Cheap attempt at a fixie, will i be seriously injured??

jollylee

Hi lads,

Decided to see what all this fixie business is about and what people are getting so excited for.

I'm a broke 3rd level student, have two decent bikes, one for off road and one racing bike so don't have money or need to spend lots on a 3rd bike.

The plan is to strip an old raleigh that i'm getting extremely cheap, fit an old BMX freewheel that gave up years ago and weld everything up nice and solid! I realise that the freewheel will unscrew so planning on welding that to the wheel once its threaded on nice and tight.

Anybody welded a single speed freewheel to a hub before? To be honest if i have to buy a fixie hub and rebuild a wheel i probably won't bother.

niceonetom

i predict that your painful and spectacular demise will serve as a useful warning to others.

TinyExplosions

Just get it on camera, and have your mate post it to youtube so we can all have a laugh

rp

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Just get it on camera, and have your mate post it to youtube so we can all have a laugh

do you mean video the attempt to weld a steel freewheel body to an ally hub? Should be a laugh, alright...

Morgan

jollylee wrote: »

The plan is to strip an old raleigh that i'm getting extremely cheap, fit an old BMX freewheel that gave up years ago and weld everything up nice and solid! I realise that the freewheel will unscrew so planning on welding that to the wheel once its threaded on nice and tight.

If you can thread on a freewheel you can just as easily thread on a fixed cog. You'll face the same unscrewing problem though. Google "rotafix" for a method of tightening the cog. Welding (or glueing!) the cog will add some more security but is still somewhat risky.

CheGuedara

jollylee wrote: »

.... so planning on welding that to the wheel once its threaded on nice and tight..

Well jollylee, I'd love to say you'll be fine but my betting money is unfortunately going against you on this one... you might consider having a compression bandage handy when giving it a go...

Wez

Give it a shot, just make sure to spend good money on brakes! Have had a few close calls riding my home-built due to chainline issues and others, once while pulling a skid, the chainbolts snapped, chainrings twisted into a figure 8 and what saved me was the emergency brake I'd left on..

Be prepared to come across a few issues in doing this, could take alot of time instead of money, or both.. My plan was similar to yours, but I went with the 'buying a hub and building my own wheel' road and am fairly happy in the long run, although I'm positive my bike is cursed, every possible thing that could have gone wrong, has. I've replaced all of the parts I thought I wouldn't need too: Cranks twice, pedals, chain, cogs F/R, handle bars, seat/post.. list goes on, not to mention the long walks I've had with said bike over my shoulder. I'm pretty sure my collar bone has grown around it at this stage..

Best of luck with it though, and try keep a picture journal so we (those actually interested) can see your progress!

jollylee

Thanks for the humorous, positive and helpful replies. I collected the bike this evening. Its actually an old reynolds framed Viking which would have been made in Northern Ireland as far as I know. It's got shimano 600 gear and weighing in at just over 10kg. Nearly a shame to butcher it in the manner i intend to.

The wheel has been left at a friend's who is an alloy and stainless steel fitter. He agreed with me about the steel/alloy welding problem but said it'd cost nothing to give a shot. The hope is that a few spot welds would destroy the threads enough to stop the freewheel from unscrewing.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes lol.

Regards the brakes i'll leave on the front brake while i'm testing. Its working fine.

I'll stick up a few photos of the project if it takes off.

DirkVoodoo

Sounds interesting, dont do anything too crazy when you have it built, take it handy!

fish-head

I say keep it as it is!

Morgan

You're still using the freewheel?

jollylee

fish-head wrote: »

I say keep it as it is!

Don't say things like that. I actually could! Its a fine bike. Weighs 10kgs without a seat post or saddle (it didn't come with either) so not heavy at all for a steel racer. Made from 531 reynolds tubing.

Just pumped it and went for a quickie and apart from a rear gear cable she's pretty much ready to race (apart from seat post and saddle of course). Not bad for €30 including two new tubes to be fitted.

Its manky dusty though and needs a serious clean. None the less i bought it to go fixie so will stick to the plan unless the funny men above are right and the welding job doesn't work out.

Billy Whizz

Just chipping in to say that builing stuff up around an old frame can be pretty problematic.

I embarked on a cheap commuting fixie a few months ago and only finished it last week. Got a old 1980's columbus frame with horizontal dropouts, fork and bars from Ebay for €50 and set about collecting the parts.

I had a lot of problems to get around. The front brake drilling was too small and so had to be enlarged to fit a standard caliper brake, which was fairly daunting. The fork ends were too narrow to fit the wheels and had to be filed down. The rear hub spacing was 6mm too large for a 120mm track rear wheel and as a result my chainline will always be 2-3mm off (which is not catastrophic). There were issues with the headset too.

You may have very few problems however, at times I felt I was just a bit unlucky. To be honest it was good fun for the most part, cost about €350 total and is very rewarding when it becomes road-worthy.

Oh and I wouldn't weld that freewheel.

fish-head

jollylee wrote: »

Its manky dusty though and needs a serious clean. None the less i bought it to go fixie so will stick to the plan unless the funny men above are right and the welding job doesn't work out.

Well take it apart carefully.. you might want all the gearie bits at a later date.

I'm a bit skeptical of the welding idea myself.. I'd buy a cheap fixed rear wheel if I were you.

Trojan

jollylee wrote: »

Regards the brakes i'll leave on the front brake while i'm testing.

I reckon it might be worthwhile leaving it on permanently...

niceonetom

jollylee wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see how it goes lol.

Regards the brakes i'll leave on the front brake while i'm testing.

jut to clarify... you are trying to avoid injury right? or have i misconstrued the intention of this thread?

if i have then yes, you're in luck, home made hubs and no brakes are path to serious injury. have fun .

blorg

You need a front brake if there is any chance you may need to stop suddenly (e.g. you are not in the track); you only have a fraction of the braking power from locking the back wheel. Without a front brake if something goes wrong with your drivetrain you could be in big trouble. TBH I would just get a cheap fixed wheel anyway, your welding a freewheel idea sounds nuts. Trying to affix a fixed cog (cost around £12) without a lockring (can you not fit a lockring?) would be marginally more sensible but certainly keep a front brake in that circumstance as you would unscrew the cog if you try to brake with your legs (I have managed this myself even with a lockring.)

CheGuedara

Just to throw something else into the foray as an alternative to McGyver shenanigans

How about (and I know you said about being a poor 3rd level stdent - phd land isn't much better let me tell ya) saving just a wee bit longer and going down the route of what this crowd do http://www.londonfixiebike.co.uk/shop.html

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>

Bolt on single gear to disc mount on something cheap like deore rear hub, get the axel tweaked to fit the frame, space the cog to get chain line correct and if using a rear hub stick a single speed kit on it so you'll have a flipflop wheel - fixie one side, s.speed the other. Bif of restraint on the pocket n you have a bit of quality kit for your project.

And no one gets mangled.....nice

Gavin

CheGuedara wrote: »

Just to throw something else into the foray as an alternative to McGyver shenanigans

How about (and I know you said about being a poor 3rd level stdent - phd land isn't much better let me tell ya) saving just a wee bit longer and going down the route of what this crowd do http://www.londonfixiebike.co.uk/shop.html

---

>

Bolt on single gear to disc mount on something cheap like deore rear hub, get the axel tweaked to fit the frame, space the cog to get chain line correct and if using a rear hub stick a single speed kit on it so you'll have a flipflop wheel - fixie one side, s.speed the other. Bif of restraint on the pocket n you have a bit of quality kit for your project.

And no one gets mangled.....nice

This is a good idea alright, I've ben reading up on it a bit and intend doing it with a spare front disc brake wheel I have. The drilled cogs are around 20 euro and axles around 10 euro for sjscycles. Doing it with an mtb wheel though..

jollylee

Ok you've convinced me, the bike will have a permanent brake. The way I see it is I'm gonna be dumping the hub anyways if i decide to buy a track hub so why not experiment a bit with it while I'm putting a few quid aside for the new hub and gear. The bike will probably never see 20kph for the moment anyways and it'll be just for spinning round 2 or 3 miles of my house so won't need to be reliable.

Thanks for all the concern for my well-being also!!

I've opened a photobucket account for the project here: http://s429.photobucket.com/albums/qq14/jollylee11/

It already has a few photos of the bike as it arrived home yesterday evening.

blorg

To be honest I wouldn't be without brakes if only because I want the hoods anyway for the hand position, both as a "default" position and also standing out of the saddle honking up steep hills; reckon I'm climbing almost as much with my arms as my legs in that position.

A rear brake is actually also handy, both as a drag on long descents but also if your right hand is otherwise occupied, carrying something large or wheeling another bike for example.