Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Lots and lots of questions....

Hello. I am just getting into this single speed thing and I'm liking it more and more. I have a lot of questions that I am hoping someone with a little time on their hands will answer. Here it goes.

1. High flange hubs vs. low flange hubs? What are the advantages/disadvantages if any? Also, any hubs that I should absolutely stay away from? Looks can be deceiving and I am seeing that there are a lot of no name hubs that look a lot like other more recognized name hubs?
2. Spokes. More vs. less? Again, what are the advantages/disadvantages if any?
3. Bottom brackets. There seems to be a gazillion different styles and sizes? More than anything, I am interested in the sizing. Why so many sizes? Is one size geared toward a certain type of riding experience or are all bb's created, for the most part, equal?
4. Wheels. I have a folding Mountain bike frame that I would like to customize and ultimately convert to a single speed platform and am wondering if because it is a mtb frame, will it only take mtb wheel sets or can it take something in between the mtb type wheels and road type wheels? Is there such a thing as something in between? Riding will be on the street once this project is complete.

That is it for now. I am sure more questions will come so please bear with me.

Thanks.

First thing to do is spend some time reading Sheldon Brown's site (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/articles.html), and use the search function on this site.

Quick answers:
1) Don't really know off the top of my head. I think it might have to do with weight vs. strength, i.e. high flange strong but heavy. I could be totally wrong. Oh well.

2) Again, weight vs. strength but with a little aerodynamics in the mix. For just normal street use, it doesn't really matter.

3) There are two messurements of a BB. One is the size of the shell - the prat of the frame where the BB goes, and the length of the BB. The length of the BB is important for SS because it can change your chain line. Take your frame to your LBS and ask them to help you.

4) You should be able to use whatever you want. Just pay attention to the rear spacing (the distance between the drop outs) for getting a hub. Again, just take the frame to your LBS and get them to help you.

Good luck.

High vs Low - used to be because of manufacturing issues. The larger the flange the stronger it was; flange failure is pretty rare these days (in fact the only ones I've seen are old school high flange campy track hubs). The shorter the spokes the stronger they are. With modern materials the point is pretty moot. However, I still *feel* that high flange wheels are stronger because the spoke issue is still in play but really its down to personal preference.

Spokes - the more spokes the stronger the wheel but its obviously heavier. For speed applications you get drag issues.

BB - you have different BB shell widths as mentioned above. The lengths come into play as each crankset generally has a sweet spot where for the majority of gears there is a good chain line. The straighter your chain line, the less friction there is and the less your components wear. For a singlespeed/fixie getting a good chain is pretty essential. Your LBS should be able to help you find one that works.

Wheels - Something inbetween would be to just replace your tires with something a little more street orientated. I wouldn't worry about 26" vs 700c, just ride what you got.


I think I just repeated the previous poster.

Flanges: high flange is fashion.

It used to be thought that they added lateral and torsional stiffness (ie, they wouldn't soak up too much energy when you started cranking or when cornering), but deflection tests have soundly disproven it. Ditto with tied and soldered spokes.

Still, I dig high flange myself. It is, after all, fashion. :)

All other things being equal, which of course they never are, a high flange hub should - in theory - yield a slightly stronger, stiffer wheel...this is because the angle of spoke to rim is more acute than with low flange, putting the head of the spokes a bit more outboard...just picture in your head what the spoke angle would look like if the flange was 2 ft in diameter...same thing on a smaller scale. I'm sure any real benefit is very minor and I concur/admit that it's largely a fashion choice.

As for spokes, 32 is a nice compromise of strength/weight.

Good luck on your fixie/ss project!

650b will fit between 700 and 26. However, I presume youre MTB has cantlilevers; and cantilievers are preset for 26. you've gotta go brakeless to do this. Or replace the fork with a caliper road fork and longreaches. and this will throw of the mtb geometry.

If your concern is riding on the street, just keep the 26 wheels and put on some 26x1 slicks. viola

Flanges: high flange is fashion.

It used to be thought that they added lateral and torsional stiffness (ie, they wouldn't soak up too much energy when you started cranking or when cornering), but deflection tests have soundly disproven it. Ditto with tied and soldered spokes.

Still, I dig high flange myself. It is, after all, fashion. :)

Yes indeed, style matters! Especially on a fix, where it is hard to bling out your bike without making it look like a roadie. So choose those few parts wisely. :D

a high flange hub should - in theory - yield a slightly stronger, stiffer wheel.

Yes, but the operative part is slight. As it turns out, it is too slight to be noticeable.

what tests are there on tied and soldered spokes? this is still done for track applications.

For tied and soldered, I believe Jobst Brandt observed that microscopic analysis of untied/soldered spokes showed that a normally broken in wheel has grooves and microwelds that develop naturally. This means that the spoke crossing experiences no relative motion, so tying and soldering does nothing for you.

His argument (again, as I recall) was that it dates back to an old highwheeler technique of tying spokes so that when one broke, it wouldn't get thrown into the others and pitch you into a header.