I've been looking for a cheep frame to build up into fixed gear bike to get some miles on this winter. I sold my last fixed gear bike a couple of years ago, and kind of wanted to build a new one for a while now.
Anyway, I've been looking at frames on Ebay and Craigslist and such, and I guess the whole fixie fashion fad is still going strong because old steel bike frames are pretty pricey these days.
I have an old late 60's model Bottecchia frame thats been hanging in my garage for years. It was a customers from a bike shop I used to work at. He brought it in to be repaired but the bike had a pretty good front end inpact as the frame was cracked and the forks were bent in. After we informed him of the damage, he said to just throw the bike away. I thought the bike was too cool, so I saved it from the dumpster and it's been hanging around ever since. The frame is way too big for me, so I always had an idea that I could somehow cut the broken part off and reuse the main frame.
This is the frameset. Nothing too fancy. I think this frame is a mid-level quality bike at best, but it's still a cool old frame.
Front end damage. The frame is designed around 27" wheels, and I'm going to use 700c wheels, so I'll have to re-engineer the BB height a little.
New chrome moly head tube (for 1 1/8 steerer fork) and dropouts. So far this is the only stuff I've had to buy.
The frame cut down. The chain and seat stays need some more trimming to match the dropouts, and the top and down tubes need to be notched to fit the head tube.
I cut out about 35mm to shorten the frame to a 56cm seat tube length. I'll get the frame welded up in part 2.
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