SS conversion advice

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by vx255 on July 15, 2008 at 10:18pm

If the rear wheel is stuffed, then maybe look at getting a SS wheel from somewhere like abbotsford cycles, they specialise at doing this sort of thing.
www.abbotsfordcycles.com.au

I went the new freehub wheel and spacer kit, but only because I had the wheels already, and got a deal on a kit.

Permalink Reply by Stavros on July 16, 2008 at 12:34pm

If you've got bit's of bikes hanging around, it's a pretty easy thing to do and can be pretty cheap. The way I built one was to totally strip the bike and then put back only what you wanted. Like Eddy said, you can space out a freehub body to accomodate only one cog. With a freewheel, you might need to go and get a BMX freewheel and screw it on. Chains come in different widths too. If it's a cheapy job you're after with the recucled freehub/cassette modification, you can re use your road chain. With a freewheel/BMX conversion, you may need to get a 1/8" chain.
Dropouts can cause some issues - Semi horizontal or horizontal should give you enough movement to adjust you drivetrain out to the best gear combo. Vertical dropouts limit your choice. With verticals, unless you run a tensioner, you will have to go with the magic gear combo.

Permalink Reply by Stavros on July 16, 2008 at 12:43pm

Here's some pics of an old mountain bike I converted - this bike has since been stolen but it was a sweet ride.

Permalink Reply by Stavros on July 16, 2008 at 1:02pm

The sprocket (taken from an old cassette) was spaced right out wide because of the dish of the wheel. It worked ok, but worked a lot better after redishing the wheel.

This bike had vertical dropouts and after trying a few different sprockets ended up being a 42/ 17 magic gear combo.

Apart from the cost of the tyres and some spray pak paint, the conversion was about $42.00 for a chain and a secondhand mountain bike crank.

Permalink Reply by harapha on July 16, 2008 at 5:11pm

Thanks for the replies.
I have a spare hub I could use but am having trouble finding cheap (secondhand) wheels or rims. Also, I've never built a wheel from scratch and hear that it is not easy. I'm not sure whether to try to put it all together myself on the cheap or jsut bite the bullet and get a bike shop to build a wheel for me on a flipflop hub.
The frame I'm using now has reasonably horizontal dropouts so it should suit. 127mm chainstay spacing though so I'm limited to oldish hubs (6 or 7-speed freehubs I think) or track wheels or whatever.

Permalink Reply by Stavros on July 16, 2008 at 5:29pm

If the wheel is stuffed - then you should be able to get a brand new 27" wheel with a screw on hub for under $80.00. then just screw on a BMX freewheel to taste and away you go. New chain, drop a few chainwheels off the front - done. You'd probably get out of it with change from $100.00

Even cheaper again. Unscrew the derailleur, throw it in the bin, cut the chain and wrap it around the gear you love most. That is SS with no cost at all.

Permalink Reply by vx255 on July 16, 2008 at 5:32pm

Mine was originally a 126mm rear spacing, I reset it to 130mm with a lump of timber, yeah, a bit rough, but I made sure the rear stays were still aligned afterwards.

Permalink Reply by harapha on August 18, 2008 at 5:27pm

I ended up buying a cheap new rim (Velocity Razer) from Bicycle Recycle for $60 and building my own wheel on a home-made truing stand. It actually went quite considering my historic lack of precision in things mechanical. Only stuffup was not tightening the spokes enough and having them all come loose on the first trip to work.

I've just left the chainwheels as they were with the chain on the biggest, so I'm running 52/18 gearing. It's a bit big for an old bloke, although it's surpising how much friction you lose when you get rid of the derialleur.

Permalink Reply by vx255 on August 18, 2008 at 11:14pm

great stuff on the wheel build, was it your first crack at building up one? did you follow any online guides or just wing it?

Permalink Reply by harapha on August 20, 2008 at 3:10pm

It was my first wheel. I followed the wheelbuilding instructions on Sheldon Brown's website and used spokecalc.xls to calculate the spoke lengths. As I said, the only problem was not tensioning the spokes enough. I didn't use a spoke tension guage and tried to judge their tension based on the note they made when you tap them. It worked better when I just tightening them until they creaked a bit.