Is it possible to convert a fixed gear to a motor bicycle? And if i get a basic kit online will i need to add the back brake to the bike it it doesn't already have one.
Fixed gear conversions
- Thread starter trentgrasso
- Start date
Welcome to the forum. We're glad you've joined us and I hope we can help you with your questions.
I'm curious about what you mean by "fixed gear". Do you really mean, 'single speed', a bike with no gears but one? Do the pedals free wheel when you stop pedaling and coast?
I've never seen a bike with no rear brakes except maybe an older one that someone has removed them.
Whatever, I agree with crassius. You need good brakes if you plan to motorize a bike, and preferably brakes on both front and rear wheels.
Tom
I'm curious about what you mean by "fixed gear". Do you really mean, 'single speed', a bike with no gears but one? Do the pedals free wheel when you stop pedaling and coast?
I've never seen a bike with no rear brakes except maybe an older one that someone has removed them.
Whatever, I agree with crassius. You need good brakes if you plan to motorize a bike, and preferably brakes on both front and rear wheels.
Tom
If yours has a flip flop hub in back its really easy to convert, you can just use the backing plates for the rag joint and sandwich the fixie sprocket between the backing plates and the driven sprocket... I think that's how landspeedrecord installed his. I'm also in the process of building a 700c fixie but I chose to center everything up and weld the 44 tooth sprocket directly onto the fixie sprocket. I can take some close up pics of mine to show how I welded it on or you can look at Landspeedrecord's post "first build, hopefully its fast" to see hownhe bolted his on. There's another thread " Caraci build" by another member who also bolted his sprocket onto the existing one. The advantage of bolting the sprockets together is that the sprocket can be changed if needed. The advantage of welding it together is a cleaner looking install and I never need to worry about the bolts working loose. Incantation still change rear sprockets by buying another fixie cog and welding another sprocket to the cog, or I could bolt it onto a new cog.
My build post is here http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=59288 , progress is really slow on mine since my time for it is so limited but its about 75% done as of now. You'll most likely have yours on the road before me but I can still help and answer questions if you get stuck on any part of the build.
There are a few more fixie build posts in here so finding info on how to mount the rear sprocket is pretty plentiful as well as other successful mounting methods if you don't like the idea of welding it or using the rag joint backing plates...
If your hub isn't the flip flop type you can unscrew the fixie sprocket and replace it with a freewheel sprocket since they both have the same thread size, the sprockets are right hand threaded and the jam nut is left hand threaded, and with a freewheel sprocket the jam nut isn't used but it will take a special spanner wrench to remove it if needed.
My build post is here http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=59288 , progress is really slow on mine since my time for it is so limited but its about 75% done as of now. You'll most likely have yours on the road before me but I can still help and answer questions if you get stuck on any part of the build.
There are a few more fixie build posts in here so finding info on how to mount the rear sprocket is pretty plentiful as well as other successful mounting methods if you don't like the idea of welding it or using the rag joint backing plates...
If your hub isn't the flip flop type you can unscrew the fixie sprocket and replace it with a freewheel sprocket since they both have the same thread size, the sprockets are right hand threaded and the jam nut is left hand threaded, and with a freewheel sprocket the jam nut isn't used but it will take a special spanner wrench to remove it if needed.