Bloody rear wheel installation.

Put new tyres on the bike today. Front wheel - no problem.

Back wheel - I've given up for a tea break. How do you pull back on the wheel and tighten the nut at the same time? I'm trying to use the Sheldon walking method, but it just isn't happening.

And I was worried about putting the tyres on - they were easy, pulled them straight on with my hands, But I can't get the back wheel on right.

You don't want the chain super tight so you don't need to pull hard on the rear wheel. Tighten a bit pull a bit, tighten a bit pull a bit. I have herd of people using a tennis ball jamed in between the seat tube and rear wheel to sert to the desired tention and then do up the nuts but I have never found it is needed.

buy a bike maintenance slave, that's my advice : )

Push the tyre up against the left-hand stay and tighten the (left) nut 75%. The shove the tyre back towards the middle of the stays, and tighten the other nut (with your free hand, obviously). Then make small adjustments as necessary (one side at a time) till it's central and doesn't bind at the tight spot. If you're lucky, it'll be about right first time...

Does that make sense?

There was a method on 63xc.com, by Will Meister I think, that I thought was alright. Best thing to do is get a slave/friend as asm suggested.

Take it easy with the technique BringMeMyFix suggests as you can bend axles this way - as suggested don't crank the nuts way down at first.

You can flip the bike upside down and stand at the BB shell and push the wheel back while tighten the nuts down. Pretty easy to get the tension right this way but not so good unless you've got a soft surface or something to put under the stem. Again don't crank the nuts way down, just get them so they're holding the wheel and the flip the bike back up before fully tightening.

Thanks guys, I'll give it another go without tightening the nuts too much.

Eh, didn't you have a bmx? Same deal.. left hand grabs wheel at the front, keeps it centred and pulled back. Right hand tightens track nuts.
I now have chaintugs so it's just an allen key turn to bring the wheel back. Easy peasy.

as you tighten the nuts it will shift a little bit as well. give it a little bit of compensation before tightening everything up.
if all else fails, invest in a pair of chain tugs. MKS ones seem to get good reviews. personally i dislike the surly ones i think they look horrible.

edmundane personally i dislike the surly ones i think they look horrible.

...and they cost £40 a pair which is plain ridiculous!

Someone wanted an MKS tug.. mashton? I can't remember. Go halvies.

hippy Someone wanted an MKS tug.. .

I do. thin type (5mm?) allen key.

if that's stompy's pick too, I'd be happy to order and split them up

depends if both of you want the 5mm or the 8mm one though.

steel vs aluminium. round 12454334738567352346133613464263457435.

I knew there was an 'M' involved..

RPM [quote]hippy Someone wanted an MKS tug.. .

I do. thin type (5mm?) allen key.

if that's stompy's pick too, I'd be happy to order and split them up[/quote]

Thanks anyway, but it wasn't me. Sorry.

Right, I've got it centred (I think). I don't think the chain is too tight, certainly no tighter than it was. I little noisier than before, but that could just be my imagination.

I know some of you are going to Dunwich, so I'll probably get one of you helpful souls to tell me if I've done anything wrong.

I'd hate to have to do this on the road, in the dark, in the rain.

I normally entrust this task to Youssuf, my Morroccan Houseboy.

However, I sometimes grant him the evening off to meet his young friends in Vauxhall.

On the rare occasions that I execute this onerous task myself, I bundle up my oily rag and push it between the tyre and the seat tube. Further you push it, tighter the chain gets.

Piece of piss.

Unless you've got a Dolan, when there's not a snowball's of owt lining anything up.

LOL

On another note: Is anyone actually carrying fixie-specific tools to Dunwich? Chainwhip, lockring tools, you know that kind of stuff?

We should do a phone number swap at the start, zero our watches/speedos/etc so we can track each other down if we fsck our bikes..

So you're gonna be the stoker, eh? Mwuahahaaa

cracks whip

Oh, you'll pedal alright!

In Australia, the law requires cyclists to wear an approved bicycle helmet...

on the road I use one or two of those park plastic tyre levers (which clip together) wedged between the tyre and the seat tube to push the wheel back while tightening the nuts...then I don't have to carry a tennis ball with me.

hippy Someone wanted an MKS tug.. mashton? I can't remember. Go halvies.

hippy I knew there was an 'M' involved..

me,
8mm, halves anyone???

here mks 8mm plus postage