Need help converting a BMX Redline Monocog to Fixed Gear

30 Jul 2004 11:01:43 -0700,
<[email hidden]>, [email hidden]

(Lobo Tommy) said:

Is it as easy as that? Just removing the freewheel and adding a fixed
gear sprocket? Sounds a little too easy no?

No, though removing the freewheel requires a special tool.

A lockring would be nice but as long as you've got one brake even
that's not too critical.
--
zk

Quoted message said:

Is it as easy as that? Just removing the freewheel and adding a fixed
gear sprocket? Sounds a little too easy no?

Nope, it's that simple, although if you end up backpedaling to brake, you
are likely to unscrew the track cog from the hub, thus dropping the cog over
the axle, detensioning the chain, letting it droop, allowing it to get
caught in the spokes, winding it up and locking the rear wheel up.

Then the spokes will exceed yield tension and spontaneously all break at
once, because once one goes, they all go. The spoke fragments attached to
the nipples will explode, flying in all directions and piercing through the
rim strip, your tube, your tire, your saddle, and ultimately, your butt.
Then the bike will do a complete endo, sending you, your bike, and your
porcupine-looking derriere flying into a solid concrete mass. This will
break your arms, your legs, your torso, and your head, rendering you a
quivering pile of goo. Then your bike will follow into the immovable
concrete mass, and the frame will bend at the downtube, jamming the front
wheel back giving you a 90-degree headtube angle, and your frame maker will
warranty it. On the way back, you'll fall off the side of a mountain, and
once you reach the parking lot "The Blob" style, you'll open your car door
and nick yourself in the face above your eyebrow. And then you'll come back
here and tell us about it.

Well, okay maybe the last paragraph won't happen, but make sure you have
enough threads to get a lockring, or you could get a proper hub that is
specifically designed to take a lockring.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

"Zoot Katz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

30 Jul 2004 11:01:43 -0700,
<[email hidden]>, [email hidden]

(Lobo Tommy) said:

Is it as easy as that? Just removing the freewheel and adding a fixed
gear sprocket? Sounds a little too easy no?

No, though removing the freewheel requires a special tool.

....and some big muscles and a lot of swear words.

How do I avoid this from happening? Once I have the fixed gear
sprocket where do I put the lock ring?

"ZeeExSixAre" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Is it as easy as that? Just removing the freewheel and adding a fixed
gear sprocket? Sounds a little too easy no?

Nope, it's that simple, although if you end up backpedaling to brake, you
are likely to unscrew the track cog from the hub, thus dropping the cog over
the axle, detensioning the chain, letting it droop, allowing it to get
caught in the spokes, winding it up and locking the rear wheel up.

Then the spokes will exceed yield tension and spontaneously all break at
once, because once one goes, they all go. The spoke fragments attached to
the nipples will explode, flying in all directions and piercing through the
rim strip, your tube, your tire, your saddle, and ultimately, your butt.
Then the bike will do a complete endo, sending you, your bike, and your
porcupine-looking derriere flying into a solid concrete mass. This will
break your arms, your legs, your torso, and your head, rendering you a
quivering pile of goo. Then your bike will follow into the immovable
concrete mass, and the frame will bend at the downtube, jamming the front
wheel back giving you a 90-degree headtube angle, and your frame maker will
warranty it. On the way back, you'll fall off the side of a mountain, and
once you reach the parking lot "The Blob" style, you'll open your car door
and nick yourself in the face above your eyebrow. And then you'll come back
here and tell us about it.

Well, okay maybe the last paragraph won't happen, but make sure you have
enough threads to get a lockring, or you could get a proper hub that is
specifically designed to take a lockring.

(Lobo Tommy) said:

"ZeeExSixAre" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

This will
break your arms, your legs, your torso, and your head, rendering you a
quivering pile of goo.

Quoted message said:

How do I avoid this from happening? Once I have the fixed gear
sprocket where do I put the lock ring?

The lock ring spins onto the same freewheel threads after the track
cog and is tightened against the cog. The drawback is that it's
threaded in the same direction as the cog, unlike a track hub, so it
offers less protection against unscrewing the cog than a track hub
would. Many people recommend using thread locking compound on the cog
in addition to a lockring against the cog to keep the cog on the hub.

I'm going to write the word "cog" one more time: cog.

A lockring from a non-cartridge bottom bracket has the same thread as
the freewheel threads and can be used as a cog lockring.

Good luck,
Steve

On 2004-07-31, Steve-o penned:

Quoted message said:

A lockring from a non-cartridge bottom bracket has the same thread as
the freewheel threads and can be used as a cog lockring.

Am I the only one who transposed the first letter of the last two words
there and got a bit confused as to the subject matter?

Okay, I'm definitely tired.

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-07-31, Steve-o penned:

Quoted message said:

A lockring from a non-cartridge bottom bracket has the same thread as
the freewheel threads and can be used as a cog lockring.

Am I the only one who transposed the first letter of the last two
words there and got a bit confused as to the subject matter?

You're the only one who'll ADMIT to it.

Quoted message said:

Okay, I'm definitely tired.

I'm guessing hubby's liking your mood?

Bill "using remarkable restraint" S.

On 2004-08-01, S o r n i penned:

Quoted message said:

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-07-31, Steve-o penned:

Quoted message said:

A lockring from a non-cartridge bottom bracket has the same thread
as the freewheel threads and can be used as a cog lockring.

Am I the only one who transposed the first letter of the last two
words there and got a bit confused as to the subject matter?

You're the only one who'll ADMIT to it.

Quoted message said:

Okay, I'm definitely tired.

I'm guessing hubby's liking your mood?

Hubby is on business in Californ-eye-ay ... which may go some distance
in explaining the mood.

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

[email hidden] (Lobo Tommy) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

How do I avoid this from happening? Once I have the fixed gear
sprocket where do I put the lock ring?

I'm assuming you have a regular freewheel hub. In this case, you could
use a old BB lockring to help keep the cog secure. I've heard of folks
using Locktite, too.

However, keep in mind that even this is a bit of a hack. Real track
hubs use a smaller left-hand threaded lockring to insure the cog
cannot be spun off.

With your setup, it may be wise to keep both brakes. Just for added
redundancy in the event you still spin off the cog.

One thing I would definitely advise: Dont skimp on your cog. Cheaper
cogs sometimes have sloppy threads, and will take it out on your hub's
threads when you're depending on them most.

"Steve-o" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I'm going to write the word "cog" one more time: cog.

A lockring from a non-cartridge bottom bracket has the same thread as
the freewheel threads and can be used as a cog lockring.

From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: cog
Pronunciation: 'käg
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English cogge, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian kug
cog
1 : a tooth on the rim of a wheel or gear

From Sheldon Brown:
Sprocket
A toothed wheel or gear that is part of a chain drive.
The front sprockets are also commonly called chainwheels or chainrings. The
term "sprocket" is perfectly correct to refer to either front or rear, but use
most adult cyclists use this term mainly to refer to the rear sprockets.

Peter Cole said:

From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: cog
Pronunciation: 'käg
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English cogge, of Scandinavian origin; akin to
Norwegian kug cog
1 : a tooth on the rim of a wheel or gear

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........................

Bill "liked Monique's reading of the post a bit better" S.

Monique sez:

Quoted message said:

Am I the only one who transposed the first letter of the last two words
there and got a bit confused as to the subject matter?

Okay, I'm definitely tired.

LOL. You have a wonderful mind M. Ahhhhh.... The things that biking in
hot weather will do. At least it's not humid, that'll make shrooms grow
in yer hed.

T o m Dillon
Lakewood, CO
Z to S to email

On 2004-08-02, Sunastar penned:

Quoted message said:

LOL. You have a wonderful mind M. Ahhhhh.... The things that biking in
hot weather will do. At least it's not humid, that'll make shrooms
grow in yer hed.

Where have you been, buddy? It *is* humid. My skin's soft again, like
it was in Virginia, and my cat's fur is pettable!

Growing shrooms on your head sounds like a profitable experience;
growing them in your head could be interesting. Can you be held legally
accountable for substances your body produced?

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Monique sez:

Quoted message said:

Where have you been, buddy? It *is* humid. My skin's soft again, like
it was in Virginia, and my cat's fur is pettable!

Only relative to what it normally is here. Spending a summer, or
fifteen, in a place like Houston will have you reevaluate the meaning of
humid. It was mean, nasty, horrid humidity, at least in the summer.

On the other hand, everything was always really green. After a party one
time, I didn't bother to pick up the empty beer bottles in the back yard
for a week. Some of them started to sprout into beer trees. A few of
them even had Buds on them.

Quoted message said:

Growing shrooms on your head sounds like a profitable experience;
growing them in your head could be interesting. Can you be held legally
accountable for substances your body produced?

That's a good question. I have LOTS of room inside my head to
experiment. I'll tell you how things turn out.

T o m Dillon
Lakewood, CO
Z to S to email

[email hidden] (Lobo Tommy) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I actually need someone to verify this information is correct. This
is what I was roughly told to convert a Redline Monocog to Fixed gear.
I can't believe it's this simple but I'm not a mechanic:

"You can go one of two routes. You can either get an old 110mm Track
hub - because the Monocog is a 110mm rear hub. Or you can use the
existing hub already on the bike. You can unscrew and remove the
freewheel and in it's place put in a fixed gear sprocket. The
sprockets cost around $20. I recommend going to a 14 instead of a 16
because you will keep spinning out."

Is it as easy as that? Just removing the freewheel and adding a fixed
gear sprocket? Sounds a little too easy no?

I found an old nut that would screw onto the threads of a regular
freewheel's thread diameter. It's stopgap and fine if you're just
trying it out for giggles. I pulled it off an old spin bike, but you
might be able to find one at home depot or a local bike shop that
trades in old and unusual stuff.
You'll probably want a sleeve-spacer on the inside between the spokes
and the cog. 3/16" will probably do it.
Otherwise, many hubs are fixed on one side and free on the other. My
Surly fixed hub has been used and abused daily for the past year with
no complaints. It's a 120 spacing, but if your frame is steel it
shouldn't be a problem.
Also, check http://www.63xc.com/
/s

On 2004-08-02, Sunastar penned:

Quoted message said:

Monique sez:

Quoted message said:

Where have you been, buddy? It *is* humid. My skin's soft again,
like it was in Virginia, and my cat's fur is pettable!

Only relative to what it normally is here. Spending a summer, or
fifteen, in a place like Houston will have you reevaluate the meaning
of humid. It was mean, nasty, horrid humidity, at least in the summer.

I lived in northern VA almost all of my life, where summers are all
about high temps, 100% humidity, and frequently air quality advisories
as well. I know all about the kind of humidity that crushes you and
makes it feel like you're suffocating.

You're right; it's not nearly as bad as it could be. I do like the
skin-softening effect, though.

I keep trying to get my parents interested in moving out here, but mom's
afraid it will ruin her skin =/ That and the whole "no ocean" thing.
Beh.

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Monique says:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

That and the whole "no ocean" thing.
Beh.

Beh?!? You "Beh" the no-ocean thing? Shame on you. Tell yo momma she's quite
right. ;-)

I couldn't survive without the ocean, and have never lived more than 20 miles
from it (unless you count the two years in Moscow when I was 6-8 years old) I
can hear the waves crashing now, and can see the water from upstairs (can't see
spending $1M plus for a year-round view)

Steve
Stephen C. Baker - Yacht Designer
http://members.aol.com/SailDesign/private/scbweb/home.htm

On 2004-08-02, Stephen Baker penned:

Quoted message said:

Monique says:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

That and the whole "no ocean" thing. Beh.

Beh?!? You "Beh" the no-ocean thing? Shame on you. Tell yo momma
she's quite right. ;-)

Quite right for her and for you, maybe. Me, I much prefer the
mountains. I get bored pretty quickly at the beach; not so in the
mountains. Don't ask me why.

Quoted message said:

I couldn't survive without the ocean, and have never lived more than
20 miles from it (unless you count the two years in Moscow when I was
6-8 years old) I can hear the waves crashing now, and can see the
water from upstairs (can't see spending $1M plus for a year-round
view)

Sounds like you picked the right job, then =)

Quoted message said:

Steve Stephen C. Baker - Yacht Designer
http://members.aol.com/SailDesign/private/scbweb/home.htm

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Monique says:

Quoted message said:

Sounds like you picked the right job, then =)

Vice versa, truth be told. Short version:- Bored-with-London computer
engineer (1976) decides to move to Southampton branch to be nearer the water.
Buys his brother's old house dirt cheap, then (note timing) is told that
Southampton can't have any more engineers. ;-( One sunday, while teaching
sailing for the summer to fill in time, he sees a course vacancy ad for the
local college - Yacht design. 3-year course, full time, and Yes, he can get a
grant which will allow him and his fresh young wife to survive financially
during the whole 3 years. No question, no delay, took course. Had kid no.1
during 2nd year, dread disease of some sort during 3rd, but managed to pass.

The rest is history. ;-)