The fixed gear saga continues...

David Nutter said:

It turns out that the misalignment was not in the dropouts as I originally thought but ocurred
because the rear triangle had been welded to the seat tube incorrectly when the frame was
built. Consequently I can either re-dish the wheel so the brake fits (bad) or make do without a
rear brake, rather a pity as I was going to screw a single speed freewheel onto the other side
of the hub.

Assuming nothing can be done in terms of frame realignment to fix the problem I would ditch the rear
brake. The rear brake is not that important on a road bike and on a fixed you can happily live with
just a front brake.

Tony

--
raven-family.comraven-family.comOpen ↗

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
Bernard Shaw

Tony Raven said:

Assuming nothing can be done in terms of frame realignment to fix the problem I would ditch the
rear brake. The rear brake is not that important on a road bike and on a fixed you can happily
live with just a front brake.

Apparently the frame can't be realigned without cutting the rear triangle off the seat tube and
re-welding it and the frame quality doesn't justify this operation. I'm currently running without a
rear brake, so far without problems, but I do miss having a rear brake to use at junctions when I'm
signalling right for example. I haven't yet got the hang of modulating my cadence to control the
bike's speed[1] in these situations: I either stop completely and nearly fall off or go too quickly.

The main problem is that the bike looks odd as the rear wheel is visibly offset to the right side of
the bike at the top of the seat stays, though not at the dropouts. Though handling doesn't seem to
be affected, I can't have a deformed bike 🙂

Regards,

-david

[1] A wobbly 10mph or so...

David Nutter said:

The main problem is that the bike looks odd as the rear wheel is visibly offset to the right side
of the bike at the top of the seat stays, though not at the dropouts. Though handling doesn't seem
to be affected, I can't have a deformed bike 🙂

I can't quite visualise the geometry but some bikes are built with asymmetric rear triangles so the
rear wheel can be symmetrically spoked. Perhaps you have one of those frames.

Tony

-- raven-family.comraven-family.comOpen ↗

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George
Bernard Shaw

Hi David Welcome to singlespeed land! I have a ss mtb which I use as a bit of an all rounder - a
great training machine. Freewheel, though - I haven't been brave enough to go fixed yet. I do have
an old, but perfectly servicable Raleigh Record Sprint frame, which I can let go for a small
consideration. It has 'semi' horizontal drop-outs. Let me know if you're interested (paul.a.hartigan
at btinternet.com) Paul "David Nutter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A week ago I spent several hours in the garage building a wheel for my

fixed

Quoted message said:

gear project bike and eventually suceeded, after scrounging a dishing

guage

Quoted message said:

from the bike shop. The wheel was beautiful, strong and true. I was well impressed. Unfortunately,
when I put it on the bike the rear brake caliper would no longer fit and a quick check with the
dishing gauge revealed that the original wheel was dished incorrectly to allow the caliper to fit.

They

Quoted message said:

are devils these bike manufacturers...

At this point a piscine odour was detected and I wheeled the machine to

the

Quoted message said:

LBS to let the mechanic have a look as my peice of string hadn't revealed any obvious rear-end
misalignment.

It turns out that the misalignment was not in the dropouts as I originally thought but ocurred
because the rear triangle had been welded to the seat tube incorrectly when the frame was built.
Consequently I can either

re-dish

Quoted message said:

the wheel so the brake fits (bad) or make do without a rear brake, rather

a

Quoted message said:

pity as I was going to screw a single speed freewheel onto the other side

of

Quoted message said:

the hub.

To cap it all I've already barked my shins on the pedals; an injury very familiar from my first
ever bike, also fixed gear. I will have to get the clipless pedals sorted out before I do myself
a nasty.

Aside: Anyone got a decent road bike frame with horizontal dropouts to

sell?

Quoted message said:

🙂

Regards,

-david