rear spacing - in or out?
 

Looking forward to building my first fixie out of a 1980s fuji. Last night I pulled out the calipers to measure the rear spacing. I came up with a decidedly middle of the road 125mm (measured inside to inside).

So, I'm wondering if should I go with road spacing @ 130 or track @120. Being a cro-mo frame, the chain and seat stays should be able to take the +/- 2mm either way.

What are your considered opinions / experiences?

which model fuji is it, i just built on a 80's i think fuji delray.

well......I guess it all depends on which rear hub you have laying around in your junk drawer.....

It's a Sagres SP. It's very red and very nice. I got the frame, a set of wheels and $25 for wrenching on a girl's roadbike.

Since I don't have a fixie hub in the junk drawer, I was wondering if people strong opinions or experiences with either type of hub.

I was thinking of buying the Van Dessel flip flop rear wheel (it's a 130). The wheel is only $84. Anybody have good or bad experiences with that wheel/hub?

I'm planning to build a wheel later, but this is just to get me started.

sounds like your best choice would be the 130mm. that way you can run 2 gears. if you ran the 120mm, youd have to space the axle and redish the wheel to get the chainline straight, so you wouldnt be able to flip flop for the other gear.

FWIW, most track bikes use 110mm. Most SS/fixed hubs just need a few spacers, or maybe a longer axle nut. Suzue hubs just need spacers. The real hardcore hubs may be a problem, though....

As far as I know, nobody makes a 130mm-specific SS or fixed hub. Just the plain old 120-126 hub with spacers.

van dessel makes a 130mm fixed hub, and i think you can get one from surly thats 130mm...i dont know if they are fixed/free or fixed/fixed

the van dessel comes with a 16tooth cog and lockring which is a pleasant bonus

And free shipping. It sounds almost too good to be true.

Personally i'd cold set the frame and use a 120mm hub, more standard so if you ever want to upgrade wheels (or frame) you have more choice of hubs.

Cold setting's pretty easy, sheldon has a page on it, did it to mine and it worked fine.

I have that hub on my "Country Road Bob". I only have about 100 miles on the fixed side, but I have well over 5000 on the freewheel side. The only thing I would note is that for the first few hundred miles my chain would get quite a bit of slack, and need to be retightend - a couple of chain tugs fixed that.

I have an old Raligh frame laying around that measures 125mm as well - I'll pull my van dessel hub and see how it fits - I'll give you some notes later.

It took a bit of work, but it fit - kinda wedged in there. Seemed like it lined up straight - I might even jump in on that deal. I'm thinking of building a fixie as well. I've had that hub and wheel for almost 2 years (raced cross for a season too!) with no problems.

Thanks for the fieldwork and the testimonial. I can feel a lot better about the deal now.

I have exactly the same spacing on an old Tommasini road frame that I fixed. I went with a phil wood 130mm double fixed hub, works great. You have to bend it a bit to get it in there, but its not bad at all.

Just an FYI -

Got the Flipflpo wheel yesterday. It looks great. In fact, it's going to make my beater silver wheel look so bad I might have to order the VD front for a matched set.

Two things - (1) VD is no longer throwing in free cogs and lockrings. Apparnetly, they were just stamped and pretty cheap. People started complaining so VD stopped shipping them. (2) shipping isn't free. I noticed a difference between the online order total and my CC bill. I called VD and they let me know the wheel shipping was $7.

No complaining here. It still looks like a great deal on a great wheel.

are you sure about that?

I hope not. He's just about 100% wrong with that entire post.