Conversion - Bad Starting point?

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Scruffmonster

Über Member
Location
London/Kent
Hey,

Can someone please take a look at the below picture and tell me if these drop outs are a painful starting place for a fixed gear conversion?

I've got a new road bike and subsequently have a bike that I'd quite like to keep for another purpose. It's either make it fixed/single speed or make it up for winter commuting.

Happy either way, but figure it'd be quite nice for something different, especially if I could throw in the odd commute on it for some training (it's 18 miles into London from Kent so flattish)

Any advice welcome,

Cheers,

Lee

(Sorry, rotation looks fine on the mac, upload screws it)

EDIT - Found a brain cell, pic now rotated

2ljm103.jpg
 

david1701

Well-Known Member
Location
Bude, Cornwall
does it point down (I think it does but my head is screwy)?
 
In a word,no, you need to be able to tension the chain by sliding the wheel backwards

The only way round it is an eccentric rear hub or bottom bracket, neither of which are

cheap,You can pick up old road frames off ebay for peanuts sometimes

check out the pics of the dropouts on those and you'll see the difference
 

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
In a word,no, you need to be able to tension the chain by sliding the wheel backwards

The only way round it is an eccentric rear hub or bottom bracket, neither of which are

cheap,You can pick up old road frames off ebay for peanuts sometimes

check out the pics of the dropouts on those and you'll see the difference


Agreed
 

wheres_my_beard

Über Member
Location
Norwich
Filing sounds like a good option, depending on how attached you are to the frame, so you can tighten the chain without a tensioner, ideally once you have found the magic gear ratio that allows the chain length to perfectly match the distance from you bottom bracket to you rear cog (possibly, but not neccessarily needing to use a half link chain). Saggy chains on fixed gear or even singlespeed are a definite no-no.

Google should throw up some helpful links and vids. This is a good starting point > here

This might also be a useful link > here
 
OP
OP
Scruffmonster

Scruffmonster

Über Member
Location
London/Kent
Not even a half link, those chunkey drop outs could withstand some removal of some material with a file to give some semi-horizontal tension.

Special thanks to you man. You posted here and in the know how thread that was identical...

I got this working! I magic geared it and ended up with 50 x 18, a perfectly taught chain and a bike looking like this;

2uoj2uv.jpg


So.... next question. I single speeded it, the chain is tight, if I am happy with the gearing (feels good so far) can I put a fixed hub on it?

Cheers,

Lee
 
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