hey, I got a problem.......

I ride a fix gear on an old Panasonic frame with nice long dropouts. I can't seem to get my chain tight enough so that there isn't any play when I change directions. It drives me nuts. I pull the wheel back as hard as I can when i'm setting the nuts, but there always seems to be a little play no matter what I do. Is there a trick I'm missing?

Thanks!

If you have a bike stand, what I do is to turn the bike upsidedown and let gravity help. Also you might want to check for a high spot in you chain ring. If out of round it will cause a tight spot and the rest will be slack.

Thanks a lot. How do I check for a high spot?

turn the cranks slowly, checking for slack as you go along. If the ring's not concentric, it'll be noticeably looser and tighter in different places. Sheldon has a section on chain tension in this article: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html

Do you have enough room in the dropouts to get it tight or are you pulling the wheel back, hitting the end of the dropouts, and still not tight? Is it loosening as you tighten your axle nuts? Do you have track nuts? Normal cheapo flange nuts can cause the axle to walk forward as the rotating flange bites into the metal.

I was having the same problem and I found that using better, larger washers helped.

How much is a little play? You always want some - if there is no play at all, your chain is probably too tight.

You're much more likely to have a high spot/uneven ring if it's stamped instead of machined. I had this problem on the bike I built friday - switched out the chainring with a Rocket ring on saturday and it's all better.

Instead of pulling the wheel back, I usually push it back, standing inbetween the front and rear wheel. Tighten the drive side first, not caring if it's exactly centered, and not all the way down, just enough to hold it. Press on the chain, should have 1/4 to 1/2 inch up down in the center. Add another twist to the drive side, then center the wheel and crank down the other side, really tight, keeping back pressure by leaning on the wheel. Check chain tension again, if it's slackened, I loosen the drive side and push it back - it should move to the point it was first tightened, and center the wheel. Sometimes you have to repeat a few times...

Hope that helps some.

I personally just do the drive side. I use backpressure on the wrench as I tighten down the DS like a mother to keep everything taut. Then I do the NDS which doesn't need to be as tight. Some here claim this can cause bent axles but if your dropouts are parallel and you center your wheel, I see reason to believe that this can be the case.