Raleigh Europa Fixed Gear

It has been a long held desire of mine to build and ride a fixed gear bike. This dream was realised upon my move to Perth, WA. This flat city with an abundance of cycle paths and great weather is perfect for hacking about fixed. The mighty Balcatta tip also provided a great donor frame.

The Raleigh Europa before I started cutting bits off

The left over junk

AUS$10 (about 4 quid) secured me the bike; a Raleigh Europa made under licence in Australia of dubious quality steel. Most of the gears and brakes seemed to be in reasonable working order. The wheels were another matter. The tyres and inner tubes were both perished and the rims appeared to be made of a kind of shiny lead, if their weight was anythig to go by. John kindly donated some better wheels. Well I found them in his garage.

It was then a matter of chopping bits off. Obviously the gear shifters, cables and mechs went. As did the back brake and half he handle bars for that courier look. I had to keep the smaller chainring as the chainline from the big ring to the dished hub would've been impossible. There is also a shortage of large track cogs in Australia. This meant cutting the big ring off with an angle grinder and bolting the smaller ring to the stubs. Far from elegant but effective.

All that remained was the purchase of an On-one 14T track cog for a 76.1" gear and a BMX chain to hold it all together.

I am very pleased with the finished result, especially the handle bars. They are more comfortable than being on the hoods and hacking about town I have little use for the drops.