Converting front disc wheel to fixed

Gavin

I have this spare front wheel sitting in my shed and I figure I may as well use it to go fixed on the Banana Bike.

The hub is a Shimano HB-M475

As I understand it, I can get a disc mountable cog from londonfixiebike.co.uk and screw this onto the disc brake mount. I can move the hub in and out with spacers and re-dish the wheel if needs be. However, I am somewhat confused about dropout spacing and axles.

The wheel hub is empty, I don't have the original axle/cones/bearings/anything so I need to replace those. Are all Shimano hub bearings/axles standard ? I want a solid axle, but most of the Shimano ones I find are QR. I think the spacing on my dropouts is 135mm (90s Raleigh MTB), but haven't measured it yet.

Would something like this work ? I'm not sure what length axle I need, I assume 137 is too small? Is it a 10mm axle I need? What size ball bearings do I need ?

Confusion and mayhem!

Morgan

I was in Halfords (Tallaght) yesterday - they have a range of solid axles on display (including cones, bearings and a little tube of grease!). One of them should be the right length for you.

Gavin

Thanks for that !

Yeah I ended up ordering a 10mm x 174mm axle from sjscycles with varying sizes of ball bearings. I figure I can cut off the extra length when I get it sorted.

I was then in halfords a week later and saw the bleedin axles hanging on the wall. I was totally amazed. Halfords having useful items ! Worked out at the same price though including the ball bearings, so was ok.

I checked the chainline in a rudimentary manner and all seems well, so ordered the disc mount cog, which is en route along with plenty of spacers to get things lined up properly. I may get away without even having to re-dish the wheel.. maybe.

NeilMcEoigheann

didn't know you could get disk mountable cogs..... nice

tunney

I object to the title of this thread.

Very misleading, absolutely nothing to do with disc wheels or fixed wheel riding. I had expected a fantastic thread on track riding with double fixed discs.

Karma

label does what it says on the post :P

Verb, any problems with it, keith in wolfe cycles on sundrive is a great guy for fixing things like that.

Gavin

You are too Euro Tunney, you need to reduce your expectations.

Cheers for that Karma, I'll see how I get on, handy to have a backup.

Gavin

To follow up.

The front wheel almost worked. But then the dust cap was a bit wonky and the bearings jammed into it. So I scrapped that.

Then, the very generous 68 Fastback gave me a complete rear MTB wheel. So I replaced the QR axle with a solid one, as above, regreased ball bearings, mounted cog, stuck in some spacers to get things lined up nicely and bingo ! Fixed wheel. Took the spacers and cog from my old wheel and put them onto the freewheel side and bingo, flip-flop hub!

Now to see if I survive the zen experience.