Building a fixed

ianhargreaves said:

I know I'm not in the right forum for this but you guys will defo know the answer.
I just bought myself a brand spanking new bike and would like to turn my old one into a fixed wheel. Is this possible? I gather is difficult with it not having horizontal drop-outs? I don't understand how this realy affects it but can somone explain? What else am I going to need?

Cheers

You need the horizontal dropouts to allow you to pull the wheel back to tighten the chain. Vertical dropouts won't let you do that.

If you have vertical dropouts you could try different cog/chainring combinations that allow you to run the chain at the correct tension but it is difficult and time consuming and does not always work.

If your old bike is a steel/cro-moly frame, get a local frame builder to cut out the old ends and put on some track ends. It will make life a lot easier.

Also remember that if you want to use a track hub for the rear the standard rear spacing of a road bike is 130mm whereas a track bike uses 120mm.

Hope that helps.