hi!

i did a half-assed search and didnt really notice anything, so i thought id litter the boards with another lame thread, sorry in advance

so, a friend of mine (no really, its not me lol) bought a velocity wheelset off bell's bike shop. He asked for a flip/flop hub and got a hub with fixed on both sides.

I told him he should call and ask for a refund/return, whatever, he calls them, and they tell him "oh you can run a freewheel on a fixed hub no problem, we do that all the time" or something (i didn't talk to them, this is what my friend told me they said)

this sounds fishy to me, almost like they dont want to deal with a return/refund for their fu@kup.

ANYWAY, the question:

is it really possible to install and ride a freewheel on a track hub? now while i think its possible (i mean it can thread on) i would think its unsafe because its probably not threading all the way on.

please let me know if i should tell my friend to fight for a refund/exchange (which i am leaning towards) or if you have personal experience with a freewheel on a track hub with no problems whatsoever.

thanks in advance, and sorry if this has been covered many times before.

Yes 100% fine
fixed/fixed hubs are the only kind of flip flop hub anyone should ever buy for this reason
just think about how much of a thread-on freewheel cluster is unsupported by the threads.

my only concern is when you screw the freewheel onto a track hub, not all of the freewheel threads will be threaded on....some bike mechanic guy i talked to over the phone when asking if they sold a freewheel removal tool said that there is a possibility of stripping the threads if riding a freewheel on a fixed hub....

Why would removing a freewheel strip but not a track cog if using the same number of threads? You're fine.

well.... dosn't a freewheel cog have more threads than a track cog? im just imagining the freewheel would only screw half way or 3/4s way onto the track hub...

i dunno, i just wanna make sure my buddy is safe and a bike shop isn't just telling him "oh yah its cool" when it isn't lol

im stilll sort of bike-newbish, but hes even more newb than me and asks me for info so im trying to make sure things are cool and he isn't being duped.

You are correct that a cog has less threads than a freewheel. In practice, however, freewheels thread on very strongly onto track hubs. It's safe to do.

There are crappy hubs where the threads can be stripped, but there it doesn't make any difference whether you use a cog or a freewheel - the material of the hub's shell is too weak and each will strip the threads.

ok cool, looks like consensus is it will be fine.
i was just making sure, thanks people!

ps blick i dig the bags!

it should be fine, but i do think they are being lazy about their own screw-up

Yeah you're golden

and thanks!

any hub with threads on both sides is a 'flip flop,' whether it's fixed/fixed or fixed/free or free/free.

as everyone said there's no problem with putting a freewheel on fixed threading.

I have a fixed/fixed track hub witha 15t fixed on one side and a 16t free on the other. Worked great!

Of course ever since I put on the Fixed cog I am not sure I'll go back to the free. Unfortunately I don't have the proper freewheel removal tool at home. Looks like I'll have to wait till I remember it next time I am at the LSB with my bike.

That's why fixed/fixed is best. you can run free/free, free/fixed or fixed/fixed

Or you could just order it from the intertubes. What freewheel is it? Piccy?