The fixed gear saga continues...

[David Nutter]

A week ago I spent several hours in the garage building a wheel for my fixed gear project bike and
eventually suceeded, after scrounging a dishing guage from the bike shop. The wheel was beautiful,
strong and true. I was well impressed. Unfortunately, when I put it on the bike the rear brake
caliper would no longer fit and a quick check with the dishing gauge revealed that the original
wheel was dished incorrectly to allow the caliper to fit. They are devils these bike
manufacturers...

At this point a piscine odour was detected and I wheeled the machine to the LBS to let the mechanic
have a look as my peice of string hadn't revealed any obvious rear-end misalignment.

It turns out that the misalignment was not in the dropouts as I originally thought but ocurred
because the rear triangle had been welded to the seat tube incorrectly when the frame was built.
Consequently I can either re-dish the wheel so the brake fits (bad) or make do without a rear brake,
rather a pity as I was going to screw a single speed freewheel onto the other side of the hub.

To cap it all I've already barked my shins on the pedals; an injury very familiar from my first ever
bike, also fixed gear. I will have to get the clipless pedals sorted out before I do myself a nasty.

Aside: Anyone got a decent road bike frame with horizontal dropouts to sell?


Regards,

-david

 

[Tony Raven]

David Nutter <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> It turns out that the misalignment was not in the dropouts as I originally thought but ocurred
> because the rear triangle had been welded to the seat tube incorrectly when the frame was
> built. Consequently I can either re-dish the wheel so the brake fits (bad) or make do without a
> rear brake, rather a pity as I was going to screw a single speed freewheel onto the other side
> of the hub.
>

Assuming nothing can be done in terms of frame realignment to fix the problem I would ditch the rear
brake. The rear brake is not that important on a road bike and on a fixed you can happily live with
just a front brake.

Tony

--
http://www.raven-family.com

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
Bernard Shaw

 

[David Nutter]

Tony Raven <[email protected]> said:

> Assuming nothing can be done in terms of frame realignment to fix the problem I would ditch the
> rear brake. The rear brake is not that important on a road bike and on a fixed you can happily
> live with just a front brake.

Apparently the frame can't be realigned without cutting the rear triangle off the seat tube and
re-welding it and the frame quality doesn't justify this operation. I'm currently running without a
rear brake, so far without problems, but I do miss having a rear brake to use at junctions when I'm
signalling right for example. I haven't yet got the hang of modulating my cadence to control the
bike's speed[1] in these situations: I either stop completely and nearly fall off or go too quickly.

The main problem is that the bike looks odd as the rear wheel is visibly offset to the right side of
the bike at the top of the seat stays, though not at the dropouts. Though handling doesn't seem to
be affected, I can't have a deformed bike

Regards,

-david

[1] A wobbly 10mph or so...

 

[Tony Raven]

David Nutter <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> The main problem is that the bike looks odd as the rear wheel is visibly offset to the right side
> of the bike at the top of the seat stays, though not at the dropouts. Though handling doesn't seem
> to be affected, I can't have a deformed bike
>

I can't quite visualise the geometry but some bikes are built with asymmetric rear triangles so the
rear wheel can be symmetrically spoked. Perhaps you have one of those frames.

Tony

-- http://www.raven-family.com

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
Bernard Shaw

 

[Paul]

Hi David Welcome to singlespeed land! I have a ss mtb which I use as a bit of an all rounder - a
great training machine. Freewheel, though - I haven't been brave enough to go fixed yet. I do have
an old, but perfectly servicable Raleigh Record Sprint frame, which I can let go for a small
consideration. It has 'semi' horizontal drop-outs. Let me know if you're interested (paul.a.hartigan
at btinternet.com) Paul "David Nutter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> A week ago I spent several hours in the garage building a wheel for my
fixed
> gear project bike and eventually suceeded, after scrounging a dishing
guage
> from the bike shop. The wheel was beautiful, strong and true. I was well impressed. Unfortunately,
> when I put it on the bike the rear brake caliper would no longer fit and a quick check with the
> dishing gauge revealed that the original wheel was dished incorrectly to allow the caliper to fit.
They
> are devils these bike manufacturers...
>
> At this point a piscine odour was detected and I wheeled the machine to
the
> LBS to let the mechanic have a look as my peice of string hadn't revealed any obvious rear-end
> misalignment.
>
> It turns out that the misalignment was not in the dropouts as I originally thought but ocurred
> because the rear triangle had been welded to the seat tube incorrectly when the frame was built.
> Consequently I can either
re-dish
> the wheel so the brake fits (bad) or make do without a rear brake, rather
a
> pity as I was going to screw a single speed freewheel onto the other side
of
> the hub.
>
> To cap it all I've already barked my shins on the pedals; an injury very familiar from my first
> ever bike, also fixed gear. I will have to get the clipless pedals sorted out before I do myself
> a nasty.
>
> Aside: Anyone got a decent road bike frame with horizontal dropouts to
sell?
>
>
> Regards,
>
> -david