Hi all,

Just bought a rear wheel for a SS MTB, but took it into another local bike store for some extra parts and they told me it's completely wrong for a SS. I'm now completely confused!

Here's a shot of the central part of the wheel:



Is this ok for a SS and if so, what else do I need to buy to fit a correct cog on the back?

Cheers, Chris

you need to buy a singlespeed freewheel, to thread onto that freewheel hub. more importantly, you'll need to respace and/or redish that wheel so the single freewheel is in the right position relative to the chainring.

respacing it will involve taking off that massive spacer and replacing it with something else. redishing it will involve loosening some spokes and tightening others, to bring the rim back to the center. see bobs garage for help respacing/redishing. good luck.

the spacer is probably there because its a 120mm hub spaced out the 135. What does the other side look like? those thread are designed for a freewheel not a cog.

As long as it's not an Italian or French hub, the threading on that hub is 1.37x24 which is standard english which means that you can in fact thread on a track cog. Many people have done such a thing, use some j and b, or some engine locktite too ensure that it won't come off even under intense stress.
Many of the younger kids where I live cannot afford a new wheelset, and/or just want to try the whole fixed gear thing out. So take an old 27" rear free wheel hub and put the track cog on as tightly as possible and it'll be fine. You can always use a bottom bracket lockring on the last few bits of threading to add an extra insurance factor; depending on how many threads that may not work though.

if you do this (suicide hub), you'll probably want to run brakes as well. that way, its not a suicide hub.

edit -- in any case, he wants to run SS, not fixed, so it shouldn't be a problem. threading a freewheel on that hub will be a piece of cake.