A few people have asked me what is happening with Project Beetlejuice — my bike build using a Cycling Deal fixie/track frame TF-56W.

In short, Project Beetlejuice has been on the backburner for a few months. Over Christmas, my wife gave me a Wabi Cycles Special. (For more posts on my Wabi Special, explore the Bloke’s Lens Tigger tag, or Bloke’s Post Tigger tag.)

The Wabi Special is a much nicer bike than the Cycling Deal fixie/track frame TF-56W was ever going to be. The Wabi is probably lighter, even though it has a steel frame (high quality Reynolds 725 steel, mind you) and more comfortable geometry than the Cycling Deal frame.

I have therefore changed the focus of the Project Beetlejuice build. I had originally been building a budget bike, but spending money on a few key nice parts, such as wheels. The aluminium Cycling Deal frame is now going to become my rain bike. I may end up renaming the build at some point — I just need to find a more appropriate name!

I have fitted the headset, but done a bit of a dodgy job of it. Both the bearings and the seat were painted. I probably should have removed this paint before trying to fit the headset because the bearings were a stupidly tight fit. I am hoping that I have not damaged the frame or bearings in the process of trying to fit them. I will take some photos, but I have been unable to get the bottom bearing to sit square. I am hoping that a few hundred kilometres of road vibrations will sort it out.

A parts update for the Cycling Deal fixie/track frame TF-56W:

• The Selle Italia SLS Kit Carbonio Flow saddle has been borrowed for use on my Wabi Special
• The OEM saddle on the Wabi Special will be used on the Cycling Deal frame.
• The OEM tyres on the Wabi Special were Kenda Koncept tyres and Kenda tubes — on removing and inspecting them, they actually are pretty decent tyres and tubes, so I will reuse them on this bike.
• I am planning to replace the handle bars on my orange Cell Bikes singlespeed with a set of wide bars in keeping with the original intent of Wonder Woman being a townie bike. The riser bars on Wonder Woman will make their way to this bike.
• In keeping with Wonder Woman’s town bike style, I plan to also remove the deep dish wheels and fit them to the Cycling Deal frame.

That should then only leave cranks, chainring, pedals, stem, brake levers and calipers, and a chain to complete this build.

For more posts on the Cycling Deal fixie/track frame TF-56W bike build, explore the Project Beetlejuice tag.