flip-flop or fixie wheelsets -are they the same as track wheels, & where to buy?

fat bloke

Are track wheels and road-use-fixie wheels, the same thing???

Is there any reason why you wouldn't or couldn't put single speed track wheels on a road and ride them on the road. Are all track wheels tubular? Or do they come as clinchers too?

I've a new, and newly retired road frame that I want to make into a single speed or fixie, and I'm a bit confusssed with the whole wheel thang.

Oh yeah - is there any reason why, to begin with at least, I couldn't use a regular road wheel and hub with a cassette on it, and just obviously have the chain on one of the sprockets? Or do I need a new rear wheel with a single gear hub - I don't give too much of a sh1t at the moment about whether it's truly a fixie or has a freewheel, I'm just looking for the fastest, cheapest, easiest way of making a one-geared bicycle.

lennymc

take off the deraileurs, shorten the chain.
The chainline is one thing that will need to match up tho - sheldon brown has info on it http://sheldonbrown.com/chainline.html
There are adaptors available for cassette hubs, with spacers, to convert a road wheel to a singlespeed. It obviously wont be fixed gear.

planet-x seem to do flip flop wheels.

Miklos

If you're in Dublin go to On Track on Cook St in town. They'll set you right.

Harrybelafonte

fat bloke wrote: »

Are track wheels and road-use-fixie wheels, the same thing???

Not neccessarily. Track wheels don't have to deal with potholes or crappy surfaces and are not made to do so. They might be okay, but good "fixie" wheels would be worth it in the longer term.

fat bloke wrote: »

Is there any reason why you wouldn't or couldn't put single speed track wheels on a road and ride them on the road. Are all track wheels tubular? Or do they come as clinchers too?

No, there are plenty of clinchers for track.

fat bloke wrote: »

Oh yeah - is there any reason why, to begin with at least, I couldn't use a regular road wheel and hub with a cassette on it, and just obviously have the chain on one of the sprockets? Or do I need a new rear wheel with a single gear hub - I don't give too much of a sh1t at the moment about whether it's truly a fixie or has a freewheel, I'm just looking for the fastest, cheapest, easiest way of making a one-geared bicycle.

Read Sheldon as Lenny said.

metamagical

fat bloke wrote: »

Is there any reason why you wouldn't or couldn't put single speed track wheels on a road and ride them on the road.
...
Oh yeah - is there any reason why, to begin with at least, I couldn't use a regular road wheel and hub with a cassette on it, and just obviously have the chain on one of the sprockets? Or do I need a new rear wheel with a single gear hub

The very good reason is that track wheels will be built for a frame with a 120 mm rear spacing, as opposed to the 130mm on your road bike. You can kludge it with a longer axle, but it can be difficult to get the chain to sit right.

Track wheels are also not dished in the same way as road ones - they're symmetrical, with the drive side being built with the same length spokes as the non-drive side, as opposed to your road wheel, which has shorter spokes on the drive side to allow room for the cassette.

My preference would be to get a wheel built on a 130mm hub. White does an excellent one that also lets you adjust chain tension, which is another difficulty with converting road frames to singlespeed use.

As regards tubs vs/clinchers, don't mistake "real" track wheels (ie, those ridden on velodromes) with those ridden on street fixies. It's like comparing roadie race wheels with those on a commuter bike

blorg

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Not neccessarily. Track wheels don't have to deal with potholes or crappy surfaces and are not made to do so. They might be okay, but good "fixie" wheels would be worth it in the longer term.

That doesn't make a lot of sense, it's not like they make track wheels weaker. Indeed quite the opposite, they are generally very beefy. Something like the Mavic Ellipse would be very street rideable. Another thing you would want to make sure if using a track wheelset on the street is that you can put brakes on the thing. Some track wheelsets don't come with a braking surface. But this is all a bit academic as OP is looking for a cheap conversion so is unlikely to end up with fancy track-specific wheels.

@OP- a flip flop hub is threaded for a fixed cog on one side and a freewheel the other. The fixed side is divided in two with normal threading for the track cog and then a slightly smaller diameter reverse thread for the lockring. The freewheel side is just threaded straight through (a freewheel can't unscrew itself so it doesn't need a lockring.)

A track hub will be either single sided fixed or double sided fixed both sides. In practice there is no problem putting a freewheel onto a fixed thread; it will only be supported on half its threads but this is more than enough. You can't safely put a fixed cog on a freewheel thread however.

Harrybelafonte

blorg wrote: »

That doesn't make a lot of sense