Sasha Strickland loves a challenge. The proprietor of Melbourne’s Pony Bikes has an uncanny knack for transforming some of the city’s most horrible bikes into things of beauty. Her latest project consisted of converting a Peugeot road frame to a three-speed fixed gear.

Working with a re-chromed frame and fork as a base, Sasha assembled a complete bike that included a wheel set that incorporated one of Sturmey-Archer’s fixed internal three speed rear hubs. Transmission is activated by a bar-end shifter installed in a pair of Nitto drop bars. The steerer tube required reaming out from 21.1mm to 22.2 to accept the modern Nitto stem, a quirk that anyone who has attempted to update a Peugeot from this era while be familiar with. If you’ve ever encountered a French bottom bracket in your restoration process, you’ll also know how much fun it can be to source a replacement mechanism. Fortunately, Velo Orange supply modern bottom brackets in the now obsolete thread pitch, which Sasha recruited.

Pony Bikes operates in West Melbourne, at 87 Capel Street, from Tuesday to Saturday. The website has just been updated, where you can view more of Sasha’s builds.











