Having had my Trek 1.7 stolen, I was keen to get a bike that was a lot less nickable, ie something old but I wanted something with a character and liking the looks of singlespeeds, I decided to have a winter project.

I purchased the bike, a KTM Strada 24 speed, circa 20-30 years old and replaced the saddle, tyres and brakes, the rubber on these were all perished and in the interest of safety and comfort bought new stuff, I also bought new combi pedals for MTB shoes. After riding the bike for sometime it seemed the best gear ratio for me was 42:17, it's pretty flat here in Vienna, Austria and any hills there are in the city are short, plus I would not trust this in the proper hills anyway, so a commuter / city cruiser is what this bike is. The spacer kit and sprocket are Surley and the rest of the kit was cleaned up.

I wanted to trick-out the bike a bit more, but costs and potential theft, would make it a waste of time, plus it is a little large for me circa 56cm frame, so I will eventually pass this on to a mate, when a new single speed project appears.

Good work on the gallery it's given me plenty of ideas hopefully I will be sending another in soon

Tom Goodall

Vienna Austria

tommygoodall@googlemail.com