Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Hacking a fixed wheel: cheapest way to make one (a list)

I'm poor and I can't seem to scare up a fixed gear for less than what the local shop charges to build one ($70)

So, here are the cheapest alternatives on Hacking your fixed-gear wheel:
* Cheapest hack: Put JB-Weld or other substance inside your freewheel (http://scoplaw.blogs.com/scoplaw/2004/04/how_to_make_a_f.html) to "lock it up".

* If you have a disc-brake rear hub, you can drill your cog and screw the cog into the disc-brake mount (http://www.63xc.com/jasom/milldisc.htm)

* Lock up a cassette's freewheel by inserting small allen-wrenches in the mechanism. (http://www.63xc.com/mathieson/cheaphub.htm)

* Use a normal (non-track) lockring: Remove a cassette, add spacers for chainline and use loctite to hold the track cog and lockring on. (Red is "permanent", blue is temporary) This is a "suicide hub"- use brakes, as this hub can unthread itself backward. To keep the track cog on, you'll need to thread the cog firmly unto the rear hub. The italian Changang Rotafixa s.p.a. crew has a tip where you tighten the cog with your chain and wheel (http://204.73.203.34/fisso/eng/schpignone.htm).

* Flip the pawls: enduro on Bikeforums posted this (http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-84198): If you have a cassette hub, I have experience with the ghetto engineering required to lock it up. Simply open it up, and flip one of the pawls. Reassemble everything and enjoy your ghetto fixie. That's what I did to my beater around-campus bike when I got bored. You probably should run brakes with this. Mine seems to be going strong but who knows."

* The cheapest built wheel would involve a Suzue Junior hub laced to the cheapest rim you could find and the cheapest labor you could find.

Does anyone have any corrections/modifications?

you can also weld or braze the bearings shut on the cassette carrier if you remove it. i plan on doing this to my rear trials wheel.

you can also weld or braze the bearings shut on the cassette carrier if you remove it. i plan on doing this to my rear trials wheel.

wait.... aren't you the guy that's constantly giving people sh1t about their bumbikes and how deadly they are? oh how the mighty have fallen. :D

you can also weld or braze the bearings shut on the cassette carrier if you remove it. i plan on doing this to my rear trials wheel.
Do you have a photo of this? How would welding the bearings shut on the carrier differ from putting JB weld/welding the bearings?

you could also take a rear road wheel, with all the gears, pick a suitable gear that you want to ride, and run the chain around that one like a ghetto SS. then ziptie the biggest cog to the spokes, all the way around the wheel, so the cogset can't move independently of the wheel. i did this at first to see how i liked riding fixed, and also due to my miniscule messenger budget. it definitely worked, even though its probably the most ghetto way to do it

wait.... aren't you the guy that's constantly giving people sh1t about their bumbikes and how deadly they are? oh how the mighty have fallen. :D
yeah i am. :bday: :crash: :fight: my trials bike will soon be running a front freewheel crankset with fixed rear wheel... it'll still be a freewheeling setup. either way, i just hate the bottom bracket lockring/loctite solution. the disc hub with a bolt on cog and a welded cassette carrier are way more reliable in my opinion. i think i was also the one to coin the phrase bum bike. hahaha don't worry, i'm still an eliteist jerkface snob. ;)

charlesw, i don't have a picture of it, but have found references to it on the internet. a friend did it to a wheel as well... he just tig'ed four spots on the seam where the bearings are on the back of the carrier. there was a thread about it in here awhile back and i had found a fair description of it on a site and posted it in that thread. i'm too lazy to dig it up though... i am waiting on this little stupid but neccessary part for my ffw cranks... once i get it, i'll take pictures of the process. i don't know when i'm going to get that part though. it's sort of on back order.

i took a old 27 inch wheel threaded on a track cog,using loctite then took a hammer screw driiver an destroyed all the threads. im mean its not like it was wheel that was great,ive been brakeless for two monthes now and it hasent unscrewed yet ,and i dont think it ever will

sheldon brown speculated about pouring molten brass into a freehub.

or, howabout soldering on a bottom bracket lockring on top of a cog?

that ziptie to the spokes setup frightens me.

Just buy it...

You can do this, or you can do that, or you can just ride your freewheel (oh the horror) until you save up for a fixed gear wheel.

Buy a Nashbar hub for $30 and find a wheel with the same spoke lengths and rim with the same drilling at a swap meet and build your own.

Cabana4life: pics pics!! Show us your kludgy hack!
Commuteordie and Operator: Saving up for a Hub/Spokes/Rim ($30/13/10+$50 labor) fixed gear wheel takes a while.
Filtersweep: Have you built a wheel? I've trued wheels using the brake pads as a reference but I'd assume building a wheel would require a building machine.

i built a wheelset using the fork clearance and some pencils ribber banded in place to true the front wheel and the chainstays and some pencils to true the back one. worked great. ohh and to check tension find a wheel thats in good condition and pluck the spoke. whataver sound comes out, thats what your spokes should sound like. and if you have a coop it should be easy to find a wheel with roughly the same flange diameter as your hub. if the spokes you find are to long you can always file them shorter (can only correct for at most a cm)

ohh and sheldon has a great step by step manual for building wheels. if you get a hub get a 36 spoke as those are the most common to find a bike coops and thrift stores

Methinks the easiest/cheapest/safest? fixed gear wheel hack is the locktite/JB weld the rear cog on method, in conjuction with loctiting/JB welding a BB lockring on there.

My method, which has been flawless for 1 month+ of daily riding, on my primary bike with lots of skids/skips/back pressure is to put blue loctite all over the threads of the hub and cog, and then tightening that sucka down TIGHT with the "italian method", and then loctiting a bb lockring over this whole mess, and using a cold chisel and hammer to really get the bb lockring tight. That sucka ain't going nowhere
I'm 140 pounds, though. I chose to use blue loctite rather than erd loctite because permanently loctiting a cog to my wheel, ala red loctite kinda scares me.

The cost is like $15-20 for a basic cog, $5 or something for the loctite, and like $1 for used BB lockring @ your LBS. If you already have a wheel with a freewheel hub and useable tire off an old 10 speed or something, the cost is like $25 for the materials, and an hour or so of your time.....

I was able to get a decent chainline by moving the ring to the inner position of the crank spider, and not redishing the rear wheel or messing with the bb spindle length at all.

Cabana4life: pics pics!! Show us your kludgy hack!
Commuteordie and Operator: Saving up for a Hub/Spokes/Rim ($30/13/10+$50 labor) fixed gear wheel takes a while.
Filtersweep: Have you built a wheel? I've trued wheels using the brake pads as a reference but I'd assume building a wheel would require a building machine.

ok tuo asked for it ill post won later today or tomarrow stay tuned

you can also weld or braze the bearings shut on the cassette carrier if you remove it. i plan on doing this to my rear trials wheel.I had that done to my freewheel for my first fixie.My uncle did it for me.