Hi Galen, As Ben K suggested in an earlier post, you should be able to get an old Ozzie pathracer to fit if you select the right combination of bars, stem etc. If you want to do it right, go Major Taylor all the way. A Major Taylor sliding stem and a Major Taylor '7' seat post will give you all the adjustability you will ever need and create a perfect fit on a beautiful relaxed geometry frame. If you want to go the whole hog, hold out till a 5 Star frame comes your way - as they are lighter than anything else around, strong enough to be totally thrashed without worry of damage or breakage and have a long and brilliant racing pedigree. As a matter of coincidence, I just picked up a 5 Star frame from the post office and the unopened box is sitting here at the moment leaning beside my desk with a MT stem, some Airlite hubs and old steel handlebars. Dont get excited, these are a labour of love....the frame needs a new DT and paint (and decals), the MT stem needs replating - as do the bars, the hubs will be pulled apart and have the centres chromed and the flanges will be thrown into the bucket with my other Airlites for re-anodizing. In my experience, if you want to quickly throw a bike together out of your stash of components, do it with a 70s or 80s Italian lightweight that will go together like clockwork - but if you intend going the pathracer way, it will take more time than you could ever anticipate. Quality components are not cheap either. Greg Softley Coffs Harbour Australia
Hi Galen,
Don't know of any locally for sale offhand and I don't have much time of late to to hob-knob with those who might know of some but I will keep an eye out for you. If you find me a SA 2 speed fixed I'll find you a 5 Star frame pretty quickly ;)
I should mention that due to the shallow angles, fist of seatpost, short stem and shallow drop bars of the period most 5 Stars were produced you'll have no trouble getting comfortable on most any 22 inch variant of the marque and maybe even bigger. That's been my experience.
Listmember Greg Softley has truly excellent Malvern Star decals in most variations, so there should me many candidates for a fine ride if a repaint is something you are not averse to. Also, rumour has it that there is a little known but quite substantial Australian Bike Museum in San Antonio, Tejas.
ciao,
ben kamenjas Sydney, Australia
> hi folks,
> i know this is a long shot, but i'm looking to buy a malvern 5 star
> (or other frame, recommendations taken happily) to hang my SA
> two-speed fixed hub on.
> the problem is that the top tube needs to be not much longer than 54cm
> (21.5") and ideally would be a little shorter.
>
> any and all tips and leads appreciated
>
> galen pewtherer
> san (freezing cold - for us anyway) francisco, ca
> usa