Rear wheel

OK recently bought an old racer to get around on, the back wheel is severely buckled and now looking for a replacement.

Then I considered going singlespeed instead. The wheel is 700 and the dropouts are 126mm, would I need to get a wheel built specially or can I buy one off the shelf?

Cheers,

although this has been covered extensively,
you can probably get away with squeezing the rear triangle to fit a standard 120mm rear hub.

The existing wheel has a thread on freewheel, Could this be converted to SS?

Would a BMX freewheel like this http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/CS409C02-Odyssey+Bmx+Freewheel.aspx be able to thread onto that type of wheel?

Thanks in advance!

Yep but you would need to redish the rear wheel. This can be problematical if the wheel is very old as the nipples and seize up so check they are free.

Sorry if it's an obvious question but why would the wheel need to be dished?

Is this for chain alignment?

Applies to s.s as well.

http://sheldonbrown.com/deakins/how-to-fixed-conversion.html#redishing

Alternatively, you can just mess around with the spacers (if you have enough room on the axle and between the dropouts) to recentre or offset the wheel to improve chainline.

We just did the same here at work with an old freecycled frame and rear wheel, except we're running it as a suicide hub with a fixed sprocket. No redishing necessary.

Having said that, this our work hack, which has so far cost us zero pence, and will be used to go down to Condor or meetings without worrying too much if it gets nicked (though flourescent orange and yellow is not that nickable). I wouldn't personally do it on a bike I wanted to use for any significant mileage.