mustache Bars. These were taped in Brooks leather tape in Antique Brown to match the saddle.

Those old-timey mustache bars…

The bars were awesome, but they ARE old timey, and fix-e was increasingly moving towards a more contemporary fusion of styles, so I decided to pull them off and use them on the next bike, and replaced them with a pair of Nitto Bullhorns. These give me more reach and a confident riding position. Wrapped in honey leather tape, this time, for some contrast. This was also timed with my decision to change the brake lever. I was originally using a small black BMX brake lever on the original flat chopped bars, but when I put the mustache bars on there, they were too wide a diameter for the single clamp lever.

At one point I even tried using the bar extended and moving the brake lever onto the stem. Not successful. Proven in EPIC FAIL on test ride.

Few double clamp levers exist other then an old, let’s say budget model SunTour, so I decided on what I THOUGHT was a Thommovation: using a bar-end brake lever on the end of the mustache bars, in a ‘reverse’ position. As it turned out, I ended up seeing it on another bike, and later on singles sold at Sports basement, so not so unique an approach. Never did see it on mustache bars though. So, bar-end lever on the bullhorns now, complete.

Note also that the bullhorns allow for a perfect tuck when ascending stairs with the bike…

The final details are an aesthetically pleasing, in other words fly, custom top tube pad I had made, black denim on the outside, with sick red perforated leather concealed on the inside, but never shown. It’s like I’m a rigid librarian wearing sexy lingerie under my sensible herringbone suit! (And I’d like to meet, uh, me.) And tucked into that? A vintage playing card… the 3 of aces, in fact.

You will also note the custom custom and superfly exclusive TRDL crest on the head tube. A more elaborate crest exists on my own right arm, of course, but this is a badge of wrongPride(tm) I say!

Since the day I photographed the bike for this belated post and deemed fix-e both completed and named, there have been changes, non-deliberate and of little consequence.

My sweet leather underseat tool bag was lifted while I bought eggs on one of my and Lung’s Saturday breakfast spins. And in an ill-conceived transport of Fix-e within the MINI, I inadvertently allowed the front wheel to rest loosely on top of the frame on the way in, and back, from Marin (it was on a towel… then wasn’t.) the road vibration quietly allowed the spokes to shear all the paint off of the left seat/top stay, so there’s subsequently been a bit of black electrical taping, which was mandatory anyway.

Oh, and lastly, because the frame is technically too short for me, I’ve been continually looking for ways to extend my stretch in the riding position, from the bullhorns, to my latest part, a drainpipe seatpost from the old school BMX days (I saw one in the wild, and Lung identified it with childlike glee, the glimmer of his BMX trophies twinkling in the reflection of his red-tinged eyes…)

All in all, a fantastic experience. It taught me the basics of ten-speed to fixed gear conversions, allowed me to gleam the satisfaction of hand-made projects in my otherwise digital day to day, and gave me a new obsession. A second fixed conversion is underway for the summer. More Lung assistance will be required. But man, what a treat. And besides, the process of riding a single and eventually fixed let me not only get over my aversion to fixed gear riding, but learn to really appreciate it as part of a balanced riding style.

The rub? I’m still in need of a city bike.

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