rear wheel advice

Hi all im currently building up an old roadie as a fixed wheel. and looking at my options for a rear wheel. I dont want to spend to much as i am also looking at buying 2, one for me and one for my wife. My local bike store tell me they can build a alex da22 laced up to a bmx joytec flip flop hub for about $120 a wheel.

Would this setup be any good? tough enough? Should i get the wheel taken someone who is fixie specific to bolt up the sprocket? as i wouldn’t want to it myself, i and im not confident the store would do it right.

Thanks

I’m not 100% certain, but I think a BMX flip flop hub is different from a track / fixed flip flop hub.

I know there’s something about it on Sheldon Brown’s site… This is from here…

"Flip-Flop Hubs
Many fixed-gear bikes are equipped with “flip-flop” hubs, designed to accept sprockets on either side. These permit a choice of two different gears by removing the rear wheel and turning it around.

The most common use for a flip-flop hub is to have a fixed sprocket on one side, and a single-speed freewheel on the other side. Usually the freewheel will be 1 or 2 teeth larger than the fixed sprocket.

The idea is that, most of the time you would ride the fixed gear, but if you found your self far from home and getting tired, or were in unusually hilly terrain, you would turn the wheel around and use the freewheel. This helps two ways:

The lower gear will make it easier to climb the hills.

The freewheel will let you rest (coast) on the descents (which could be painful with the lower gear if it were fixed.)
Note that for each tooth difference, the axle position in the fork end will change by 1/8" (3 mm.)
Also, note that you should have two brakes if you will be using a freewheel.

You can also use two different sized fixed sprockets on a flip-flop hub. Generally I would recommend only one tooth difference in this case. I run 14 & 15 with a 42 front myself on a couple of my own bikes.

Most flip-flop hubs are only threaded for a lockring on one side, but the sprocket/freewheel thread is the same, so you can screw a fixed sprocket onto the freewheel side. I’d put the smaller sprocket on the side without the lock ring, because it’s less likely to come unscrewed.

There are double-fixed flip-flop hubs, and, to me, this is the most desirable configuration. This arrangement is the most versatile, because you can set it up either with 1 or 2 fixed sprockets, or 1 or 2 freewheels.

Any standard track hub can also be used with a single-speed freewheel just by leaving the lockring off. The thread is the same. Sometimes people worry because the hub thread isn’t as deep as a freewheel specific hub, but this is never a problem with a single-speed freewheel.

For more on flip-flop hubs, see the section on fixed-gear mountain bikes.

BMX Flip-Flop Hubs
There’s another type of “flip-flop” hub generally used for BMX applications. This type is threaded for two freewheels, no fixed gear. One side is the standard 1.375" thread, the other side is a smaller metric thread. This is designed to permit the use of smaller freewheels than will normally fit a full-sized hub, 14 & 15 teeth.
"

You can still ‘suicide’ a cog on the freewheel side… buuuuut I think the real question is will a bmx hub (110mm) fit a road frame(130mm)? Not really (unless you squish it), but I think you could get a real track hub & rim combo for not too much more than that, and maybe even with sealed bearings.

Yeah, it kinda of seems pointless getting a BMX hub built into a wheel only to suicide the cog on.

Do what Spud says and pay a little bit more to get a fixed flip flop. You’ll thank him in the long run.

can you point me the in right direction then for a track hub and rim for a little more then that. the guy at the bike shop just looked at me funny when i tried to get some info out of him.

all the other options i have seen aka velocity’s are over $250 for the rear wheel.

A good set of wheels is something you can take from bike to bike. Don’t be afraid to spend in this area.
You will hate cheap for a long time, but not as long as you will appreciate quality.
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i got a alex with a novatec/joytec hub, flip flop but track not bmx for 195$ its strong, and i havn’t had any problems with it yet.

Word