Conversion advice please

[bobsimpson]

I own an Allsop beam equipped Time Trial machine which, in the nineties, was a fantastic machine for racing. I now race Time Trials on a fixed wheel track bike and so this bike is hanging in the shed gathering dust. I'm new to the Cruzbike world, but so far I love what I see. My question to everyone is whether this bike would be suitable for a new lease of life as a conversion. I have attached some photos and the 3 questions I have are (one) whether the height would be OK - from the top of the 'seat tube' to the ground is 59cm, and, secondly, in order to reverse the forks a likely problem is fitting the front brake to avoid fouling the downtube - can this be solved? Finally, as there is no seat tube as such, what can be done to support the seat back. I have seen bikes with 2 struts from the rear drop out/chainstays to the seatback - are they home made?

My plan, if a conversion is viable, is to put the L plates on until October when the TT season starts here in Perth and then race it if my skill level is up to it by then. What advice do people have that have raced a Cruzbike in short to medium distance TTs and I'm interested to know whether they have taken significant time off their times on a conventional machine. So many questions, so little time! Thanks for reading and if you have some advice I'm really grateful.

 

[trapdoor2]

I think the top tube is way too high. The front edge of the seat on the conversion needs to be quite close to the head-tube...like within 3 or 4 inches (unless you have quite long legs). Nice bike though.

 

[Doug Burton]

Agreed - very cool bike.

I looked very hard at these frames and there's no way I've found to make the seat work out properly.

Wonderful set of components for another frame, however...

 

[John Tolhurst]

Doug, your redbike was a sofride but a different frame style?

 

[bobsimpson]

Thanks for the feedback - I guess it's back to the drawing board. I am reasonably tall 6' 1", but I suppose the only way to really find out is to give it a try. I can appreciate the way in which the conversion works with the Y frames, but I am at a loss to figure out what frame to chase to build a converted bike suitable for Time Trials. Ironically, the Zipp wheels are 650s and super fast stiff and light and would be great on a Cruzbike, but are not suitable to fit to the 700c silvio. Maybe I sell the Cougar and put the proceeds towards a Silvio?!
Maybe Santa will have a part to play in this story...

 

[Doug Burton]

johntolhurst wrote: Doug, your redbike was a sofride but a different frame style?

Yes, John, the redbike started out as the lower frame from one of these:

And ended up like this:

I bought the frame on Ebay; apparently it had never been assembled and was discarded because the lower headtube was slightly out-of-round and really didn't want to accept the headset. It didn't include any of the seat mount parts or shock. (I've been accused of heresy for chopping up a Sofride PowerWing, but I actually gave it a new lease on life...)

This works because the frame drops straight away from the head tube.