First, an apology to all those who supported the Save the Massi Campaign. Your protests to protect a lovely, 1990s Italian road bike were heard, but not heeded. But in pre-emptive response to the hate mail that will surely follow this post, no bikes were hurt in the making of this conversion.
The conversion is, of course, the final stage of the Gadget Lab fixed-gear project. Despite the passing of many months, it has been surprisingly easy, and the results is a fantastically fun bike which is both light, strong and, like Derek Zoolander, ridiculously good-looking.
The final stages involved stripping all extraneous parts. Off came the back brake, cables, gears, handlebar-tape and frame-mounted brackets. The only things left are the front brake, and the addition of a new, small brake lever. On went the new wheels — Velocity Deep Vs, and on went a new, color-coordinated half-link BMX chain. Why the half-links? Read on.
The one thing that made me reluctant to convert this bike to a fixed-gear machine was the rather vertical rear dropout. It turned out, though, that it wasn’t quite as vertical as it first appeared. It runs at a steep angle, but there are a few millimeters of front-to-back play. Enough, I thought, to allow proper chain tensioning if the chain had half-links. Two adjustment screws run through the frame into these dropouts, to allow fine adjustment before finally tightening the wheel-nuts.
Going carefully, I removed the old wheel and took a spare wheel with a fixed track hub and sixteen teeth (the chainring choice is 42 or 52. I went with 42 for easy city riding). I also unbolted the rear derailleur to give me some space, leaving everything connected for easy replacement if things went wrong. Placing the wheel as far forward in the dropout as possible, I got the chain as tight as I could. This is the reason for the half-link chain: because you can take out a single “half” link at a time instead of two links on a normal chain, you can get a much finer adjustment. you can also buy a single half-link and add it to a regular chain.
Pushing back on the wheel showed me that I had (just) enough play to make it work. I broke and connected the new chain, bolted on the wheel and set about removing everything else.
The weight of the components is surprising, even before you figure in the rear cassette. As previously mentioned, the groupset is an old Shimano 105 setup, which these days costs around $1000 new. This version has “brifters”, or brakes and shifters combined. I gathered everything up, including cable sheaths and nipples, and put them away safely in a box. For those of you now horrified, know that an afternoon of tinkering would restore the Massi to it’s former gear-burdened glory.
After some pumping and tightening, I took it out for a spin. Over the last weeks, I have put a lot of miles on the bike, just to see if I should keep it as it was. It was never as much fun as a fixed, and I would come back from an afternoon long ride with energy to spare (for touring, a bonus, but for keeping fit, it’s a waste).
In it’s new, simpler incarnation, I love it. The feel is completely different, and as you can see from the pictures, the very steep angle of the seat-tube means it handles a lot like a track bike.
Sacrilege? Perhaps, but the point of a bike is to ride it. In its road-bike form, the Massi wouldn’t have seen much use. And if I do ever regret it, the operation is reversible. Apologies to the purists, and thanks to everybody who helped out.
See Also:
- Gadget Lab Fixed-Gear Update: Donor Bike Acquired
- Gadget Lab Fixie Project Update: Things Are Going Slowly, But They …
- Fixie
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