My cousin bought a Bianchi Pista the other day. When I spin the rear wheel with my hand, the wheel seems to keep spinning for quite a while. However, when I spin the rear wheel of my own bike, it moves for a second and totally stops.

Is it my hub? Chain tension?

I would check chain tension first.... too tight.

Well, how is your chain tension compared to his? Tight tension will no doubt add more resistance to your drivetrain.

Simple, your chain is tighter than his

I've tried changing the tension by adding just one halflink, and it gives way too much slack. Since I have vertical dropouts, thats basically the most I can do. Is there another way to add just a little slack?

Find the "magic gear" ratio or your bike... it might cost ya.. but it's gonna provide a much nicer ride in the long run and your chains are going to last longer too.

eccentric:

That's a nice hub, but I don't have money for a new hub :/ .

Well then you better have money for new cogs/chainrings...

if you are dead set on using that frame, i would save up. if your wheel stops almost immediately the chain has got to be pretty tight.

i thought long and hard about my decision and decided to go this route. i can now run any gear ratio i want, and any frame i want (i have 3 total)

a semi compact aluminum
an all chrome reynolds 853 steel frame
and a vintage steel yakota in great shape.

i can also buy whatever frame suits my fancy as welll

Ahh. It seems the only way to go with this is saving up money. Thanks for the help, guys.

what is your frame? are you partial of it? you could always find a cheap frame at a thrift shop or craigslist and swap your parts over.

Run a round file through the dropouts. That will slacken the chain by a hair.

There's also the option of filing the axlethread and dropout.See Sheldon's article on this.

Wow, great solution! I'll get right on filing. I can see how that makes sense. I want to keep my beloved frame forever and ever. I'll never get a new one !

Eccentric:

You can also switch to a quick release setup, and cut off the threaded part off the axle the qr runs though. I did this for a while on a fg with vertical dropouts and had no problems. Quoted from Sheldon Brown

"I used a more drastic solution: on my Bianchi Osprey. I cut the rear axle short so that it didsn't protrude past the surfaces of the locknuts. Thus, only the quick-release skewer went through the dropouts. Since the skewer is quite a bit thinner than the actual axle, this gives me considerably more adjustment room.

If the skewer is properly tightened, the axle is held in place by the friction of the locknuts being pressed against the inside of the dropouts. If this were not the case, horizontal dropouts would not be usable, since the forward pull on the chain creates a larger force against the axle than supporting the rider's weight does."

Another cause could be the pressure on your bearings could be too tight.

That seems like it would work but it was set up by someone that knew bikes inside and out. i would not recomend this to someone that is newish to bikes to get all gung ho on something that has the potential to be pretty dangerous if not done properly. same with the filling of dropouts.

if the chain is so tight that the wheel stops immediately, i doubt the adding a half link will make it too slack. slacker than perfect, but most people run their chains too tight

it's part of the constraint you're putting yourself into by running a fixed gear with goddam vertical dropouts.