Hello.

I'm planning on building a fixie off an old frame and parts. I have 3 old frames sitting around, and I figure I can put together a nice fixed gear from the combined parts.

So I figure, all I need is a hub. I can reuse a chainwheel, chain, sprocket, rims, spokes, brake, frame, bars, and build a back wheel on the new fixed gear hub. After that it should all be a matter of adjustments.

Am I right? Or do I have to purchase more than the hub? Do I need a new sprocket/chain/rim/chainwheel/crankset/etc? The local fixie LBS has only 36 hole hubs, but I figure I can find a 32 one somewhere, since all my rims are 32-spoke.

This will be a sweet project!
Thanks.

You will need a hub and a fixed gear cog. I would also recommend a chainring that does not have shifting ramps. Also, make sure the frame has horizontal or semi-horizontal dropouts.

Have fun. Fixed gear bikes are a blast.

i've been using a ramped ring on my commuter for a few months now without problems. as long as the chainline is fairly close and you've got good chain tension it should work well enough.

with that said, my new bike (which i'm putting together in a little over 8 hours) will not have ramps. then again, it's gonna be my race bike, and that's one thing i dont want to leave anything to chance on.

Yep, you can successfully use a non-ramped chainring on a fixie, but dropping the chain on a fixie is a lot more hazardous than on a freewheeling bike. Cranks and frames flex, old chainrings can be bent. I'd rather pony up for a new ring than worry about peeling my face off the asphalt.

Make sure you check the spacing on the rear hub. Track spacings are 120mm. Most road bikes are 126 or 130mm. You may need to buy a new axle and put some spacers in for it to work. MEASURE YOUR SPACING YOURSELF!!!

Do not buy cheap cogs. These will tear up your hub if you start to do hard core stuff (I recently found this out!!!).

After you get your wheel built you will have to deal with chain line. Hopefully it will not be too far off. If it is, you have some things you can do to change it.

You should decide if you want 1/8 or 3/32 drive.

There are plenty of sites mentioned on this forum to help you out with these decisions.

If you get a suzue hub, it will need to be spaced but the axle is plenty long enough.
You will have some trouble finding track hubs that are 32 hole.
I like Surly track cogs and lock rings. I would also go ahead and get a nice, heavy duty chain ring.
If one of your old hubs is freewheel you can respace it(to get the cog in the right spot) and build it up for fixed, a track cog will spin on and you can use a english BB lockring for a cog lockring

Thanks for all the pointers.

I think I will purchase a new chainring; all the ones I have are beat up. Luckily, I found a 36 hole rim in really nice condition, so the 36 hole hub won't be a problem. The hub I've been looking at comes with a lockring and costs $72. I figure I'll end up spending about $150 on new parts; that's not bad.

Thanks for the info on spacing and drive ratio. I'll look into that.

I managed to build my first (and only ) fixed with only a rim, spokes, cog and chain for new parts. I have built some for others and coolness factor goes up with the number of used parts. 1/8th chain adds cool factor and is stronger. My first wheels were tubulars(high cool factor), but I got tired of flatting, glueing,waiting 24 hours and built up a clincher set.

I worked on my fixie this weekend!!

It's going to be on an old Nishiki steel frame, which my dad had laying around and happened to be exactly my size. I stripped it down to the frame and sanded it down for the paint job. Will do that next Saturday. I plan on keeping the headset and stem, and crankset, after I clean and lube them.

I'm going to look for some wheels at a used bike place; if I don't find any great deals, I'll just use the current ones, which are not bad, but kind of cheap.

I'm getting a new saddle and reusing an older seatpost. And I decided to get the Nitto bullhorn bars.

I think this will turn out to be a sweet bike! I'll keep you posted.