Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Anyone tried spacing out a track cog on a Surly hub?

I am getting the urge to tweak my chainline ever so slightly. I want to shift my cog about 1.5 mm to the driveside, but evenly on both sides so that my flip flop still works. Has anyone tried putting a 1-2mm spacer between a surly hub and a track cog, then tightening the cog and lr as usual? Are there enough cog/ lr threads to make this work?

I havent done it on a Surly, but in my experience, when tightened, the lockring is flush with the threads. My thought would be that if you spaced it out 1.5mm your lockring would be hanging off ~1.5mm.

Just my thoughts.

Have you thought of a slightly shorter BB?

A 3mm shorter bb that is.

A 3mm shorter bb that is.

assuming symmetry.

This will be much easier and not risk damaging your hub.

Remove the spacer from between the bearing cone nut and locknut of your axle, then tighten the locknut flush against the cone nut. If your axle was previously spaced to 120mm, it will now be spaced to 110. Then go to a bike shop or hardware store and buy 10mm worth of some relatively thin washers that will fit around your axle and have a diameter that is at least as great as the diameter or your locknuts. Add the washers to the axle on the outside of the locknut, arranging them to give you the straighest chainline possible (i.e. you will need to have an unequal number of washers on each side...this will shift you hub and cog in whichever direction you want it to move). If you only want to shift your cog by a mm or two, its not really necessary to redish the wheel. If you flip the hub, just swap the left and right washers to achieve the correct chainline.

No, not enough threads. Change your BB.

Ohh kaayyy, changing the bb it is then. The difficulty is, my shell is italian threaded and the current 107mm bb is the smallest un bb you can get in that spec. This could be a job for phil wood, or since I am a cheap ******* i could just keep living with a slightly out chainline. Thanks for your help guys!

Ohh kaayyy, changing the bb it is then. The difficulty is, my shell is italian threaded and the current 107mm bb is the smallest un bb you can get in that spec. This could be a job for phil wood, or since I am a cheap ******* i could just keep living with a slightly out chainline. Thanks for your help guys!

Like I said above...all you need is some washers.:)

Like I said above...all you need is some washers.:)

Right, the problem is i would like to keep my flipflop hub working. Thanks anyways though.

Right, the problem is i would like to keep my flipflop hub working. Thanks anyways though.

Read my post again...you can keep your flip flop hub working. I do the same thing with my flip flop hub all the time. KEEP THE WASHERS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE LOCKNUT AND SWAP THE RIGHT AND LEFT WASHERS WHEN YOU FLIP THE WHEEL AROUND. It takes 5 seconds...seriously.

i could just keep living with a slightly out chainline

There's nothing wrong with that either. I've got a couple of rides with chainlines off by 2-3mm.....no problemo. :D

Read my post again...you can keep your flip flop hub working. I do the same thing with my flip flop hub all the time. KEEP THE WASHERS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE LOCKNUT AND SWAP THE RIGHT AND LEFT WASHERS WHEN YOU FLIP THE WHEEL AROUND. It takes 5 seconds...seriously.


Ohhhhhhhhh! Thanks mihibach, that does sound like the simplest solution!

sorry for being dense!

Ohhhhhhhhh! Thanks mihibach, that does sound like the simplest solution!


I did a similar manuver on a beater bike, i couldn't get the front wheel and brake to line up properly and needed to get out the door. So i just grabbed a few washers, put them on one side and went out the door. It was a handy temp fix to stop the right brake pad from rubbing the rim and allow proper braking.

Speaking of washers, they can be a life saver. When my rear axle lock nut cracked in half during the middle of a long ride, I was left with a 5mm space on one side. Luckily during a quick rummaging on the side of a busy highway I found 2 thick washers and used them to fill the space and finished the ride with no further problems. I continued to ride with those washers in place for a few weeks til I found the large diameter lock nuts I needed.

Washers plan is kind of jingus, I like the stuff touching my dropouts to be serrated or at least not galvanized hardware store mystery metal.

With an italian BB you can pull cool trick and just install it backwards, the threads are the same both ways. Then you can put a spacer on the L side of the BB and it moves the chainline inboard by that amount. The only issue is that there are no italian sized spacers out there, so you have to cut a regular one so it will open up a little. This all works fine, I've done it before, and it also eliminates the issue of italian thread BB's unscrewing themselves on the R side.

Washers plan is kind of jingus, I like the stuff touching my dropouts to be serrated or at least not galvanized hardware store mystery metal.

With an italian BB you can pull cool trick and just install it backwards, the threads are the same both ways. Then you can put a spacer on the L side of the BB and it moves the chainline inboard by that amount. The only issue is that there are no italian sized spacers out there, so you have to cut a regular one so it will open up a little. This all works fine, I've done it before, and it also eliminates the issue of italian thread BB's unscrewing themselves on the R side.

Wowzers, that sounds neat. So you just completely snip the spacer and open it up a little?