Going Crazy with my ss project

Hey folks I've just taken on a vintage lapierre bike and i'm trying to turn it into a singlespeed. Whats driving me nuts is that I cant get the crank off and i have now bent the chainring which needs replacing. I've bought crank extractors but they are all too big!!! No-one in my LBS seems to know what they are doing!?!?!?!? Any ideas!? Also does anyone know if the old style top pull caliper brakes can be replaced with the new style side pull? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm turnin into an angry young man!!!
p.s. please dont tell me to go to sheldon brown!!!

 

You shouldn't need to be told. Sheldon's a legend, and he likes helping people. He helped me once - thanks again Sheldon.

 

Is this an old Stronglight crank? That's a French brand. Go to this link for a special tool:http://biketoolsetc.com/index.cgi?id=441082257794&d=single&c=Tools&sc=Crank&tc=Extractors-Stronglight&item_id=SN-STEX

 

Some more thoughts. If your crank is an old Stronglight and this being an old Lapierre, you probably have a French thread bottom bracket as well. Bottom line here you may not be able to get a spindle or a cartridge bottom bracket to give you good chain line with a Pista crank. I'd suggest that you contact one of our sage forum members JohnM who gives every indication of being a professional bike mechanic of many years of experience from what I see in his posts. The brakes shouldn't be a problem, but I'd probably go with "long reach" calipers. Lapierre also has a website, and they can tell you about frame bottom bracket compatability. Good luck, but watch your step, you may be opening an expensive can of worms!

 

http://www.mtbr.com/faq/ssfaq.shtml

 

Cheers for help guys, decided to sell whats left of bike. It was costing way too much money!!! I went to LBS they quoted 140 GBP to do work that was needed as I couldnt do it myself severe lack of tools!!! The cranks were frozen on stuck and would have to have bottom bracket drilled out!!! What a freakin nightmare!!! Bit pi**ed to bew honest cos its a lovely frame!!! Due to time and cash constraints I cheated and bought a second hand cheapo off ebay!!! It will probably only end up gettin stolen, living in London.