Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - hub spacings

if you buy 130s.. then get a diffferent bike.. can you convert them to 120s? or is it newhubsville for you... or what if you have some 120s and want to put on a 130? like phil woods.. is what you buy what you get forever?

Most fixed gear wheels are simply track hubs with spacers thrown on. Single speed wheels may be old road wheels with freewheel threads and a BMX freewheel instead of a 5-speed cassette. There are 135mm fixed/single hubs for mountain bikes.

Look for spacers, they'll just be cylinders of (probably) aluminum that can be taken off to move you back down to a 120mm track spacing.

I had no problem respacing my sansin hub from 120 to 135. Going the other way could be iffier, depending on hub flange spacing and that sort of thing.

you might need longer axles if you space a 120 out to 130

i'm not sure if you could space a MTB 135 hub down to 120 though. the chainline would certainly be weird.

You need to watch chainline though. Track is generally 42mm, MTB 52mm. I've got a 120mm Surly that I spaced for a 126mm frame. Then moved to a 132.5mm frame (Surly's gnot-right crosscheck spacing) and it worked fine on both but when I wanted to move the wheel to my 29er MTB it needed a 52mm chainline.

More chainline info (http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ch.html#chainline)

like phil woods.. is what you buy what you get forever?

All of the Phil Wood hub Bodies are the same (except the double fix vs. single fixed). They put different spacers on different axles to get the rear drop out spacing correct. You should be able to put any spacing (within reason of course) on any Phil Hub.

So, if you buy a 130 for a road bike conversion, then buy a track frame and want to use it on that. You can send it into Phil and they will respace it. It will cost about $50-60 but it can be done.

PHIL TECH INFO (http://www.philwood.com/techmanual/phighflangetrackhubs.htm)

So, a hub designed to give a specific chainline (e.g. track hub, 42mm), respaced with spacers to fit a different rear spacing (126, 130, etc.) will still maintain a consistent chainline or no?

yes, if you space it evenly on both sides.