Just curious, thats all.

All of my working, rideable bikes are both fixies, and use the bumbike/suicide/loctite method... No problems so far..


So how many people here ride fixed bikes not using a track hub, but rather a substandard method instead?

I have one bike currently running w/ loctite and a BB lockring. I run a 92" gear on it and skid often. I have, in over 10 years of riding fixed off and on, never had a problem w/ this setup. YRMV

I've been riding a suicide hub for a couple months now with loctite and BB lockring. I haven't had any problems at all. I lucked out with my chainline. It's near perfect (maybe 1mm off) with the chainring running on the outside of the spider. I figure that if I ever want a new cog, I can just get an old wheel at the local thrift shop and make another suicide hub . I take pride in it, hehe.

While I have never done it myself you can chalk up the omniscient/omnipresent Sheldon Brown as part of this group. According to him, his setup is working fine.

There are a lot of people who will ***** on this setup although it is proven to work. I have NEVER heard a horror story from people who run it.

My $.02

EAI cog red-locktited to a dura-ace rear cog, redished and respaced. Skidded once or twice by accident, liberal amounts of back pressure, brake in front.

Does a Dura-ace cog loctited to a Campy hub qualify as 'bumbike'? If so, I have one.

I was running one for a while. I could never bring myself to put the loctite on though. Fear of commitment I guess. Still though, I used the chain-wrapped-around-the-bottom-bracket-shell-then-turn-rear-wheel-in-the-direction-to-tighten-the-cog-and-crank-like-a-mofo, method.

This was the wheel I learned how to skid and skip on, which means there was a lot of practice. No problems. I switched to a track hub for peace of mind.

ok can somebody fill me in please. what's the diff between the "thread, locktite, and lockring" method, and the "track hub" setup mentioned in the first post. i thought that's what a track hub was?

In case all the east coasters are asleep by now I will attempt to explain. A 'bumbike' fixie is a an older roadbike hub of the threaded six speed type with the the freewheel threaded off and a fixed cog threaded on using glue and a 'bottom bracket lockring' threaded on. A true track hub has two threaded surfaces, the outer is smaller in diameter and threaded in the reverse direction of the larger inner. This is technically superior in that if the cog attempts to unthread through reverse rotation, it meets a lockring threaded in the opposite direction that will oppose it. In reallity, this method was developed before the advent of current adhesives. Today one can 'glue' a part in place with an adhesive capable of withstanding much greater force than a human can generate. The true track hub has the advantage if one is to frequently change cog sizes as in racing at different tracks with different gearing, but for most of us plebs, we change a cog when it wears out, in which case a heat gun melts the loctite and we are away.

icthecat - nice description - that should be in a fixed gear faq or something.

I run the suicide hubs, no problems. I don't skid, though - run with a front brake. I have my cogs and BB lockrings JB welded into place (permanent, to my knowledge).

aha. thank you.

im building one right now, i asked for some advice here and some people mad me fell like a a$$. but thay can f off

i rode a welded up freehub for ages when i was couriering, it was COOL. but it creaked a bit

I have two bum wheels and a regular track wheel. When I wanted to pull the 14 cog off one of the bum wheels, well, I still can't remove it. Maybe I'll just keep it there... The bum wheels are doing rain bike duty - out of principle- but I've never had a problem.

Agreed. I run loctite/BB on my commuter and whole deal is rock solid.

This is good info. I'm planning on this set up for a beater/polo bike. Although I will never run brakeless on such a setup.

As in TOO rock solid. It makes sense to have a track cog just so it is easier to switch cogs. Loctite is akin to welding.

Just a hint, loctite can be released with the gentle (or not so gentle) application of heat! If you ever need to change your mind, just use a heat gun or propane torch to heat up the joint a bit. The expansion of the cog combined with the thermal destruction of the loctite should let you remove it. Even the 'permanent' loctite will succumb to this treatment.

If you end up having to use more than a gentle shot of heat from a heatgun, check your bearings afterwards, since you may have cooked the grease out.

peace,
sam

Did it for a year with no problem and I am going to put that wheel on the Yamiguchi with no front brake.

Ended up run my Bonti's that came with the Fillmore that way on on side (fixed/free). 18T with bottom bracket lockring, no loctite, no problems. Of course, it was "farmer's tight". Don't skid much (emergency stopping procedure #1) and use the front brake when needed.

For the record, my red-locktited cog refused an (albeit weak) attempt to unscrew it a few weeks ago. I ended up changing my chainring from 42 to 53 to change my gear, t'was easier that way (not the gear, the change).

16 years. Multiple wheels. no loctite. No BB ring. No incidents.

As I've said before, this was the standard method for the 85 years preceding track bikes becoming en vouge.

I must have been doing something wrong. I was running the track hub and spun it off. Turns out I needed to have a suicide hub. Who knew?

so essentially i can just squirt some locktite in a freewheel cog and be god to go or am i missing something somone help me before i kill myself.

Nah - track cog.