Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Best 27" SS setup?

Looked on ebay, nothing there. LBS wants $35 to respace and redish my rear wheel/hub and another $15 to repack the bearings. Plus $15 or so for a BMX freewheel... so there I am $65 into a basically free wheel (no pun intended). Would I be better off buying a wheel already made for SS in this case?

I *had* been planning on re-using the freewheel that was on there and just putting spacers on it for the cog I wanted to use. Its shot though, no use even trying. I was considering having one built with a SS coaster brake hub.... don't know the cost though. Probably more $$ than its worth? I dunno.

Suggestions? Ideas? Experience?

Well, Surly hubs are very cheap, so unless you want to spend heaps of time screwing around, it's hard to recommend throwing money at a half fix.

"Back in the day', I spent about 2 weeks on a beater SS before I realised this singlespeed thing is pretty cool and I wanted a full time SSer. Wish I hadn't thrown the money at a POS just to try it out in a lot of ways.

how is it 'shot'? Just the bearings? If so itll cost 3 bucks to replace. Repack yourself. Does the wheel ~need~ redishing? Most probably not, especially if youre using a freewheel (freewheel can sit farther off center because you dont need room for lockring).

now if its bad threads or a bad channel...

No! No! No! The wheel doesn't need redishing and probably not respacing. I routinely switch back and forth from a 5sp to a single freewheel. With the chainring on the inner position of a dual crank the chainline is practically perfect. Although a perfectly straight chainline is optimal it is not absolutely necessary. Even a fixed gear will tolerate a not quite perfect chainline.

Dishing only gets the rim centered between the dropouts and is generally not needed unless you respace the hub on the axle.

If the bearings need to be repacked, which they do about once a year, just repack the hub bearings, replacing the bearings themselves since they are cheap, and spin on a single freewheel. I often wonder what people mean by a hub being "shot". Unless you run it dry for so long the cups get screwed up or physically bang it up, there is not a lot that can go wrong with a hub.

I intended to add that repacking hub bearings is a great first kind of "serious" project for the aspiring bike mechanic. Once you have done hub bearings you are ready to tackle traditional threaded headsets and cup and cone bottom brackets. The principles are the same. Perfect your technique at proper lockup of the locknut (hubs, headset) or lockring (bottom bracket) against the adjusting nut. It is not just a matter of tightening the adjusting nut then the locknut independently. You have to hold the adjusting nut still as you tighten the locknut against it. Get a good book on bike mechanics.

At least check your chainline. I recently built up an old Fuji s10s as a single speed cruise for a friend moving to Boston. Thought I might have to redish the wheel, but the chainline was perfect right off. Very cool bike; I found some pink cranks to stick on the purple frame.

Frankly, at the rates your LBS charges, I'd buy some cheap cone wrenches, grease, and bearings and repack the bearings myself (This assumes they are loose ball, cup and cone style bearings). It's a pretty easy job. The tools will pay for themselves quickly. Respacing isn't that hard if you get the right washers. If you add/subtract an equal number of mm to/from each side, you should not have to redish. You can even salvage them off old hubs, which I've done in the past. This, too, will require the cone wrenches.

" Respacing isn't that hard if you get the right washers. If you add/subtract an equal number of mm to/from each side, you should not have to redish"

???

You only need to respace if you DO redish.

I shall consider myself enlightened :D I'll try it first and see what comes of just putting a bmx freewheel on it and check the chainline on the inner ring of the road double. What I meant by shot was that the freewheel is shot, not the hub ;) I will get the cone wrenches and do it myself, sounds like a worthwhile project. After that I'll tackle the BB to regrease it. Thanks for the awesome replies!

Check out this rear wheel on eBay: wheel (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=58099&item=3697727061&rd=1). Seems like it is right up your alley on budget terms.

Cool thanks :-) Only problem there is that I need 27" wheels not 700C wheels, thanks though :)

Well, maybe it's a chicken-or-egg question, but to me re-dishing is the last step of any wheel issue, ie, you don't need to recenter the rim (re-dish) unless you have done something else that puts the rim off-center to begin with, not the other way around. So if you respace you probably will need to re-dish, but then why would you be need to recenter if you hadn't done something to put the rim off center? I'm not trying to be a smartass. I do not claim to be an expert mechanic; I am just trying to learn.


" Respacing isn't that hard if you get the right washers. If you add/subtract an equal number of mm to/from each side, you should not have to redish"

???

You only need to respace if you DO redish.

Have you tried to throw a 700 on there instead of a 27? I only ask because, in a pinch, I've used one or the other instead of the other or one (hope that made sense). Anyway, you might try it. I've seen it work for cheap before.

No I haven't tried it, but I have no need to. I have the two wheels that came with the bike and they are both just fine as 27" wheels. I'm on the cheap, so it'll work out just fine I'm sure :)

"You only need to respace if you DO redish."

You should respace if the spacing on the rear axle of the hub you are using does not match the spacing on the rear dropouts. If you're rebuilding a bike from a variety of old parts from a variety of sources, it is not uncommon to have to respace the rear axle down or up... unless you feel like cold-setting the rear triangle. Many folks will squeeze a 126mm wheel into 120 dropouts, but I've never felt comfortable doing this.

Poquemahone,
I think the "respacing" being discussed here is more about moving spacers from one side to the other to adjust the position of the hub vis a vis the dropouts in order to improve the chainline rather than changing the dropout spacing.
Regards,
Raymond

Well, maybe it's a chicken-or-egg question, but to me re-dishing is the last step of any wheel issue, ie, you don't need to recenter the rim (re-dish) unless you have done something else that puts the rim off-center to begin with, not the other way around. So if you respace you probably will need to re-dish, but then why would you be need to recenter if you hadn't done something to put the rim off center? I'm not trying to be a smartass. I do not claim to be an expert mechanic; I am just trying to learn.



Ok here is a soluton for the original problem. If rykoala has on old bike with the original 5/6 speed freewheel (which is what it sounds like) and it is going to be converted to SS the rear wheel must be redished. In fact the wheel should be taken apart and and assembled backwards (this is a cheap way to build a ss wheel out of your current wheel). A wheel with a 5/6 spd freewheel will have two lenghts spokes (usually, some wheels have such a slight dish that the spokes are the same, therefore ingnore the following), The side with gears will have shorter spokes that appear to be more vertical than the LONGER spokes on the other side which will be at more of an angle to the hub. What I do is remove all the spokes from each side and swap them to the other side of the hub. When the wheel is retensioned you end up with a reverse dish, meaning the drive side will have the longer spokes at an angle and the non dive side will have the spokes more vertically. Additonlally, the spacers originally form the drive side should be swaped over to the non drive side and vice versa ( the axle may have to be shifted over as well) The end goal is two things, first for the wheel to line centered with the seat tube, second for the threads on the hub to be moved far enogh over that once a bmx free wheel is installed it will have proper chain line. Sometimes you have to make minor adjustments with some washers, but is should be pretty close. Remeber bmx freewheels are much thinner than multi speed freewheels and the only way to compensate for the differnce in thickenss is to shift the threaded side of the hub closer to the drive side drop out, but sometimes simply redishing the current wheel won't be enough.

BTW decent double walled 27"s are hard to find, it would be easier to go 700 and find long reach brakes.