Need help on road to fix gear conversion

General Help
1

So yeah I’m having some problems with my fix gear conversion (90s Apollo Road Bike). From my understanding the problem is to do with the rear hub, because its not actually a track hub and there isn’t really enough room on the hub for the Cog and the Lock ring. So when pedalling from occasionally the cranks will skip strait to the bottom of their rotation and not gain any momentum at all. I think this might be the cog / lockring coming loose. I took it into a shop before and had it repaired but as soon as I locked it up, its was basically fucked again.

Not really sure what the best option is from here. My current wheels are pretty shit so I’m considering a new wheel set but I’m wondering if I can get a set of hubs that might be compatible with a track frame later on down the track.

I can post photos if it will help illustrate the problem. Any help would be greatly appreicated.

2

NEw wheels or really strong loctite.

3

Is this when you are pedaling or skidding?

If when pedaling then you have stripped the threads on the hub and you shouldn’t be able to do it back up. The other common cause of the cranks giving under load is if you have crank that is swaged onto the chain ring or spider. With the added load of a fixed gear this can give and the crank move relative to the spider. I am not sure what type of construction the apollo had.

If it happens while skidding then tighten and loctite as per Bender the munificent and all knowing

4

you can use a bottom bracket lock ring as a lock ring but you’ll have to lock tight the whole set up to stop it from coming loose!

5

That’s what’s known as a ‘suicide’ set up, with good reason. Get new wheels, and in the mean time rotorfix the cog, and make sure your brakes are well adjusted.

6

Thanks for the replies everyone.

It started out just when skidding but occasionally happens when pedalling / mounting. I am probably going to with the new wheels option. The shop I’m buying the wheels off have offered to adjust the rear stays adjusted to fit the track hub (is this worth while?). I trust the guys at the store, they definately know what they are doing.

7

this means they go out the back of the shop, lie your bike on the ground, and lean on it til the rear dropouts move in about 5 mils. might be from 130 to 120mm, not a big deal.
if you ever want to go back to a cluster, bending them back again is not quite so easy, but can be done.

once you’ve got some nice track wheels on there you start to think about replacing the cranks, bars, seat, and frame.