I want to run a free bearing hub on my set of road wheels. I prefer these, period. But I also want to be able to run a single-speed freewheel every once and a while when I join large groups of road bikers for long rides on the hilly terrain around where I am in Southern California. But this is a problem: I do not know of any flip-flop free (i.e., non-cartridge) bearing hub.

I have thought of one possible solution: get a fixed/fixed hub or just a one-sided fixed hub, like a Dura Ace (my favorite, aside from the Superbe Pros) and screw a freewheel hub onto it.

My questions:
Has anyone done this? Has it worked? Will I risk destroying the hub doing this with a freewheel? Or is it just as safe as running a fixed cog?

Thanks in advance.

--Chad

P.S. I am a picky person when it comes to my bike. There will be some who will say, "Why do you want to do x, when you could just y?" I will ignore these responses. And let arguments on whether I should prefer cup and cone set ups or not take place in another thread (or just do a search through the forums, there are arguments on both sides aplenty). Just FYI.

I ran a freewheel on fixed threads for about a month with no problems. That's not long, but I searched here before I did it. The consensus was that it's fine.

Thanks for the reply. I searched too, but I could not find anything. Would you post a link or two for me? If they are helpful, I will drop this thread, I hate multiplying them.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...highlight=free

This is somewhat helpful, but it turns into a discussion about suicide hubs filled with speculation.

Yeah. People seem pretty confident about doing this in general. But there is this worry registered there.

Is this person saying that if there is alot of thread unused on the freewheel, then there is a good chance that one will strip their hub? If so, this worries me. Has anyone
actually ever done this?

many many people have done it without issue. however, i work in a shop that stocked giant bowerys which all came stock with a fixed/fixed hub and a freewheel. these particular hubs (i'm afraid i don't know who made them, they were giant oem) did have problems and on at least three occasions we had to replace the wheel because the threads were stripped.

that being said, this is the only verifiable case i've heard where a freewheel has caused problems on a fixed hub. i've done it myself, lots of friends have done it, formula, nashbar/dimension, phil, no problems. i suspect the giant issue had more to do with the quality of the hub than the feasibility of the setup.

Good information. If I do this, I will probably use my Dura Ace hubs. These are probably tough enough.

a guy who builds as many wheels as anyone (runs an online wheel store that specializes in fixed/SS wheels) told me that he ONLY stocks fixed/fixed hubs, because he's 100% confident that threading a freewheel onto a fixed threaded hub is NOT a problem. Ever. I trust this guy.

I've seen the wheels that you built. They were nice. Do you have contact info on this guy?

Sheldon Brown (RIP) says its is totally fine, and his word is pretty much gospel round here. He says that a fixed/fixed hub is the best to buy since it offers you the ability to run fixed/fixed, fixed/free, or even free/free.

i'm not sure he'd be entirely happy about that.

but on matters of opinion, his certainly carries a lot of weight. as it should.

Well, there are two people whose opinions I trust concerning bikes so far, two people whose word is good enough for me to adopt and ride by: my LBS mechanic and Sheldon. They both say its a good idea, so Dura Ace hubs for my road set it is.

Thanks for your input.

I run freewheels on two fix/fix hubs(one of which is on a Bowery) and have never had a problem. The other is a Dia Compe Gran Compe. Go for it!