just converted an old 531 raleigh on the cheap. the frame cost £21 - bad ebay listing, collect only. paint looked shit in photos, but is lovely metallic glittery respray. wheels are old, had them lying around. bars and stem i already had, but were about £20. rest of the parts are dirt cheap. can't have cost more than £100.

was going to use the biopace chainset, but didn't realise that was a mega bad idea. kept cranks, swapped outrings for a 39t, 14t on the back - quite a big gear.

i guess it's the polo bike i never built, now it's my beater/pub bike. it's amazing how cheap you can do it, and there are bargains on the bay, still.

let's have a beater/polo thread.

thats a nice pub bike been trying to do the same but keep getting bumped on ebay or the frames are too small. cool. nice budget build.

Slack chain!

Yeah, conversions rule! Let's start a campaign to keep track frames on the track!

did you buy a new hub or was that on your wheels you had lying around.
if so how much? - im in the market for a cheap track hub as we speak

yeah! lock up the track frames!

chain is a tiny bit slack. in order to replace the bob jackson i needed two bikes. the holdsworth, which can only be ridden and never left, and the raleigh, which can be left anywhere. apparently, i heard tell that the 'scrotes who be doin' the robbin' round here baint be loikin' drop bars'.

those wheels were built up, an old pair.

cheap track hub - SJS. do you want a front or back? i got a front you can have cheap as shit.

sorry i need a rear hub, i think im gonna go for this cheap as chips one -
http://www.cyclebasket.com/products.php?show=1331

so you would accept shit as payment?

not your shit. emilie's maybe. and only NOS shit.

Do you twist your knees inwards and tuck your toes in the holes on the end of the cranks to save cash on pedals?

should re-label the thread "down but not out".. i'll get some photos of the "Claud Butcher" and stick them up tmrw. its rough as west country women and twice as cheap.

you have to put your big toe in the pedal threading hole. that's how you skid as well.

totallly love the ghetto charm of nasty conversion.

purdy. Once I've sold my alf webb I need to build a new beater bike. But I want a beater I can take on the track, now I know I'm staying close to herne hill for another year!

er...keep the alfie! get it on't track lad

Is it permissible to ride a track frame to and from the track under the new regime? ;-)

P.S. Nice looking beater PJ. Isn't that about the 475th bike you've built this year though?

I'm going to have to bypass Bill here and say yes!

my bike was bought specifically for the track, shame it keeps fucking raining so I have to ride it on the stinking road.

It's about time London got itself an indoor velodrome so our track racing exploits aren't fecked about by rain.

olympic velodrome? even I would ride to stratford to race on that!

Let's just squat an appropriately sized warehouse and build one from dismantled pallets.