Last Updated on May 31, 2026
I am currently building a singlespeed bike based on an old Dave Lloyd frame. In part 1 of this tiny record of this singlespeed bicycle build I fitted a threaded headset. I’ve gathered together all the bits I needed and this morning I had a couple of spare hours to myself (a rare thing indeed) so I got cracking.
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| The donor bike was a singlespeed that I built using bits from bins, bits from friends and a naff modern frame I bought off ebay after consuming a bottle of wine. |
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| I had to drill out the rear stays in order to fit the modern style dual pivot brakes I’ll be fitting. Due to the way the brakes fit you only need to expand the hole to 8mm on one side of the frame, unfortunately it’s the rear side that you need to drill out. Because it’s almost impossible to drill out the rear of the stays I drilled out the front and fitted the brakes in front of the stays, which is unconventional but better than trashing an old frame by drilling at a dodgy angle. |
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| My first job was to remove the crankset from the doner bike and measure the width of the bottom bracket. I was hoping it was the same width as the one that came with the ‘new’ frame. It was. Happy days. |
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| Huzzah! Also huzzah for the five quid a spent on a set of vernier calipers on ebay, they are very useful indeed! |
I’m getting really cheesed off writing this post on a netbook screen, Blogger SUCKS on a small screen; it’s almost impossible to position images where you want them and if you edit more than a couple of times the images move back to the top of the post. Anyway, where were we… well I needed to fit a modern pair of handlebars to this old frame so I needed to use a quill to threadless handlebar adapter, but I’ll cover that challenge in a new post.
The crankset went on really nicely, I’ll check it every few days for the next few weeks to make sure it doesn’t loosen, because a loose crankset is the quickest way to destroy a crankset! The wheels needed a little cajoling to go into the frame, but not so much that I’m going to worry about bending (or cold setting) the frame to fit. The seat also went on easily, but that’s not very exciting to report is it.
The old frame stripped of anything useful to the new build.
There was no way the chain alignment was even close to being acceptable…
…but fortunately I previously converted this rear wheel using loads of freehub spacers so I can make quite precise adjustments to get a nice straight chainline.
This chainline looks pretty straight to me!
I LOVE this look! I had to use a cheap gear hanger as a chain tensioner on my old singlespeed and always hated it. No need now I have nice horizontal wheel mounts!
Fitting the modern style handlebars took a bit of brain power, but it was worth doing if only to save me remounting the brake levers and bar tape!
I would have preferred to use a quill stem that was in keeping with the age of the frame, but it wasn’t possible, that being said I don’t think the headless stem looks too out of place.
All done! The brakes were really easy to set up, although I can’t seem to be able to get them very tight.
What a lovely looking bicycle!
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