my mate is considering building a fixie, nothing special, just something that works. i was running him through everything, when we came onto the topic of gear ratios. i told him that if he wanted to skid, it was better to have a ratio such as 44x17 (17 skid patches), rather than something like 44x16(4 skid patches)
he saw what i meant, but then asked me a question, being the fledgling engineer he is. ‘why can’t i just dismount the rear wheel, rotate it a bit, then put it back on? then skid patches won’t matter, right?’
apart from the obvious hassle of having to change the rear wheel around regularly, what else would he have to worry about?
Surely he won’t have to take the wheel off, just run chain off the crank, turn the back wheel a tad then chain back on. As long as his chain tension isn’t too tight.
What I used to do, when I actually could be bothered skidding, was deflate the rear tyre, rotate just the tyre, then pump it all back up. Was quicker than taking the whole back wheel off/getting correct chain tension, and helped out the whole skid patch situation.
Nobody skids so precisely that they end up with a tyre worn out in x number of spots. So maybe if you had four skid patches your tyre would last a bit longer if you rotated it 45 degrees, but it wouldn’t be like suddenly having a new tyre.
And your label wouldn’t be aligned with your valve stem, and nobody wants that.
Zo my god, genius!
I rode without a rear tire on a bmx once, locked up the coaster brake, flew down a hill, sparks and shit, fell off and cut up my hands baaad.
Now I always wear gloves.