Tag Archives: Singlespeed
Beautiful day for a 73 km ride to Nudgee
Coffee stop at Anesis, Yeronga
I love a late morning roll down to a local café for a long black coffee. I was riding my Cell Bikes fixie/singlespeed, Wonder Woman. Perfect weather, sweet bike and great coffee. What is there not to love?
Cell Bikes fixie frame makeover — before and after photos
I have had this bike for a while — see the Wonder Woman tag. I built the bike up from a Cell Bikes fixie frame along with many parts that I had in a box from other bike projects. The intent of the bike was to use it around town to run down to the shops, post office and local cafes. The bike was a parts bin special that I had built for less than $200 that I could happily leave at the front of a store without worrying too much if it was stolen.
The bike has a 46 tooth chainring and a 17 tooth freewheel — that actually makes it a singlespeed, not a fixie. In this configuration — but with Shimano SPD pedals, not the flats in the following photo — I have riden the bike around the Brisbane River Loop at an average speed of more than 29 km/h.
With the next Brisbane Style Over Speed ride fast approaching, I decided it was time to modify the bike to make it more of a sit-up bike — a bit more style and a little less speed. The main change was the Velo Orange Milan handlebars. I decided the deep V rim wheels of the original build did not go with the stylish look, so purchased a set of Marvinator wheels from Gear Shop Brisbane. The final change was a set of VP Components VP-X92 double sided SPD-compatible/platform pedals. I reused the handlebar grips, brake levers, freewheel, tubes and tyres from the original bike build.
Marvinator rims with Quando track hubs
Last week I picked up a Marvinator wheelset from Gear Brisbane. The wheels are Gear Brisbane’s bottom-of-the-range wheels (and do not currently appear on their web site). The Marvinator rims from Colossi are built up with Quando hubs with sealed bearings. I am not sure what the spokes are. The Quando hub is a flip/flop hub.
Apparently the wheels are handbuilt in Brisbane by their “master wheel builder”. Pretty good value wheels for $230.
I weighed the Marvinator wheelset at 1048 grams for the front wheel and 1129 grams for the rear wheel, without rim tape or a sprocket/freewheel.
I am planning to put these wheels on my orange Cell Fixie frame, Wonder Woman, moving the wheelset from that bike to Project Beetlejuice.
Nudgee Beach by bicycle
I took a ride out to Nudgee Beach today — a 76 km round trip from Yeronga, including a couple of laps of the Nundah Criterium Circuit — on my Cell Bikes singlespeed.
Nudgee Beach seems to be a very popular destination for cyclists, mainly because of the extensive offroad sealed bikeways that can be used to get there. It has taken me three exploratory rides to work out the best way to get from the Brisbane River Loop on to the Kedron-Brook Bikeway, which then links to the Jim Soorley Bikeway and the Moreton Bay Cycleway, before following the Nudgee Road bikeway to Nudgee Beach.
You can explore Brisbane’s bikeways using the cycling layer at Google Maps.
Bicycle gang at UQ
A group of families rode their bicycles over to the University of Queensland.