Want vs. Need
As regular readers will recall, I was able to recover my 10-speed Centurion that I rode in while in college, some 30+ years ago. Not just the same model, etc., but the very same bike. It had been hanging in the garage of an extended family member, waiting for me to reclaim it. 14 months ago I did. I put some new tires and brake pads on it, and rode it around the street briefly, then hung it up in the garage.
The sentimentalist in me wants to convert the frame into a fixed-gear bike. I’ve had one person tell me “it can’t be done”, and several others tell me that for a few hundred bucks or so, I’d be in fixie-heaven.
The pragmatist in me remembers my brief tour in the street in front of the house, and just how strange the bike felt compared to my other machines. The seat is kind of an ass-hatchet (a problem that can be easily fixed by throwing dollar bills at it), and the frame seems huge. The fit would be critical for the bike and I to have an ongoing relationship (“if the bike don’t fit, you won’t ride it”).
Yesterday I was contacted by Matt (a young fellow from Iowa) about this bike. He had inherited the very same frame from someone, and had sunk a few bucks into converting it to a fixie. His stated goal was to ride the bike across Iowa in this year’s edition of RAGBRAI. Until his Centurion was stolen, that is. Now the only apparent path toward his goal of riding that bike across Iowa this summer runs through my garage in Auburn.
Dilemma time. Do I:
- resume my short-lived effort to convert my 33 year old bicycle into a cool old root-beer colored fixie, or
- sell the frame to the fellow in Iowa, who apparently will put the bike to very good use.
As of last night, I decided not to decide for the moment. My course of action will be to:
- pump up the damn tires and take the bike for a ride greater than 100 yards,
- get 2 opinions on cost/components for conversion,
- decide, before the week is out.
Your votes on the matter are hereby solicited, via the comments section.
In other news, the local meteorologists promise that it will stop snowing/hailing/raining/blowing for a few days, so I can actually ride a bicycle. After several days of that sort of weather, this will be a welcome change. Temps today are supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer… we may top 50! I’ve only gotten in one ride in eight days, so I am very much looking forward to getting out tonight for our usual Tuesday night romp.
Molly turns 8 today. Happy Birthday, young lady. I’d bake you a cake, but you should be on a diet. With me.
Tags: bicycles, birthday, centurion, dog, fixie, iowa, molly, ragbrai
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April 1st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Happy birthday Molly:)
Sorry John. I know nothing about fixed gear bikes or conversions:)
April 1st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Give it to the Iowa guy. Sentimentality is a weak emotion when riding an ill fitting bike.
Want a fixie? Buy new or buy a used frame that fits and build up from there.
No need to keep a bike you won’t ride when you get one you will.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Loan it to Iowa guy, let him convert it to a fixie, and give it back to you after RAGBRAI…w00t!
=P
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Is that a Super Le Mans. I have an Orenge one of the same vintage. It would be a lovely fixie but it’s a classic the way it is. I baught mine from a fixie gear loving friend who couldn’t see it changed. I changed the wheel set to 700c and put new wider nitto bars on it. It fits me much better now. I could use a higher stem the the stem size and seatpost size are a bit odd on these.
That being said if your even considering giving it up it probably nastalga that’s keeping you with it. Give it to the boy in that case. Maybe find one that fits you better even if it’s not the one YOU had in the 1970′s. It would make a nice project but if you not going to ride it your better off getting something else.
April 5th, 2008 at 5:54 am
This model actually pre-dates the Super Le Mans, Robin.
I’ve asked Iowa to make me an offer.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Send me an email with your phone number. You can come over to my garage and I’ll lend you the parts to build
it up as a fixed gear. Then you can see what
you think of riding a fixed gear. No monetary
investment required.
April 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
John,
Part of me screams to convert this to a fixie. BUT there is the part of me that says, if this truly doesn’t fit you, then it probably is best to get it into the hands of someone that it will fit. Think if it this way. You get it to the guy who has a legitimate need for this to do the RAGBRIA. You get good JUJU points there. You also get to vicariously ride RAGBRIA in spirit via the bike. There is something to be said about good JUJU in the bike world. Those points add up and sooner or later what comes around goes around. Off to Iowa.
Yes, converting it to a fixed gear is relatively inexpensive considering a new bike. BUT I got my fixie for $600. I think Tony paid right in that neighborhood too. There’s a number of ways to approach the need for a fixie. I can go on and on about that. Let me know when you have some time…..
April 15th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Thank you all for your thoughts on this bike, and thanks to Tim for his generous offer to loan me conversion components.
The Centurion is boxed and ready to go to Iowa. I came to the conclusion that weight of Matt’s desire to ride this particular frame across Iowa was greater than the weight of my sentiment to keep this bike.
My handyman time needs to be spent on home, not bike, for the foreseeable future. The bike would hang in my garage, unused, for another year or so. With an epic journey ahead of it, I can’t really justify keeping it. I too will ride RAGBRAI at some point, and I will know that my Centurion rode it before me.
There is a fixie in my future, just not this fixie.
I now await an address to send it to, and a little exchange of currency. Of course, if the deal falls through…
To complete the symmetry of this transaction, the freebie box that my LBS gave me to use as a shipper is from Diamondback. Diamondback is the successor corporation of Centurion. I find that amusing.