# Convert a Huffy 10 Speed?



## Nurse_Flash

I pulled an old Huffy 10 speed out of the shed. It's in great condition...don't know how old it is by my guess is early 80's. I peeled all the stickers off and it looks like every other vintage steel road frame. It has horizontal drop outs.

What's your thoughts on converting an old Huffy?


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## David Loving

Go Ahead - but I'd put the Huffy decals back on, myself.


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## Dave Hickey

go for it...it's a great conversion frame


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## Nurse_Flash

David Loving said:


> Go Ahead - but I'd put the Huffy decals back on, myself.


The decals were chewed up and looked like poopee.

I priced parts on Jenson and came up with about $300 for everything I would need including new wheels...the wheels on the Huffy have seen better days.

Another thought...I was looking on Bikes Direct and see $300 - $350 single speed bike assembled, and new. What's your thoughts on something like a Dawes SST or Mercier?

I'm looking at the dollar amount and effort...


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## tihsepa

Building your own is alot of fun buttttttttttttttttttt, you sound a little hesitant. 

If you build your Huffy for about 300.00 or buy one from BD its a toss up. 

I have a older SE Lager which is the same bike as the Dawes. I like it and it has two years of commuting on it. The only thing not original and changed due to being worn out are the tires and headset. Its a good bike. My wife just bought a Motobecane Messenger from BD and I am impressed with what she got for the $$$. Keep in mind the bike she got from BD needed some assembly and work before it was ride ready. I disassembled and relubed everything. Good call in my opinion. The wheels needed truing and a few other tweaks. 

If you build your first one you will like it alot more and will probably learn alot doing it.


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## David Loving

You can always buy something from BD - not a thing wrong with that. Building up your own is really fun though, and you get exactly the parts you want. You see posts all the time where someone buys a new bike and spends $3-400 on it.


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## velodog

The Huffy probably has 27" wheels. That may be an issue with brake reach when putting new 700's on it.


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## Nurse_Flash

velodog said:


> The Huffy probably has 27" wheels. That may be an issue with brake reach when putting new 700's on it.


Tire reads 26 x 1 3/8 on the Huffy.

I measured a 25 inch diameter rim with 26 inch diameter tire.

It looks like the rear tire is pretty close to the brake bridge.

Can I convert the OE wheel to single speed. The kits I found say they are compatable with shimano 8 - 9 speed...obviously the rear cog has only 5 gears

If I could get away with converting the OE wheel then all I would need is a crankset...and wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. 

My next question is...Does anyone know if the bottom bracket will accept a standard bottom bracket?


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## tihsepa

The Huffy probably has a one piece crank and dosent really have a bottom bracket. As far as the rear wheel goes I dont know but would guess that is has a screw on cassette like a freewheel and if you installed a cog would have to redish the wheel to get the chainline correct. Look for a wheel set.


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## David Loving

Why don't you just use the crankset you have on the Huffy? I do that with my cannondale conversion. I use the crankset, put spacers on the rear freewheel with one cog lined up for the chainline, leave the brakes as is, and presto - a dedicated singlespeed. You can disassemble the crank/bottombracket assembly and if it is a one piece, ashtabula, whatever, replace the bearings if necessary and lube it. You would not even need a bottombracket in that case. If you ever need 27" wheels, they are everywhere on eBay (labeled 'rare').


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## tihsepa

David Loving said:


> If you ever need 27" wheels, they are everywhere on eBay (labeled 'rare').



I love that "rare". Everything on ebay is rare. Just ask the guy selling it.


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## FatTireFred

I would not spend that much on it (the huffy), no way


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## Nurse_Flash

FatTireFred said:


> I would not spend that much on it (the huffy), no way



That's what I'm thinking. I started this thread with the idea of commuting to school. I was 90% on a Surly Steamroller and then someone posted "not to commute to school"... I thought about it...not a good idea parking a $720 bicycle behind the library on a rickety old bike rack.

I have three other bikes so I don't "need" this...but I want it! 

I'm diggin' the bikes direct single speeds...windsor clockwork or mercier time trial. Inexpensive and yet a very nice bike.

I also really liked the Schwinn Madison...A LOT...at least for cosmetic reasons.

This purchase will happen this week so I need to find something.

If I end up liking the fixie scene...which is what I think will most likely happen...I will then purchase the ulitmate, off the hook, wife thinks I'm crazy fixie.

You guys are great for intel...keep it coming.


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## Nuck_Chorris

it would be pretty cool for people to tell you , " Is that a huffy, thats a Nice bike son!"


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## thechriswebb

Nurse_Flash said:


> Tire reads 26 x 1 3/8 on the Huffy.
> 
> I measured a 25 inch diameter rim with 26 inch diameter tire.
> 
> It looks like the rear tire is pretty close to the brake bridge.
> 
> Can I convert the OE wheel to single speed. The kits I found say they are compatable with shimano 8 - 9 speed...obviously the rear cog has only 5 gears
> 
> If I could get away with converting the OE wheel then all I would need is a crankset...and wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.
> 
> My next question is...Does anyone know if the bottom bracket will accept a standard bottom bracket?



I saw a conversion kit on Sheldon Brown's Harris Cyclery website. There is also some fantastic information there about one piece cranks. http://sheldonbrown.com/opc.html 
One option that you have is to purchase a new one piece crank; the parts aren't very expensive. The other option is to purchase the conversion kit. After you remove the one piece crank you can press in a pair of conversion cups that contain the appropriate threads for a modern bottom bracket. That would make it compatible with most modern cranks. This link from Sheldon Brown shows both. http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/opc.html#opc


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## thechriswebb

Nurse_Flash said:


> That's what I'm thinking. I started this thread with the idea of commuting to school. I was 90% on a Surly Steamroller and then someone posted "not to commute to school"... I thought about it...not a good idea parking a $720 bicycle behind the library on a rickety old bike rack.
> 
> I have three other bikes so I don't "need" this...but I want it!
> 
> .


By the way I totally support the idea of fixing up a cheap bike like that for light, simple commuting duty. A lot of people will absolutely go ballistic when you start talking about upgrading a lower-end bike like that, like it is a sacrilege. I don't see how you are wasting your money on the components, because one of two things will happen; 1. everything will work fine, the parts will function like they are supposed to on your frame, and you will continue to commute with a perfectly functional bike. 2. you ride your bike for a week and it falls apart and becomes true junk. Now if the 1st option happens, whats the problem? You have a bike that meets your needs. If the 2nd happens (which I kind of doubt) then you still have a set of components that you can hang on the new frame that you will have to buy. You aren't really going to be putting any money into the old frame itself, so you wouldn't really be losing anything by purchasing some components to get it on the road (unless they believe that you would have to throw them away as well when it breaks because they have been corrupted and rendered useless by making physical contact with a low-end frame). The people that would make that argument with you have probably never lost a bike that way. I have.... when I was in college somebody cut my $800 GT off of the school bike rack and I never saw it again (it was my only form of transportation then too)..... Never again. I own four bikes now;Cannondale road bike, Giant mountain bike, vintage steel Schwinn single speed, and an indistinguishable 1970's beater road bike with a one piece crank and stem shifters that gets plenty of use.


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## ashketchum

man, do not spend upwards of like $50 on that. If you're just planning to ride around for fun or to commute, go ahead. but if you plan to get into the whole track biking scene, just save yourself the time, effort and money and invest in a good track frame. It's probably a jump you'll be making sooner or later.


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## cmc4130

i'm fixing up this Huffy for my girlfriend..... just took the derailleur, shifters and cables off, took a link out of the chain and put the chain on a middle cog for better chainline, and put a couple of washers on the axle inside the dropouts to fill up some wiggle room. seems about as simple as "conversion" as you can do....

i tried to post a pic, but i don't have 10 posts yet on the forum. (although i have a lot on mtbr).


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## Local Hero

I'd keep the huffy as is. 

My beach cruiser is a NEXT from Walmart. Someone left it behind the LBS and they gave it to me, for free. I've peeled off a few labels but aside from that it's bone stock. It's perfect for rolling around town. At this point it's almost unique to ride a department store bike in good condition as there are already 100 million modded out SS bikes out there.


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## UrbanPrimitive

Attack of the ancient post?


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## 2wheelnuts

*Huffy 10 speed converted!*

Probably no one is still following this thread but interestingly I came upon it just after converting a $15 Huffy Strider 10 speed to a fixie - my first experience with such a beast. 

At first glance the Huffy looked pretty much like any other old 10 speed drop handlebarred road bike - but it is not! It is a definitely American creation not European or European inspired as most old road bikes I've come across are. 

Wheels are 26 inch not 27. The crank is 1 piece rather than 3. Forget flanges or butted exotic tubing, the Huffy is made from small diameter heavy guage regular pipes welded together. This means that all the sizes of things like seat posts or handlebar stems are different from other old stuff I had lying around. Either go with what's there or be prepared to modify. And everything is steel therefore really heavy! Even the kickstand is permanently welded to the frame. 

But there are plusses. There are no brazed on bits for cable routers and stops, bicycle pumps etc. so everything came off the bike with minimal fuss. The French made Huret-Sachs front and rear derailleur assemblies were removed still connected to the shifter mechanism. Similarly the front and rear brakes came off cabling intact, attached to handlebars and stem. If I ever want to go back to 10 speeds the effort required will be minimal. 

To get the weight down I replaced the stem and handlebars with aluminum ones. This required 10 minutes with a belt sander to reduce the diameter of the old SR stem I used. The original 52/40 crank chainring was replaced with a 48 tooth one from an old one piece mountain bike crank. The bike was given a single, front brake comprising aluminum caliper and brake lever assembly. The wheels themselves were replaced with a Vuelta 700 flip flop fixie wheelset with a 16 tooth rear cog. A new light saddle went on the original small diameter seat post to replace the minimally adjustable heavy old one.

The result? The bike looks clean and trim with its small tubes and absence of brazed on bits. The balance is great now that so much weight has been shed. The one piece crank has been the only disadvantage as the centre hole in the crank gear is clearly slightly off centre making the chain impossible to adjust optimally. Also because the gear is not rigidly bolted to the RH arm but secured from rotating by a large pin/casting on the crank, there is a noticeable take up when easing off the pedals. This has actually worked out OK because that momentary little pause and clunk remind me that I need to keep pedalling! 

So what is the bottom line? For about $150 all in - mostly the wheelset - I have built up my first fixie. I like it!


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