corrado33

I've seen many bikes. Between working at a shop and working on a college campus, I'm surrounded by bikes all of the time. In the few years (admittedly not as many as some of you shop veterans on here) working at these places, I've seen exactly ONE flip flop hub being ridden on the fixie side. The bikes are sold with the rear wheel on the freewheel side. So, my question is this: Why do manufacturers bother putting flip flop hubs on these bikes if the customers never use it? Seems they could save some money by not doing it... Many people who ride bikes on the fixie side customize their bike to their liking, these aren't people who want to buy a stock bike and keep it as is.

Thoughts? Guesses for the percentage of flip flop hubs being ridden not on the freewheel side?

jacobsever

I have 2 wheel sets with flip/flop hub. One of them has a freewheel on it, the other doesn't. Both are being ridding on the fixed side.

JeremyLC

Here's my anecdote...

My Fuji has a two sided hub, but it's fixed/fixed. I have an 18t cog on one side and 15t cog on the other. If bothered to buy a second lockring I could, easily enough, flip between them if I needed to for a longer ride. I sized my chain for precisely this.

Dunno if anyone else has a use for a 2 sided hub, though.

Bandera

No guess, riding FG on the road certainly isn't for everyone, or even a good many.
Choosing to ride a simple reliable SS/FW for basic transportation makes good sense to me.

For OEM installation a single spec that allows choice for the customer is both efficient and marketable.

As always, suit yourself.

-Bandera

Bandera

My LD/FG riding partner had a Fixed/Fixed hub wheel built after last year's FG century, which he refers to as "The Death March".
Now set-up 48X17/18 he can drop from 75GI (which hurt him on the return leg on rolling terrain and into a headwind) to 70GI if necessary.
Doesn't sound like much but dialing in a long distance machine properly is worth the attention to detail.

-Bandera

TimothyH

Manufacturers put flip flop hubs on bikes because they are relatively inexpensive to produce and customers are willing to pay for them.

What matters is that it adds little to the cost of production and satisfies a perceived need. Whether the customer actually uses it or not is not relevant.


-Tim-

TejanoTrackie 

It's a lot cheaper to make one type of hub that can be set up as either fixed or free, than to make two different hubs, one of them fixed and the other one free.

Scrodzilla

What's the point of anything, really?

pan2thada

Isn't it possible to install a freewheel on the fixed side of a hub but not vice versa? Why not just use fixed/fixed hubs on everything?

Jixr

I have cogs on both sides, and also have dual chainrings ( one on each side ), basically a dual drive.

( not really but that would be cool i guess )

Wspsux

why are we here?

TimothyH

I hate philosophy.

BradleyNobbs

They aren't that expensive to produce vs producing a hub with only a freewheel. Customers love the idea of a fixed gear but don't have the experience or willingness to learn to ride them

Bandera

Thank Occam's Razor for Fixed Gear cycling:
"Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate."

Translation: Who needs all of this extraneous carp?

-Bandera

TimothyH

Gotta love the Franciscans.

They have a particular knack for simplifying things.

andr0id

What's the point of asking what's the point?

It's like an infinite black hole of turtles going all the way down.

veganbikes

Really we should be asking what the point of asking what the point of asking what the point is?

hardboiled718

new tag ling for the ssfg forum: we ask the serious questions.

seau grateau

corrado33

How does someone only have one post but not the "newbie" label?

Carcosa

42.

Now someone figure out the question.

TimothyH

What is the square root of 1764?

Carcosa

How many bikes one needs?

Leukybear 

So if you accidentally strip the threads on the first side, you still have the other.

I personally like to live life on the edge and get a single side hub.

kbarch

Seems pretty obvious to me - they put them together with flip flop hubs so you can sell the same bike regardless of whether the buyer wants it one way or the other - just maybe another thing to set up before you send them out the door.

I thought it would be safe to have an SS option, but I hated that - rode it that way just once - and instead got an easier cog fixed in it's place. Front is 48. Started with 15 fixed, then fixed the other with a 17 so I could get over the Palisades (even the easy way out involves 8% segments). Figured some day I might have occasion to ride longer distances without having to climb too much and being able to put it back on the 15 might be nice.