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Usually when you think of doing a fixed gear conversion, it usually means taking a geared bike and turning it fixed. I decided to tinker with my fixie a few weeks ago to try to make it more utilitarian. I took my pretty Surly Steamroller (Fixedgeargallery #5042) and built a 3-speed wheel for it.

Track spacing and 3spd hub spacing are exactly the same at 120mm, so it made a logical choice. I looked at a few Sturmey Archers that had more gears (5spd, I believe) that had 120 spacing but the reviews were really mixed about the reliability above 3 speeds.

I swapped the bars from drops to Nitto All-rounders. These bars are nice, but unlike the Albatross bars, they do not take bar-end shifters. These bars also have a pretty steep rise/drop (depending on how you orient the bars) compared to the A-bars.

One thing I’ve discovered with this bike and my Xtracycle, is when I switched from drops to swept back bars, I always needed a longer stem with a lot of rise. In the case of the Steamroller, I had to hunt for a 130mm stem with some good rise to make it work. I like my bars at semi-performance position, so not exactly bolt up-right. In fact, for my current Trek project I’m working on, I ordered a 135mm adjustable stem, anticipating the need for a longer stem.

Overall, this bike is super fun to ride. It turns heads because people don’t know quite what to make of it. Is it fixed or isn’t it? The CETMA rack on the front makes it very useful. This has become my short distance delivery and grocery bike. Another fun detail to note is my semi-permanent top-tube protector :) I was considering wrapping up the whole bike in twine and adding shellac, but the top tube took forever so I left it at that :)

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