This summer I decided to embark on little project. I wanted to build a fixed gear bike. I’m familiar with bikes and how they’re put together and have spent a fair bit of time upgrading and replacing parts, but I’ve never built a complete one. My original plan was to take my old Create Fixie and replace the frame and a couple of other components. This is what happened at first but it soon escalated with me buying a completely new bike and spending a small fortune. The result however makes it all worth while. I now have my very own unique machine.

Click below to see close up shots and further detail about the build..

The first thing I purchased was the frame. I spent a couple of weeks searching though many different styles and brands. I decided I wanted a modern design, light weight aluminium frame. I came across this, the Cinelli Vigorelli, a track frame from an Italian company. The tubing is triple butted meaning its thinner in the middle and thicker at the joints, so its rigid and light. When the frame arrived I couldn’t believe how light it actually was. The forks were even more surprising with them being super light carbon fibre.

Shot looking at the front forks of the bike.

Choosing the right peddles was important. I did quite a lot of searching and couldn’t make up my mind. It was on the Amsterdam trip with the 5th floor guys when I noticed a couple of them had the new BLB pedals and straps. Once I was home I had a chat with Peter, one of the guys that works there, and he sorted me out with a set. These peddles are great because they’re super deep, holding your feet in tighter, so it feels like you have more control over the bike. I went for plastic cages because the metal ones I had before were destroying my shoes and dug into my feet.

Before I was riding the gear ratio 44:17. That was getting way to easy, and made going down hill a little mental. So I upped  it to a 48:16. This means I can go faster but the down side is it produces only one skid patch on the back tyre, therefore I will need to rotate it round so I don’t wear a hole through it. I picked up this light weight, 165mm, Miche crank set for around £100.

Choosing the saddle was a bit of a mission too! There’s so much choice and I wasn’t really prepared to fork out mega bucks on it. I ended up getting this, the Charge Spoon. The reviews seemed really good and for the price (£25) I didn’t have much to loose. I actually find it rather comfy. Not as good as my MTB seat but better than the one I had before.

The Seat post is a Cinelli Vai XL that I got for £20.

Right.. this stem was a real challenge to get! I ordered it four times (from different places) online only to later receive emails saying it was out of stock. One order on eBay went through but it was lost in the post! So while I was on the Amsterdam ride I spotted it at one of the bike shops we visited. So I got it there and then. I wanted this particular stem because it was short and its named ANT! very fitting with the DigitalAnthill theme .

I was going to buy a set of Profile Design Airwing OS handle bars online then luckily I found that my mate was selling his old pair. Still in pretty good nick and only £10. They kinda remind me of ant feelers…

The brake lever is one of a pair of Tektro RX4.1 Aero leavers I got off eBay for about £15. Having it in this position is fairly odd but it means there’s more room on the handle bars. The bar tape is just black Easton Cork.

The bird is the Colu
mbus tubing logo. As for tyres, on the back I went for a harder wearing Continental Gatorskin and on the front I have a Blue Continental Ultrasport.

The wheel set was the last thing I got for the bike. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on these either, I ended up getting a very good deal. I spotted this set of Navigator Pista wheels for around £180. I liked them because of their deep V profile, light weight, black but also have a fixed, fixed flip flop hub on the rear, meaning you can have two different gear sizes on either side. I saw that on the Dolan site they were selling the set for £99, I thought it must be a mistake, so I ordered them expecting an email the next day saying there’s an error on the site, but nope they arrived the following day!

Shot of the rear drop outs.

Shot looking from the back of the bike.

I purchased this blue half link chain in Amsterdam for around £15. Although it looks nice and allows you to get the back wheel super close to the frame, in reality its not very practical. I’ve been riding with it for about a month now and its rather noisy and is heavier than a regular chain. I’m going to be looking at getting a new one soon.

For the front brake I got a Sram Apex for around £25. Very high quality and gives quick responsive braking. I was a little worried because the rims are not machined and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when braking on them. So far I haven’t noticed any difference. I haven’t been out on it in the wet however.

And finally the smiley face on the down tube. Basically this was the deciding factor for me buying this frame .

So to recap here’s a full list of components:

Frame: Cinelli Vigorelli

Wheel Set: Navigator Pista

Pedals: BLB Track Pedals, Double Strap, Double Cage

Crank Set: Miche Primato Advance Track 48T 165mm

Bottom Bracket: Miche Primato Bottom Bracket

Seat Post: Cinelli Vai XL

Seat: Charge Spoon

Stem: Cinelli Ant Stem

Rear Tyre: Continental Gatorskin

Front Tyre: Blue Continental Ultrasport

Innertubes: 48mm Presta valve

Rim Tape: 700c 14mm Wide

Bar Tape: Black Easton Cork

Brake Leaver: Tektro RX4.1 Aero

Brake Caliper: Sram Apex

So over all its been an interesting project, I’ve actually learnt quite a lot from it. I was very fortunate that all the components I bought fitted together and I didn’t have to send anything back. The bike rides beautifully, its so light and responsive. So if you have a spare grand lying about I recommend giving a custom build a shot!

Any questions feel free to right a comment, Ill try to get back to you promptly

I did some hunting and there really wasn’t much choice. They all seemed to be either really tacky looking, too big, too expensive or had poor reviews.. that was until I came to the X-mini on Amazon. At only £12 I wasn’t expecting much but then I started reading the reviews.. Currently on Amazon there is 1011 reviews nearly all 5*! I couldn’t believe it, so I thought I might as well give it a shot and see for myself.

When I got it out the packaging I was instantly surprise at how well build it is. I was expecting some cheap light weight toy but its defiantly not. It feels solid and has a nice weight about it. I was even more surprised when I plugged it in and started playing a tune. I couldn’t quite believe that something so small was producing sound as good as it was.

Below is a photo of the device closed.

Click MORE below: To see the rest of the review..

Below you can see the the built in 3.5 jack plugged into my iPhone. This also gives you a sense of scale. By twisting the top half a couple of degrees CCW it pops up increases the size of the speaker which provides better bass.

A bright blue light signals that the device is on. There is also a volume dial near the power switch.

What I like about this speaker is that it has an internal rechargeable battery that charges of a mini USB port. The speaker also comes with a mini USB splitter that allows you to charge the device and play music off a longer cord. This also allows you to plug the jack from the speaker into another X-mini meaning you can daisy chain a few of them together theoretically increasing the volume.

Over all this is one of the best value products I own. It’s not often a company actually really thinks about the functionality of a product and pulls it off. If you’re looking for a small, good quality, cheap, portable speaker then look no further. I promise you wont regret it…