Thursday, March 8, 2007

Wheels

The wheels are almost the most important thing on a bike, if not a fixie. You can be ultra pro and build them yourself, or you can buy a wheelset. I decided to buy a wheelset from bike island. What makes a fixie a fixie is the hub on the rear axle.

Rear hubs that you've dealt with, unless you have a track bike or a fixie will be a freewheel type hub, that is, you can coast on it. If you get a wheelset you'll probably have better luck looking for a track hub wheelset. This means that when you put a cog on the hub, it won't coast. As long as the chain is pulling it, or the wheel turning, the hub will keep moving. Violà! It's a fixie!

Another option is to get a flip-flop hub. This will allow you to put a freewheel on the freewheel side of the hub, a cog and lock ring on the fixed side, and be able to flip the rear wheel, and convert between a single speed bike, and a fixie.

Finally the reason I ordered the wheels second was that there isn't a large variety of wheels that you can get sizewize. I measured the distance between my rear dropouts to be sure. If it's 120mm or a little more (125mm or so) you'll be fine with 120mm wheels, as the dropouts will squeeze in a little bit when you screw the wheel in.

If you get track wheels or other wheels where the rim is so narrow that it's drilled for presta valves, here's a quick bit about presta valves.

Being a guy who only rode bikes that his dad got for him, those all being single speeds and eventually when I was old enough, a bike with gears, I've only known shraeder valves, so prestas, though, I knew how they were different I had no idea how to actually use them.

To inflate a presta tube first unscrew the valve. Then clip your pump to the valve (I'm not sure if/how the screw type of pump works on presta valves, I ended up with the Park Tools Professional Floor Pump, which has a clip). Pump the tube up to the desired pressure (usually marked on the tire you're using, at least by a maximum psi). Then simply close the valve by screwing it closed. If you push down on the screw while the valve is open that's what lets the air out. That was my mistake.

Now I suggest that you put your wheels on your frame. This will let you get a feel for your bike finally and help you sight your chainline etc.. It's just really nice to put some shape to your bike.

Now the first thing I said after I tossed my wheels on was "wow, my bike is long!" I ended up mapping some dimensions out and found that my seat tube has an angle of about 73º-74º with repspect to the top tube, which ends up being on the high end. My consolation was that the wheels obviously fit in the frame so that was the natural design.

From this picture I sighted my hypothetical chainline. From what you see up by the bottom bracket you'll offset the bottom bracket by hopefully just the distance from the beginning of the crank to the chainring. The chainline should be straight from the chain. This is critical.

Of course that depends on the bottom bracket, crankset and hub on your rear wheel.

More later

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