Hi, here’s a couple of our single speed bikes. I fell in love with them when I saw them in Boston (where my girlfriend was at that time) in the Nineties and started building our own. I guess we were the first in our town (Frankfurt, Germany) but who cares. I have added some info on parts used, but if you want addt’l hints on creating perfect chain lines without any extra parts (and thus not spending a lot of money) you can reach me under pj1 at gute minus stute dot com Enjoy the pix!

This is my every day every night every beer ride. The frame used to be my dad’s ride which he bought in ‘75 when he teached me biking. In an earlier version this bike got me into hospital on two occasions, one with lawsuit (0.23 percent / 2.3 permil alc. etc.). fork was replaced by a neat japanese one so I could get the Campa brake to work. Cranks etc. Campa Veloce (so little money...), the rear wheel has a ca. 1985 Shimano 600 hub - the thread for locking the 8(?)-speed cartridge  is on the OUTSIDE of the base, therefore a perfect chainline is damn easy: just use the smallest (12-14) gearwheel without the cartridge.... currently the bike is comeplety pulled apart, the frame getting sandblasted (thanks Jörg!) as I got the original decals off ebay.... wait for the NEW version.

Anja’s ‘Winter-Bianchi’. Same model as the yellow one, she found this virtually unused (no scratches - nothing!!) about three years ago  with a broken saddle on a trash heap next street as someone was moving out. Quite some original pieces remain on this gentle ride. The Schwalbe tyres are made for cross racing (28mm wide, very comfy)

This is is - the holy grail. My fixed gear and arguably the fastest bike I wil ever own. A guy sold his track bike for 500 Mark (ca. 280 US$) (including a second set of wheels) via a race bike forum on the web and I went for it as fast as I could. It’s nearly all Campa Record (with the shitty exception of the pedals, but I plan on getting rid of the Shimano crap soon, hmm the brake is Veloce and the post is Athena (sheer beauty!!)), the spokes are soldered together, the acceleration is crazy. Oh it’s a Eighties Le Tharau (spelling?) steel frame. Who needs that damn Aluminum etc. shit anyway. ‘Baschin’ was the name of a shop in the Stuttgart area, the former owner told me. Cheers to that guy!!!!

On a flea market in Höchst we rescued this Bianchi Late Seventies racebike for a meagre 120 Mark (70 US). The tires were one of th crappiest ideas ever know to man: 18mm wide which meant that Anja nearly broke her skull when she slipped two years ago. The saddle is shit but it was only 5 Mark and the bar make sit look too slow, but somehow we had to fit her onto this rather big frame. Improvements due in 2005? Quite possibly.

The last project. My man Peter found this glorious Raleigh Mid-Eighties Bike in the trash and gave it to me for free... yeah I have the right friends, it seems. It’s 531 tubing (good stuff!) and I put the fenders on cause I have a new job that implies wearing a little more formal clothing and Rain, Bikes and Khakis just don’t mix. Two brakes (cheap Campagnolo) pay tribute to my (mid-thirty-something) age.

As you would expect we have a couple of more bikes but they’re not that notworthy, Anja has an old BMX, an folding bike, and a Mountain Bike whereas I have a Cinelli Racebike with a ridicolous amount of gears.

Next project? Some bad-to-the-bone fixed gear, already present at this stage are the wheels (Record hubs) and the cranks (Dura Ace (sorry.), 15 years old I reckon). After thr rebuilding of the yellow Bianchi is done I will start looking for a frame fucked up enough.