Alt Bike Culture - Helping Handicapped Friend....Backwards Drive Train

HI All,

I have a friend who loves to ride but he was recently involved in an accident. While he can move aout reasonably well (after a long rehab peroid)....he is in such a state that he can ride a bike IF the front sprockets are on the opposite side where they are now (i.e. instead of the front chainsings being on the right side of the bike when seated they be switched to the left side when seated)...My question is twofold...on a cotterless crank system is it possible to put the front chain rings on the opposite side (by reversing the bottom bracket components) and secondly is it possible to use and internal geared hub on the opposite side by modifying it?...Also, can the
internal gear hub be welded up NOT to freewheel (my friend loves to ride fixed gear bikes) yet still shift? (has to be able to shift because since the accident he does not have near the strength he did before...needs gearing for hills)... I figured an internal geared hub setup would be easier to modify to be used on the opposite side in a fixed (non freewheeling) configuation than getting a welded up sprocket set to work with a deraileur mounted on the "wrong" side.
Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Andrew

I can't understand what kind of injury would create this kind of need, but...

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be albe to put the BB/cranks on the wrong side except that the pedals will come off. Put em on nice and tight with some thread locking compound and you should be ok there. I'm not sure about the rear hub. Fixed gear would probably be a mistake if your friend is recovering from an injury/lacks strenght.

Talk to the BMX group ,some of their hubs are made to run a chain on the off side.

I know this thread s old but someone may find use. for the info--In the early eighties there was a BMX bike with dual-sided drive(for extra stiff power transfer or something) that had to have had a left-side freewheel. Look in old BMX mags circa 1982 and you may find the make which is the start of your trail. Who knows, there may be a wharehouse full of them somewhere. A decade ago I bought 25 sturmey archer 5 sp hubs from the 1960s really cheap, and the distributor said they had hundreds of them so you never know...

This fellow managed to convert a normal freehub into a left hand drive one. Looks pretty difficult though.

http://www.recumbents.com/MARS/pages/proj/tetz/VFS/projtetzVFS02lefthanddrive.html


A left-hand drive BMX freewheel would definitely be easier, but it looks like you need a special hub too.

http://www.bikeparts.com/productinfo/ACS-SouthPaw-16t-Left-Hand-Drive-freewheel-18-60381-52095.html

If this hub is expensive, you could take a regular hub and have any machine shop turn down and thread the left side on a lathe. It would probably be surprisingly inexpensive, especially if the chap is friendly and you explain the intended use.
The other possibility is to use an intermediate hub with double track cogs(both sides) as a jackshaft, mounted on a rear rack, then have the RH drive stuff (w/gears) run from the hub on the rack to the RH side of rear wheel. THIS MAY sound like a lot of fabrication, but if you get in touch with your local tallbike/mutantbike club they will likely be happy to do it on a volunteer basis. These folks are usually pretty civic-minded in that kind of way.
I'm glad the 3X I broke my ankle it was the left one!

I think captain position tandem cranks operate the chainring on the left side.

-There is no problem with putting R crank on lft with BB spindle flipped, other than pedal may unscrew unless you use tandem crank, just use loctite instead.
-No, you cant weld up a 3-speed to make it fixed.Since you cant due to some injury have a right crank arm mounted at all, youll be limited to one fixed gear.

There are SA fixie hubs that shift and don't coast, they should work going in there on the left side (I imagine they're rare too)

The new Sturmey Archer S3X 3 speed fixed hub should run with left-side drive. Stoker's cranks from a tandem for the left-side drive up front and you're done. Pretty simple modification.

I've always thought left-handed threads for left pedals was a bit paranoid...

A pedal on backwards cranks will only unscrew if it wasn't done up tight enough, and/or the bearings have turned to gravel.