Chloe finally got to get her hands dirty as we stripped off the old running gear from the Fisher mountain bike for our singlespeed build project.  She’s biting at the bit to get her hands on the grinder and knock off the cantilever brake mount points.  I may just have to claim jurisdiction over that operation.

A couple of folks have already asked how I plan on mounting the brakes – especially the rear one.  In truth those details haven’t been totally worked out.  It may require a little custom-bracket making.  I’m giving serious consideration to actually moving the rear brake down to the chain stays instead of the seat stays.  We’ll see…

Just picked up this “gem” at a garage sale for $15:

I think we’re going to try and make this into a single speed (non-fixed gear) for my daughter.  She is itching to become “all mechanical” and really get her hands dirty working on a bike.  This particular frame seems like a good candidate because:

1) It is just slightly too big for her.  Perfect when you consider that she is growing like a weed, and I’d like the bike to fit her when the project is completed (not just when the project is started)

2) The frame has eyelets on the drop outs and seat stays – just in case she wants to mount anything on it I’d like to have the flexibility

3) Nice rugged steel frame

While some might find the couple of other items more of a detriment than a benefit, I like the fact that this frame as vertical dropouts, and cantilever brakes.  However, the mounts for the cantilevers are simple welded on mount points.  Therefore, considering the desire my daughter has to learn the actual hands-on mechanics, I see two opportunities.  One, we’ll have to work together through the gear selection / chain link removal to get the right combination of gear sizes and chain tension.  And two, we can grind off those cantilever mount points and switch to side-pull calipers (for mostly aesthetic reasons.)

So – my daughter’s first lesson?  Stripping down the frame, grinding off the “unnecessary” metal, sanding and painting!