Wheels
By MrFixie
Advice on which wheels to use
The only thing that you’ll certainly need to change on an existing road bike to make it a fixed gear is the rear wheel. Replacing it with a track wheel is the most straightforward way to go.
Track wheels come pre-assembled or you can build them yourself around a track hub, spokes, and rim. Basically a track hub has two kinds of threading, a traditional clockwise threading for the cog and another threading outside that is reverse thread for the lockring. This is to keep the wheel tight regardless of the direction of the pedals. Two kinds of track hubs exist, the flip-flop fixed/free and the fixed/fixed. The flip-flop is versatile because allows you to change gears if you’ve an extra cog. If you get stuck doing a century on a fixed and want to change gears to make it easier you can just remove the rear wheel and flip it around to another cog. If you want an easier gear it would be a larger cog.
There are some who do not choose to buy track wheels and instead use Locktite and/or JB weld, metal adhesive to freeze freewheel cogs into fixed gear wheels. Though some believe this to be safe, I advise against it. It can be very dangerous if the cog becomes loose while trying to slow down. Considering all the older size wheels, choose among one of these three wheel sizes.
26″ or MTB size
27″ older road wheels
700C modern road wheel
There are other size wheels out there, such as 650B, but those are the three primary wheel sizes you’ll encounter. 27″ wheels are considered obsolete but you can still find tires and tubes being made for this size. You can mix and match too if you don’t mind the look, having a 700C track wheel in the back and a 27″ wheel in the front. It’s really whatever floats your boat. Remember that if you have two different size wheels you may have to carry two different size tubes with you in case a flat occurs.
