Originally Posted by
Flimflam
He switched his drivetrain over to the left side of the bike after a bit, too - that was weird - but more importantly, are there any detrimental/bad things that can happen by doing this? (assuming chainline is good, etc.) It seems like everything should be kushty, but I don't know much about dem der fixies yet.
In terms of thread grease, what should I use?
yeah there are several detrimental things to building a left-side drive. namely that all the threads on a bike are designed for the chain to be on the right, so when you switch it over the pressure you put in the drivetrain from forward pedalling helps to unscrew everything, namely pedal threads (which would mount backwards) and the rear cog. if you're friend is running 52x16 that cog should spin off in no time. the wright brothers invented a reverse-thread left pedal to solve that very problem 100 years ago.
in terms of grease i find phil's is good for most threads on a bike.