Track Cycling: Velodrome Racing and Training Area - Unidentified components on Specialized trispoke?

Hi there, I bought cool trispoke wheelset from ebay but they seem like bit wired.

The front hub is threaded like rear, and rear has wired metal component.
I googled about this problem and I found I can use rear as front and vice versa. Am I right?

So here's what I think: The front is ACTUALLY the rear, since it is threaded.

However, even if my guessing is right, there is another problem.
If front is threaded for cog, why ex-owner didn't just use the front as a rear?

I'm totally lost. Please help me out guys.



Thank you!

Do you mean "wired" or "weird"?

It's my understanding that a Specialized rear tri spoke could be converted to front which may be what you have.

It also looks like the previous owner(s) either didn't have the right tools and scratched it to hell, or they dropped the chain and gnarled it up.

You can always ask the seller what's up.

I mean "weird", indeed.
Seller said thread on front is normal for old Specialized models, but the metal part on rear is still mysterious...

Wow, never seen anything like that before. I have a Specialized tri-spoke front with track axle and it is really clean, no pictures though but I think you could find something on the HED homepage for reference. Best of luck.

may be the hed conversion axle. http://www.hedcycling.com/accessories/hed3_rear_track_kit_thread.asp

It is definitely the HED conversion adapter. As long as the threads on the conversion piece are good, I wouldn't sweat it.

As for Specialized tri-spokes, freewheel (rather than freehub) version are all threaded. There is no distinction to be made, other than that the front wheels were typically covered with a small black piece of plastic to keep the threads from being exposed.

This damn adapter almost had killed me while I was riding on street. Guys, don't try this with your FG on street. This isn't made for backpedaling... OMG

This damn adapter almost had killed me while I was riding on street. Guys, don't try this with your FG on street. This isn't made for backpedaling... OMG

Wow. Glad you are OK. You are OK, right?

Can you give us details as to what happened?

Wow. Glad you are OK. You are OK, right?

Can you give us details as to what happened?

I am ok. Thank you for asking :)

The accident was simple. I was riding on the road with my friends and it was downhill a bit. I braked + skidded for slowing down and suddenly something felt like coming off.
I jumped off and check what the heck was happening and ta-da! The adapter was got unscrewed. Cog and lockring was there but it seems like there's no way to
fix the adapter on the threaded side of the wheel. On the track they don't pedal backwards but you know, riding track bike on the roads means something else.
I have front brake myself but sometimes I feel like I can control my bike with my legs and usually it works with reverse pedaling, however, since this problem popped up,
I can't skid, or even slow down with pedal work.

So if you want to be real hipster with trispoke I guess you'd better get newer one instead of threaded one.

may be the hed conversion axle. http://www.hedcycling.com/accessories/hed3_rear_track_kit_thread.asp

Yeah this is it. There is no way to fix this adapter on wheel. Rocktite might work.

That's good to know.

I think there are other threads here about the adapter that pretty much say that it's fine for the track and not the street. On the track you don't backpedal, and if you're backpedaling hard enough to unscrew a cog you already have bigger problems. On the street you *reallly* need a lockring. The trispoke (at least the older style) isn't made to accept a lockring to hold the adapter on (so there's no point to one to hold the cog on either), so it's really not a good idea on the street. Since this is the track forum, people probably mostly assumed you'd be using it on the track...

I think there are other threads here about the adapter that pretty much say that it's fine for the track and not the street. On the track you don't backpedal, and if you're backpedaling hard enough to unscrew a cog you already have bigger problems. On the street you *reallly* need a lockring. The trispoke (at least the older style) isn't made to accept a lockring to hold the adapter on (so there's no point to one to hold the cog on either), so it's really not a good idea on the street. Since this is the track forum, people probably mostly assumed you'd be using it on the track...

Yeah you're totally right. I was stupid...