- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Messages
- 8,721
~p, your Fuji Boulevard should be just fine to convert to single speed. It was a great bike, originally introduced in '84 as a light duty good quality cruiser. I used to do a deal with the kids around here, bring in a fully funtioning, ridable, vintage road bike and I would convert it to fixed gear or single speed for $40 and I got to keep all the parts not needed.
There are a couple of ways to go about it, remove and replace, or, redish and reuse. The former is straight forward, take the gears off and buy new wheels and basically just replace things. Redish and reuse is fine in most cases and has minimal part expense, but requires more labor and knowledge.
Assuming your bike has 7 speeds in back, it will be a free wheel set up, the gears and freewheel are one unit that unscrews off the hub. (It can be done with more modern wheels that have a free hub and seperate gears, but cannot be converted to fixed gear.) I will also assume you want single speed and not fixed.
Take the outer chainring off the crank, buy new single speed chainring bolts. Remove front derailleur and shifter. Front is done.
Back wheel: remove rear derailleur and shifter. Take the rear wheel off the bike, to remove the freewheel you will need a special socket to fit your brand of freewheel, i.e. have a shop do it. You will now b left with a bare wheel, buy the appropriate sized single speed freewheel (aka bmx freewheel) 16, 17, 18, 19 tooth are common sizes. Thread it onto the wheel and reinstall th rear wheel. Sight down the chainline to see how far in the rear gear is from directly inline with the front chainring.
Depending on how far off it is will determine if the axle needs to be messed with. Redishing the wheel now. This involves unscrewing the drive side spokes to make the longer and screwing in the non-drive side. By doing this you are moving the relationship of hub to rim and making the hub stick out further on the drive side.
Sometimes just redishing isn't enough to get a good chain line, the axle needs to be adjusted. This usually involves flipping the spacers side to side making the axle longer on the non-drive side. But it isn't always a case of do one then the other, because the tire will no longer center in the frame, it needs to be decided early on if the axle needs to be flipped and both done at the same time.
This should get you riding on one gear in no time!
For fitting to a new bike, have your actual inseam measured. This is not your pants inseam. Its not exactly comfortable to measure, especially for females. Take a hard cover book and place the bottom edge against a wall with the spine up, stand over the book and pull it up into your nether region firmly until it is against the bones. Have someone mark this on the wall or measure. This is your inseam for riding. The bones support your weight so measure to those.
This will tell a knowledgeable sales person what size or size range you need. Your leg should extend to about 20* from straight at the bottom of the stroke. You will be able to tell if your stretched out too far or not, and the sales people should offer to switch out the stem to fit you for free or low cost.
Message me if you have any particular or specific questions.
Oh and fyi, flatblackcapo that posted above is my partner in crime and someone who I trust to work on any bike I own. He knows his stuff too.
Cheers!
-Xander
There are a couple of ways to go about it, remove and replace, or, redish and reuse. The former is straight forward, take the gears off and buy new wheels and basically just replace things. Redish and reuse is fine in most cases and has minimal part expense, but requires more labor and knowledge.
Assuming your bike has 7 speeds in back, it will be a free wheel set up, the gears and freewheel are one unit that unscrews off the hub. (It can be done with more modern wheels that have a free hub and seperate gears, but cannot be converted to fixed gear.) I will also assume you want single speed and not fixed.
Take the outer chainring off the crank, buy new single speed chainring bolts. Remove front derailleur and shifter. Front is done.
Back wheel: remove rear derailleur and shifter. Take the rear wheel off the bike, to remove the freewheel you will need a special socket to fit your brand of freewheel, i.e. have a shop do it. You will now b left with a bare wheel, buy the appropriate sized single speed freewheel (aka bmx freewheel) 16, 17, 18, 19 tooth are common sizes. Thread it onto the wheel and reinstall th rear wheel. Sight down the chainline to see how far in the rear gear is from directly inline with the front chainring.
Depending on how far off it is will determine if the axle needs to be messed with. Redishing the wheel now. This involves unscrewing the drive side spokes to make the longer and screwing in the non-drive side. By doing this you are moving the relationship of hub to rim and making the hub stick out further on the drive side.
Sometimes just redishing isn't enough to get a good chain line, the axle needs to be adjusted. This usually involves flipping the spacers side to side making the axle longer on the non-drive side. But it isn't always a case of do one then the other, because the tire will no longer center in the frame, it needs to be decided early on if the axle needs to be flipped and both done at the same time.
This should get you riding on one gear in no time!
For fitting to a new bike, have your actual inseam measured. This is not your pants inseam. Its not exactly comfortable to measure, especially for females. Take a hard cover book and place the bottom edge against a wall with the spine up, stand over the book and pull it up into your nether region firmly until it is against the bones. Have someone mark this on the wall or measure. This is your inseam for riding. The bones support your weight so measure to those.
This will tell a knowledgeable sales person what size or size range you need. Your leg should extend to about 20* from straight at the bottom of the stroke. You will be able to tell if your stretched out too far or not, and the sales people should offer to switch out the stem to fit you for free or low cost.
Message me if you have any particular or specific questions.
Oh and fyi, flatblackcapo that posted above is my partner in crime and someone who I trust to work on any bike I own. He knows his stuff too.
Cheers!
-Xander
