Fix-ing the Zeus

Over a barbecue, an architect friend of mine who's an avid bike commuter offerred an idea. "What if we could make a fixed out of an old 10 speed but keep the front shifter to yield a 2 speed?" Enjoying my instant flash of mechanical insight, I countered with, "nope, you need slack in the chain to stretch over the larger front gear - a sping of some sort." Mike came back a few months later and offerred the 'spring pulley' idea. So I mentioned it to a bike shop guy on a visit to LA and he produced a smile and a Burley sigulator. It's normal use is fixed conversions but it has just enough spring to allow the shift on this old Zeus.

So now I get to build another fixed rear wheel, clean up the headset, replace the lousy old brakes and pedals with some '80's campy gear. Just dusting this thing off made a difference!