one of you will know...

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

steviesch

Senior Member
I have a white industries ENO rear hub which allows me to ride a fixed gear on my vertical drop out road frame. I want to switch to a single speed freewheel (hub is a free/fixed flip flop). The Eno hub allows me to pivot the hub in the rear forks but if i have a freewheel I should (evenin' officer) have a rear brake...but the pivoting of the rear hub means that the calipers won't reach the rim.

anyone had similar issues or know of long reach calipers?

Alternatively could anyone suggest a singlespeed rear hub/wheel build which would sit "normally" vertical dropout road frame which I could use with a chain tensioner?

merci!
 

Canrider

Guru
There are long reach calipers out there--within reason. I think the longest-drop ones are...67mm? No, sorry, Tektro 536's have 57mm max reach in the long-drop model. Not sure if any others have longer reach than that, sorry.
 

andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
You can pivot the wheel upwards as well as downwards. That means you get less clearance for mudguards, and may limit the tyre size you can use.
Use of a half-link may allow you to limit the amount of vertical movement to what the brakes will cope with.

On mine, I swapped the back brake for one with a bigger drop.
As well as the "standard" 57mm deep drop brakes (Shimano, Tektro etc) and the 73mm drop Alhongas, there are brakes with an intermediate drop (about 65mm).
I ended up with a pair of 64mm drop Promax (from Ribble), to replace the 57mm drop Shimano that was previously on. These are nicer than the Alhongas (as are Tektro R556 73mm reach brakes if you can find them).

For singlespeed use, you can use a chain tensioner with an old screw-on freewheel hub. You may want to fiddle with axle spacers to get a decent chainline, though this isn't as important as with fixed.

Given that you already have the ENO, the new brakes will probably be cheaper than a chain tensioner and wheel.
 
Top Bottom