So I am middle age fitness biker in NYC without a real road bike and with an inch to try single speed riding. So I read up on the off the rack bikes and tried lots of them and decided that the Sputnik was the best combination of geometry and fit and materials and parts for my budget and needs. Then I searched for one in my size and happily found it at my most local bike store. It was still in the box and it comes in the box without brakes (which I wanted) and with only a fixed gear on the one side of the flip flop hub. The guys began putting the bike together and as they were working I told them that I was going to ride it single speed at least for a while and asked them to put a sidespeed sprocket on the single speed side of the hub.

Well they looked at me as if I were crazy and said that there was no real singlespeed side to the hub. There were two fixed sides. They said the threads were not wide enough for a standard single speed cog. It might fit but they did not think it would be safe. I swore to them that the website listing the bike and everything I had ever read about it called it a flip flop fixed/free bike, and they looked it up themselves and agreed that it seemed to suggest fixed free.

What's the story? Are there several different kind of free cogs, perhaps some kind they are not familiar with. Or is the bike really made for fixed/fixed (of different sizes I guess). Or was the wrong wheel and hub shipped in the box?

Here's how the story ended, with me happier but poorer. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse on a pair of Deep V rims with Phil Woods hubs (the rear a standard fixed/free flip flop) and gave me $100 credit on the Alex DA22s.

The bike rides beautiful, I''ve been on it now for hours. But I am still wondering, what is it with that hub?

I am a couple of hundred bucks poorer, but am I nuts?