Originally Posted by JoshL, JBD, VT tallbike

How do you rotate the hub in order to tension the chain, a nice addition would be some flats that you could get a 15mm spanner on..
I'd been thinking about it but I wasn't sure about the integrity of the spacers when I cut them out. In practice, this is not a problem: I press at the tire against the seat tube to get the tension right. Slightly uncomfortable when you rock fenders but still not a problem.
Did you have any difficulty with the hardened metal?
In fact, the cheap cogs from singulators, like on the winter bike are very hard. Takes a bench drill and good bits I used smaller diameter bits and improved the holes with dremmel.
how does using your altered cogs compare to the ones from that online shop ?
I got some ordered -will know soon.
Your axles are really thick, did you have to special order your cartridge bearings?
No, I have chosen front hubs for 20mm axles and have 20mm axles made.
you mentioned a spacer ...
The spacers, pieces of pipe of 20mm internal diameter fitting on the 20mm axle, serrated on one side hold bearings in place against the inner side of the dropout when you screw in the bolts to the axle. I have 4 sets of these, matching 2 different hubs and 2 axle widths. You can see the carbon/steel ones on the top view and 2 titanium sets in the parts view in the picasa gallery - they work like in the head set assembly, the total width of spacers, bearings and internal spacer is .3mm bigger than the axle length. I didn't want them to bottom out.
Or you could save a lot of time and money and just file down the front/back of the vertical drop out and use a half link.
I have 4 bikes to file down, some of them are classics I do not want to mess with. Also, no filing down will get me 1/2 inch of adjustment or adapting to different widths, which I got my way. BTW, I can contol the steering in a way using top- down adjustment - I need that swapping forks/tires on my mtb frame.