This is my third bike build, a vintage “townie” style bike built on a 1970’s-era Schwinn frame.  The frame came with leather-wrapped handlebars, which inspired me to build it out as a classy around-the-town bike.  I replaced the heavy steel 26″ Araya wheels with lightweight 700c deep-v track wheels, and put Nashbar’s “Duro” tires on them.  The dark brown sidewalls match the leather nicely.

The seat is a riveted leather Brooks copy, taken from from a Masi Soulville bike.  I installed a 68x107mm Miche bottom bracket, red KMC single-speed chain, and built the single-speed crankset from a new 170mm Campagnolo Mirage set.   It has a 42-tooth chain ring up front and a 16 tooth freewheel in back, with a flipflop hub & fixed gear cog & lock ring.  Pedals are MKS Syvlan touring, brakes are new Tekro side-pull calipers, and I added a set of Planet Bike “Hardcore Road” fenders for all-weather riding.

Full story and more pics after the jump…

I built this entire bike in my tiny apartment, with help from my buddy Jason.  The only tricky part of the build was replacing the brakes.  Due to the change in wheel size, the replacements I had on hand didn’t fit.  So we went over to Bike Works NYC and picked up longer Tektro levers.  Then we had to do some custom drilling in the fork to accommodate the the bolt.  Drilling was minimal but since I was extra careful with the frame, it took almost an hour.

Overall I’m really happy with this bike.  It rides quick and smoothly, and despite the vintage lugged steel frame, isn’t too heavy to take up a couple flights of stairs.  The frame has a lot of scratches and nicks, but the paint is still so glossy and nice that I didn’t want to mess with it.  I prefer to think of the scratches as extra character.  All together, this built cost me about $450 in parts.  Here’s some more pics: