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roadbike difference between front wheel and rear wheel

  • 09-12-2011 11:35pm
    #1
    MungoMan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 353 ✭✭


    i was wondering about the difference between a front wheel and a rear wheel on a roadbike...

    Specifically, could you take a front wheel of a roadbike and add a freehub and convert into a rear wheel........I'd imagine you'd need to redish the wheel probably because it wouldnt be centered on between the rear droupouts ?

    Alternatively, could you take a rear wheel and turn it into a front wheel ?


Comments

  • #2
    Tonyandthewhale
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,867 ✭✭✭Tonyandthewhale


    Rims are rims for the most part. But since you'd have to change the hub and mess around with the spokes I'm not sure you could really call it the same wheel.

    Also, some wheelsets have a different spoke count between front and back so you could only use a front rim as on a rear wheel and vice versa if the spoke hole numbers are right. The spoke lenghts may be different as well I think.


  • #3
    victorcarrera
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,059 ✭✭✭victorcarrera


    The front and rear dropouts and axles are different widths. 130 mm and 110 mm.
    So without changing the hubs you should be able to swap the axles and remove the hub body and they will fit if you have sealed bearings or if the axle threads are suitable for the cone widths. But you still can't put a rear hub body on a front wheel hub so now you have a scooter. It would be much easier to swap the handlebars with the saddle and steer it with your bum.:D Although I've never seen this done either.


  • #4
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,219 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    victorcarrera wrote: »
    The front and rear dropouts and axles are different widths. 130 mm and 110 mm.

    Surly Pugsley FTW!


  • #5
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 78,393 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Depends what type of road bike you're talking about. I certainly wouldn't try it with one of these:


    Ordinary_bicycle01.jpg


  • #6
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    One of the lads in rothar has somewhat done this.

    He took an MTB disc front hub, swapped out the axle with a rear hub axle and added a few spacers, making it 130mm, then bolted a cog onto the disc mounts. So it's a fixie. He also put the drive side on the left. For no reason really other than he had access to a workshop, spare parts, and presumably plenty of time on his hands :D

    You could probably bastardise together some kind of freehub/freewheel assembly which you bolt onto a disc mount, if you have access to all kind of metalworking tools, and lots of confidence in your skills - the drive side of a wheel is under quite a lot of stress, so you'd need to make it very strong.

    But my suspicion is that a singlespeed freewheel would be more likely doable than a freehub. The disc mount + freehub width would be huge, so the rear wheel would probably be slightly offset to the left of the bike, making handling interesting.


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