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Willem Velthoven 1

Converting classic strada hub to fixed gear with a Miche sprocket adapter

The elegant, durable and safe way to keep your back wheel when converting a road bike to fixed

“Who wants to take Erwin’s old bicycle out of the hall before we put with the garbage?” was the message of my neighbor Maria.

It turned out to be a really nice Colnago Mexico road racer from the 1980's with Campagnolo Record parts! I decided to convert it to a “doortrapper”, as we call fixed gear bikes in Dutch.

The Campagnolo hubs were pristine. The best quality available in their day. How to keep the back hub for this project?

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    Road hub with Miche sprocket carrier-

    A modiefied sprocket carrier is glued permanently tot the Campagnolo Record road hub. The ring is not a standard track lock ring (the hub does not have the special left-handed thread for that) but an old bottom bracket cup lock ring. Those have the same thread as the classical hubs. The carrier keeps the sprocket in place, even when braking or skidding. The ring just keeps it from running of the carrier without having to block the backward forces that a normal lock ring would have to.

As you know, riding a fixed gear bike involves putting strong backward force on the pedals regularly to reduce speed. These “brake” forces are just as strong as when starting a sprint... Therefore track hubs have a counter thread for mounting a “lock ring” that prevents the sprocket to come loose.

When converting a nice road bike to fixed you can of course glue a normal track cog to your hub and secure it with a ring but then it will be very difficult to change the sprocket because you want an other gear ratio of because the cog has been worn out.

This solution uses a Miche track sprocket carrier that you permanently fix to the hub with metal–epoxy (2 component) glue.

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Willem Velthoven 
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