Originally Posted by
jerrytown
When I started shopping for a single speed/fixed gear bike I began with the usual suspects (Trek, Bianchi, Schwinn, etc.). Then I stumbled across Wabi and other small companies with some very interesting bikes. Below are the companies I've found so far. Are there companies? Opinions on small vs. big companies? Mail order vs. LBS?
Wabi (
Wabi Cycles)
Swobo (
Swobo)
Mission (
Mission Bicycle Company)
Osobike (
OSOBIKE.com)
Republic (
Republic Bike)
Pretending for a moment that this isn't an old thread (because the issue is recurrent) ...
How much did you actually want to spend?
There are several "small" bike companies ... and, the price range is pretty extreme ...
I have an
EighthInch "Scrambler" (
steel) frame which I got a few years ago (
the MSRP at the time was only $139 & included a porky steel fork + headset + seatpost + seatpost clamp! The current price is higher.) ...
I opted to use my own components & I
built my EighthInch frame with a Campagnolo seat post, Chorus crank/BB, & brake calipers ... Miche rear hub, Hügi 240 front hub, Tektro brake levers, etc.
...
The final build was around 17 lbs. ...
Even with the "better" (?) components, THAT isn't a particularly light weight bike & a "real" Track bike would have weighed less 40+ years ago; but, a "real" Track bike's frame would not be as robust.
I suspect that if built with the supplied components, the EighthInch bike's weight might exceed 20 lbs.
I classify my EighthInch bike as a
faux-Track bike because of its geometry, but it also has water bottle bosses & some dubious rear brake cable braze-ons on the underside of the top tube (
if you look at the underside of the top tube, you can see that the rear brake cable's housing is simply lashed in place with zip ties where the braze-ons are located AND in the "middle") ...
.
If you want to build up a utilitarian Single Speed bike then the EighthInch frameset may be a good place to start.
BTW. Unless you live in Wisconsin, the EighthInch framset is a mail order purchase (free shipping). As with ALL bikes, the frame's
size is (
can be) critical ... so, THAT is the disadvantage of mail order.