bikenh

Is there such a thing? A fixed gear hub except you can run a cassette on it. With all the broken ankle biking I've been doing here over the past month plus now it would have been grand to have a fixed gear hub but to still be able to switch gears since I live in a hilly environment. Having the rotating wheel helping you pedal would make it much easier and keep a higher speed up. I would have need the capability of being able to switch gears for climbing or descending.

Is their a hub where you can 'lock' the the hub and still be able to switch gears?

Is there a way to lock/convert a regular hub so it functions as a fixed gear hub?

ThermionicScott 

You could always mount a freewheel on it. There's no running fixed sprockets with a derailleur or chain tensioner -- they'd break as soon as you applied backpressure to the pedals.

spectastic

yea, the rear derailleur is going to snap if you try to skid.

JanMM

You wouldn't consider running a freehub?

Jeff Wills

The only fixed, multiple gear arrangement you'll find is an internal hub, like the Sturmey S3X: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=2713
As others said, running a fixed gear with a derailleur will likely snap your rear derailleur off. I had a rear cassette seize up one day, and I was barely able to limp to the next sag stop (on a supported tour).

bikenh

Okay I have to plead stupidity here...BIG TIME!! Before I ask a couple of questions let me exam what I have experienced and try to compare it with terms, terms and more terms.

My first multi gear bike was a Huffy Omni 10 speed(back when 10 speed meant 5 on the rear not 10 on the rear...yes early to mid 1980s). I remember my sister not liking to bike and she talked about having stripped out the gears on her bike. As I come more to understand what she was talking about I come to realize that I couldn't do that on my 10 speed. The Huffy had what I liked to call NOPEGECH(No Pedal Gear Change)...err as I learnt much later, I believe the correct name is front freewheel. The chainring was 'locked' in place. As long as the wheel was spinning the chainring/chain was also always moving. The pedals weren't 'locked' in place though. It wasn't like I was riding a fixed gear bike.

Okay, now for where I currently stand in understanding of everything between the freewheel concept and fixed gear concept...I wish I knew.

What is the difference between freewheel and fixed gear? From what I thought I understood(just did some looking online and saw I was right but I still don't understand it fully and I don't have the old Huffy handy, it's at my moms about 800 miles from here) about the old 10 speed was their was a freewheel put in place between the chainring and the cranks(still don't understand the freewheel concept though). It wasn't something that was done back in the hub.

Is the freewheel always applied up front/bottom bracket/crank while the fixed hub is naturally applied to the hub/wheel?

Why would back pedalling with the a fixed gear cause you to break the derailleur but with a freewheel/hub it wouldn't?

Like I said I'm thoroughly confused right now. I haven't ridden a fixed gear as of yet to have possibly been able to see what the real differences are in the way a fixed gear bike 'behaves'.

I have thought about changing my road bike over to true single speed or all the way to fixed gear since I have been pretty much riding single speed on a multi gear bike since August last year. I've mostly been waiting to get over this darn broken ankle and get the bum leg strengthed back up before I do it though.

JohnDThompson 

With a freewheel you can coast. With a fixed gear you can't -- whenever the wheels are moving, the pedals are also.

fietsbob

Sturmey S3X has a spline fitting for its fixed cog, A Shimano established BMX hub pattern.

But that's just 1 cog.... the 3 internal gears offer the other ratios. .75. .63 ..


By welding the moving parts together.

fietsbob

SRAM Current Torpedo is able to be fixed/unlocked, via several turns with a screwdriver ..

One Gear.. old 3 speed cogs have a different spline pattern. But cheap and common.

spectastic

take a bike with rear derailleur. hold the pedal in place (don't let it move), and pull on the bottom part of the chain away from the rear derailleur.... On a fixie, that's exactly what would happen. Now imagine the full force of friction acting upon that little guy...

JanMM

What you are referring to is the Shimano Front Freewheeling System. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_freewheel

fietsbob

comes with the fixie territory for many youngsters..
'but all the cool kids do it', is another common phrase.

Jeff Wills

As others have pointed out, a "fixed" gear does not allow coasting. If you were to back pedal on a fixie, you would go backwards.

On a fixie, you can put back pressure while going forwards and slow yourself down. This is why fixie riders claim they don't need brakes. (That's a political argument on fixie forums. You are warned.)

JohnDThompson 

Curiously, Shimano splined cogs don't fit without a fight, but Sutrmey-Archer cogs from as far back as the 1950s work fine.

hueyhoolihan

it's possible to "fix" a freehub by removing the bearings and replacing them with a metal ring of some sort (a nail bent in a circle, for instance) with the proper dimensions. a couple of turns of the freewheel with a small cog is enough to friction weld it in place. i'm referring to the bearings for the freewheel, not the drive-side axle bearings.

fietsbob

I havent tried , But IM curious if anyone had had a Shimano Single speed BMX hub

and is there any comparison between the Pre Hyperglide spline.. that are all the same width..

as Opposed to the current ones which key on in common by having a wider and narrow spline
cut, so all the shift features line up..


S3X Threads the tips of their splines , making a screw on Freewheel a practicality ,
if you get tired of your feet being pushed around going down hills..

Jeff Wills

The latest DXR freehub or the original DX hub? (The DX hub used a 3-spline cog, similar to the old Sturmay-Archer and Bendix.)

JohnDThompson 

You can also thread a standard track cog and BB lockring onto the S3X, and if you use one of the splined spacers provided with the hub between the cog and the lockring, there's no risk of it being a "suicide hub."