The ridiculous pink fixie part 5, all done - time to ride.

So, after a couple of months at the powdercoater, and a couple of weeks waiting on parts, the ridiculous pink fixie, aka the Telemagenta Traveler, is complete.

What started as a $20 frame and a $7 stem and a rough draft on pedalmafia,



became a better version on pedalmafia,



and, after the application of a nice coat of pink powdercoat, and several hundreds of dollars worth of parts and accessories, is finally complete.

If you're going to do a project like this, it helps to shop around and to have access to a bike co-op/collective. The total budget on this bike was about $560, from the initial frame to the final bolts, including the free shop time and a significant discount on a number of the parts. You can spend a lot more if you want (if the link gets flagged/removed, it was a Soma Rush fixie going for $1750. Seriously.), or you can spend significantly less and get a Mercier/Motobecane from bikesdirect.com, or do a fixie conversion on a budget. While some might say that spending that much on a high-ten-framed fixie conversion is absurd, I think the education and the finished product were well worth it.









It really is nice, if I do say so myself.

The old Schwinn frame, while not as strong or as light as the chromoly currently in use on most bikes today, has an outstanding ride quality. It's not as stiff, and the 46x16 gearing seems a lot more user-friendly than the 48x16 I'd been riding.

I'm still dialing it in to get it as comfortable and well-fitting as possible, but it's been tremendous fun so far.

Now I've just got to ride this ridiculous thing on a regular basis, and stop thinking about the steampunk themed bike with carbide lamps for headlights and lots of brass fittings that I want to build next.