thenathanator

Alright, well, about 4 months back when I built my fixie I didn't even think of greasing the cog. I rotafixed it on, and then had my lbs put on the lockring since I didn't have the right tool. So, now I'm wondering if I should be worried. I'm not sure if greasing the cog is to stop it from stripping or to stop it from rusting, or a little bit of both. Should I take it off and grease it up now? or would I risk stripping it or messing up my hub?

shants

don't worry about it.

treechunk

Grease helps you tighten things tighter than you could without it, it keeps things from bonding together, etc.

Take it off and grease it now so you don't end up stripping the hub when you try a year from now and the cog has galled to the hub.

genericbikedude

No, dont grease it. Locktite if anything. In case you weren't aware, what you have is a "bumbike" or a "suicide hub."

matthavener

treechunk

I just looked back through his posts, and he's got IRO wheels. No bumbike here.

MacG

I would recommend taking it apart and greasing it. The longer you wait, the more corrosion will form from the aluminum touching the steel. This will eventually sieze your cog to the hub threading and you will not be able to remove it. I would take it to a bike shop if you don't have a really long chainwhip to crack the cog loose. Have them remove the cog for you, and then I would clean out the threads on both the cog and the hub with a wire brush. Put a thin coating of grease on the threads and reassemble. Make sure you torque the cog on really tightly before putting on the lockring. If you have it loose enough that it will be able to tighten further when you begin riding it, bad things can happen and you risk stripping the hub threading.

Same procedure with the lockring; once the cog is as tight as you can get it, torque the lockring on the same way. If you have access to a double-sided Park BB lockring hook spanner, I have found that the three-prong side of the tool actually works very well with track lockrings. Put the tooth on the end of the tool into the lockring groove and the middle tooth will rest against the lockring perfectly. You can put a lot of torque on the lockring without ever having to worry about the tooth slipping out like will frequently happen with a simple hook spanner. When you apply pressure, you are actually pulling the tooth harder into the notch on the lockring. Pretty much no danger of slipping out or rounding off the groove.

genericbikedude

oops. what is rotafix then, if its not a bumbike?

treechunk

Rotafix is a way of putting a cog on that is generally used when there is no lockring being used, but it does not preclude the use of a lockring.

DonPenguino

https://204.73.203.34/fisso/eng/schpignone.htm
You can get the cog on as tight as necessary without the use of any tools.

MacG

rotaflex is using the chain with the wheel mounted in the frame to tighten the cog. It lets you get away with not owning a chainwhip, but I personally think it's probably not the healthiest for your frame. If you get carried away, you could conceivably bend your stays towards the drive side or twist your frame into a pretzel.

pictures of the rotafix method:
https://204.73.203.34/fisso/eng/schpignone.htm

hyperRevue

I find that incredibly unlikely, unless you're the hulk.

MacG

the pretzel bit was an exaggeration, but I still question the intelligence of intentionally applying far more force than can be created while pedaling you your expensive frame, wheel bearings, axle, and dropouts/fork ends. If you just find a good chainwhip that has a handle as long as the radius of your wheel, you can easily apply just as much force as you can with rotaflexing without needlessly stressing all those expensive precision parts that weren't designed to be used that way.

You can make a chainwhip with a piece of barstock, a drill, and some old chain. Much cheaper than potentially bending an axle or messing up the alignment of your stays.

And I am the hulk, thank you.

thenathanator

Alright, well then that settles it. I will take it down to the shop and have them grease it up for me. I'd rather not have to deal with replacing a hub in the future...

Yes indeed I do have an IRO Wheelset, and they've been great. No bumbike here... I can't say I know much anything about bikes, even after going through the entire process of building this one up from the frame, but it was a great experience and luckily everything worked out. Bit of a bumpy learning curve though... as can be seen by this thread...

treechunk

word.

sers

i'd say get a chainwhip, give the threads a good cleaning and grease them - but no rush. it will prevent some long term wear, but it's not something that needs to be taken care of immediately

HereNT

I use the rotafix method and it's been great. Until I tried to get the cogs off this last time. Two wrenches and I tried for close to an hour to get the 16 off, and it wasn't budging, even with a cheater bar. This was WITH grease, and only a couple of months since I put them on. The grease was still fresh when we finally got it off. That took a special tool where we put the wheel in a vice and had two people turning it.

When I put them back on yesterday, I used anti-seize instead of grease. Hopefully that helps next time that I go to change cogs...

concernicus

i made the mistake of putting loctite on my threads instead of grease. i dread the day when i have to take my cog off. im gonna need a blowtorch.

Pawls

I use rotafixa on my so called bum bike and my LBS wasn´t able to get it off! Then I figured that one could do the rotafixa in reverse and it went off quite easy.

RedDeMartini

take it off, grease it and be sure to use a lockring.
Luxuriate in the fact that a complicated and morally ambiguous world occasionally provides you with a simple right and wrong.

Grease is right, for so many reasons.
no grease is wrong, for even more reasons.

This is from years with wrenches.

gorn

It seems more likely that you'd strip the hub threads or break the chain that you would bend the frame.

str8flexed

I think the first thing that would happen is that your hub threads may strip. Then, you might break some spokes. I was worried ****less when Rikardi was pulling with all his might on the rim of my wheel and my cog was going on tighter than I ever imaged it could be.

Dogbait

You can also bend the axle. I have done this, last year. I inadvertently shifted my geared bike to 52x32 just after getting the bike back from a shop with a new chain that was too short. Granted this is a lower gear ratio than a fixed gear bike would have but I didn't even stand up and the axle bent as the chain climbed up onto the cog.
I am not the Hulk, I'm 60 years old (but I have been lifting weights for the last thirty or so).

Dogbait

void808

A word of warning on putting too much torque on the lockring--I greased up my old pista wheelset, and proceeded to tighten the hell out of the lockring--within about 30 seconds of applying torque on the ring, *ping*, the lockring exploded, stripping my hub and embedding a piece of the ring in my doorframe.

piwonka

that's why you need an NJS lockring