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Hi Jim,

This is my old 59 cm Raleigh Technium from about 1984. I bought this bike used about 15 years ago and left it out in my shed for about 10 years. I recently wanted to try single speeding to see if I could make it work on my excercise route. I wanted a simple bike that required less maintanence costs that also would work for the rainy northwest. I used all the junk parts in my garage from about three or four different bicycles to put this together. I ended up with a 42 tooth steel chainring and a ACS 18 tooth freewheel, giving me a 63 inch gear, with the 27x1 1/4 inch wheels. The hubs are 36 hole Suzues and the rims, Araya with no eylets. I use the fine quality Panaracer TG Pasela tires that measure 28 mm wide and I keep them pumped to about 90-95 psi. I need brake hoods for the old Dia Compe levers and will get those when I get new bars. At that time, I will also tape the bars with one color of tape. I really didn't want to spend anything to build this and wanted to use what I had on hand. I only needed to buy the freewheel and five stainless washers to make it all work. The cost so far is less than $30 for a fun riding machine. I was skeptical about the aluminum tubing and glued joints as I am about 260 pounds. So far, this bike is holding up nicely....wow! I enjoy taking this bike out for my near daily excercise route of nine miles. The route is fairly flat except for about a mile hill at the end. Of all my bikes, this one gets the most use presently. The bike weighs in at around 21 pounds with water,tool bag and pump. For a single speed experience, finding an old bike and converting it isn't a bad way to go.

-charles

charles_vail@hotmail.com