I made the first rookie mistake in building my own fixie. I bought a time trial bike with VERTICAL dropouts. I read somewhere you could just put a chain tensioner on it and it would be fine. I also found something called an ENO hub.

What are your ideas on both of these? If you had any experience with fixies with veritcal dropouts please let me know how they were!

I take It 'Build' is not that you brazed the frame together, yourself..

you could re heat, in that case , undo the dropout installation
and stick in a track or long slot horizontal drop out in instead.

Yea the eccentric Eno hub, White industries, would work ,
as will just picking the combination of half link, removing a whole length is 1",
and just the right combination of cog and chain ring sizes
to come out with the right chain length.

there is a Single speed 1/8" chain that is all half links, so you get to the nearest half inch ..

I have 3 IG hub Bikes 2 with vertical dropouts, both use a chain tensioner ,
and one with a sliding dropout to tension the chain.
all those work fine.

fixie , has to cope with the counter force, so a rigid tensioner is needed ..
and probably then just use a rear brake , too. and the front.

Others like it, go with the Eno probably. build a wheel around it.

so the cheapest way to fix the problem would be to use a chain tensioner?

I thought that you can make a single speed with a chain tensioner but not a fixie

A chain tensioner is not suitable for fixed gear applications.

so having veritcal dropouts still allows me to have a single speed. but not a fixie? why not?

Physics..

If you use a brake on the rear wheel to stop, then a rigid chain tensioner
might handle it .. as you are not stopping with backwards chain force , but,
lifting the rear wheel off the ground, having the wheel stopped but the forward inertia still moving when the stopped wheel hits the ground again.
that is .. 'Skip Braking', will break it.

A chain tensioner will not work on a fixie because when you put backwards pressure on the pedals, the tensioner will collapse and the chain will derail.

As mentioned before, you could get lucky and find exactly the right combination of half links, but again if the tension is not spot on your chain can derail under reverse pressure.

I would get a ENO hub, but that itself is more expensive then the bike frame!

zap1295: Posted yesterday:
From Sheldon Brown: "Eccentric bottom brackets are sometimes used on single bikes too, especially because they permit adjustment of chain tension without moving the rear axle. This is useful if the bicycle is fitted with a rear disc brake or an internal-geared hub.

White Industries makes a rear hub with an eccentric axle, designed to permit use as a fixed-gear or singlespeed without a chain tensioner, on frames with vertical dropouts."

I've never dealt with them, I just know they are available. Maybe others with more experience will chime in. good luck!

on the horns of a dilemma are we, ?

sell the frame, take your losses as education,
or build it as a freewheel single speed,
and buy a proper one for what you want it to do then.

buy it with something 2 brakes , unless you are track racing exclusively .

The ENO Hub is available in 135, 130, and 126. What sizing should I get? I have a Leader 720tt frame.

https://i.ebayimg.com/22/!CBQ%292%28wEGk~$%28KGrHqZ,!l4Ez+7fWBvOBNG5dL4Gcg~~_3.JPG

The vast, vast majority of newer "road" frames are 130mm OLD width.

pick up a meter stick or metric tape measure and find out.

Does anybody have personal experience with ENO hubs? I certainly don't so I'm not the best source. I remember reading some dissatisfied posts about them but I don't remember what the actual problem was.

If you wanna go the SS route, chain tensioner is the cheapest solution. They aren't THAT obtrusive.