Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - First fixed/single speed bike

I'm thinking of making a fixed/single speed out of an old Schwinn Prelude I have. It has some cheap Maillard hubs that I could screw a BMX freewheel on. Is it a bid deal to redish the wheel? For some sadistic reason it looks like it would be a lot of fun. Definitely cheaper than putting together an all Chorus bike.


Tim

No big deal to redish. It took me a couple of hours of fiddling but it was my first time doing anything more than trying to straighten a tweaked wheel. Get the spacers on the axle correct for your chain line first. Then recenter the wheel by loosening the drive side spokes and tightening the non-drive side. Then fine tune the truing using a rear brake as a guide or some other mechanism to give you an idea where the rim is off. I imagine someone who knows what they are doing could do the process in 15-20 min.

I just did this to an old cierra frame....i definitely recommend doing it...it definitely isn't that hard to redish the rear wheel took less than 2 hours(never really done much with wheels...little truing here and there) from start to riding.....I say go for it...oh yeah and it dpends on how much you have have to redish the wheel but you might have to file down some spoke ends so that they don't puncture the tube...good luck

Just take the tips from Sheldon (sheldonbrown.com), go slow. Half a turn at a time, Loosen one, tighten it's neighbor. Around and around the wheel we go. Start and stop at the valve stem. Good luck, and post some pics when you're done.