Replacing Rear Dropouts.
 

I was reading Sheldon Brown's mighty fine website and at the bottom of the page they were selling rear dropouts, just the little last part (yes I'm a nub). My question is, can you take verticial dropouts off and replace them with horizontal ones?

Weirdly, I have not read anything on the web that even mentions this. Either it's not possible or it costs so much that the price isn't worth it.

Thanks in advance for a reply! You guys rule, not surly or sarcastic like the Fixed/Single forum .

-Robert

Most likely you can as long as the angle of the new dropouts braze tabs match the current angle of your stays. If they don't match you still may be able to do it but there is more work involved.

It is not that hard. to change the rear ends, I just did the first step on two frames today.

The existing rear end is heated until it is red and the brass melts and then it is easily pulled out. But be careful not to overheat the tubes, put the heat mostly on the dropout as this is thicker and will be thrown anyway. It can be good to cut it in two parts first so you pull it from the seatstay and chainstay separetely. Then you do the filing needed, and braze on the new dropout or fork end. There are several kinds of track ends and not all fits all bikes. I have attached pictures of three different ends. The campagnolo end fits almost any bike as it is just a steel plate with much room for different angles. You need to do some filing to make it look smooth. The second one is Long Shen. This one needs to be the right angle. Third is Paul Components. This also works with a wariety of angles but it puts the axle of the rear wheel higher than your usual dropout.

Hope this information is useful to you.

regards
Jonatan S

those axle keeper screws on the pauls...i know they keep your wheel from sliding forward, but would they be handy enough to fine tune chain tension?

how does one determine what type of drop out is needed? for ex....im looking to remove the road drop outs on a rame, and install track dropouts...should I remove them, measure the dropout tabs, and the angle and go from there?