Installing a cog on hub

Hi people!

I got a my very first fixed gear yesterday from Condor, a Potenza, although it's not actually fixed at the moment. It's freewheeling! It shouldn't be but I guess the warehouse thought I wanted it on that side.

Anyway, I want to "flip" it onto the fixed side of the hub, but have no idea where to start...Some piccies are attached.

As you can see it only has one 16T cog.

Can someone tell me what I need to buy, what tools I require and how to do it?

And what is that silver thin on either side of the cog? And what is the lockring?

Sorry for so many questions!

Thanks!

4 Attachments

You need a track sprocket, a lockring, and a 15mm wrench to get the wheel off and on.

Plus a chain whip and lock ring tool. Some grease would be a good idea as well.

Copper grease, FTW.

I have a 3/32 track sprocket you can have for nowt. If you can get down to SE1 today I'll fit it for you.

@ Sharkstar: Bit busy today, thanks anyway

So is a sprocket the same as a cog?

A sprocket and a cog are the same thing. Take your wheel off. You screw the cog on to the hub and then use a chain whip to tighten it. You can tighten it ok just by putting the chain on, putting the wheel in the frame so the chain is tight and pedaling forward; but it's better to use a chain whip.
The lockring goes on the outside of the cog; it will screw in in the opposite direction to the cog. you can use a lock ring tool to tighten it or use a large screwdriver to press on the indentation till it's tight. It's important that it is really tight against the cog.
Grease the threads before you install either the cog or the lockring. Make sure your wheel nuts are tight when you fit the wheel back in to the frame.
If you don't know Sheldon Brown then google him; his site has pretty much everything you will need to know. Except advice on the skinniness of your jeans.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

Grease the threads? I had never bothered before, but I greased my threads when I got my new hub. Subsequently had all sorts of trouble keeping everything tightened so I have since wiped it off as best I can. No trouble now.

I though this was a mistake when I considered people go in the other direction and apply loctite. Anyway, whatever.

So I had some garlic and spring onion chicken from the chinese for tea. It was pretty good. I smell a bit funny now.

Grease the threads? I had never bothered before, but I greased my threads when I got my new hub. Subsequently had all sorts of trouble keeping everything tightened so I have since wiped it off as best I can. No trouble now.

Until it is time to change the sprocket - mwahahaha.

I use that thick finish line anti-seize grease which is like copper paint. Never had any slippage issues that weren't down to inadequate tightening to begin with.

Yeah, I've got that thick copper stuff too. I can get the sprocket on and off with no trouble at the moment. I guess I'll re-grease.

Yeah, I've got that thick copper stuff too. I can get the sprocket on and off with no trouble at the moment. I guess I'll re-grease.

I've always fancied painting my face with it and going to a James Bond party.

I wish I got invited to parties.

So is a sprocket the same as a cog?

Technically, a cog or gear has teeth designed to mesh with the teeth of another gear, or at least something else with teeth. A sprocket has teeth designed to mesh with a chain, or something perforated.

But sprockets often get called cogs or gears, and on a bicycles the front sprockets get called chain-rings and the other terms reserved for the rear sprockets.

I'm about to do this too but mine's only threaded on one side (It's an old Campag record hub so as far as I can see there's space for a lockring on there).

How the hell do I take the freewheel off? More to the point is it worth me just going down to BLB and giving them a fiver to do it right?

Also will going from a 16t to a 18t kill me?

Does the hub have a reverse thread?

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

The still white dwellings are like a mirage in the heat,
And under the swaying elms a man and a woman
Lie gently together. Which is, perhaps, only to say
That there is a row of houses to the left of arc,
And that under some poplars a pair of what appear to be humans

    Appear to be loving.

Well that, for an answer, is what we might rightly call
Moderately satisfactory only, the reason being,
Is that two things have been omitted, and those are important.
The human beings now: in what direction are they,
And how far away would you say? And do not forget

    There may be dead ground in between.

There may be dead ground in between; and I may not have got
The knack of judging a distance; I will only venture
A guess that perhaps between me and the apparent lovers,
(Who, incidentally, appear now to have finished,)
At seven o'clock from the houses, is roughly a distance

    Of about one year and a half.

I fucking love that poem.

How the hell do I take the freewheel off? More to the point is it worth me just going down to BLB and giving them a fiver to do it right?

Also will going from a 16t to a 18t kill me?

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=48
See about half way down for pictures of the plethora of tools that may be required, and a link how to destructively remove a freewheel using a pin spanner and a vice in case no other tools are suitable.

Does the hub have a reverse thread?

i.e. looking carefully at where the freewheel attaches to the hub, might the threading be in two parts like in the OP's second photo, with your freewheel engaged only with the wider, right-handed part of the thread, leaving the threads at the end of the freewheel you can see hovering over thinner left-hand threads? If not, your hub probably doesn't have the section of thinner reverse thread required to fit a lock ring, and you need to think again about this project.

Balls, you're right - looks like I'm stuck with a freewheel until I can get my mitts on a new wheel.

keeps close eye on for sale section for anything Mavic flavoured

Why do people say 'front forks'? Where the fuck are the back forks?

on a similar sort of theme, has anyone ever used one of these converters?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HUB-CONVERTER-FOR-FIXED-WHEEL_W0QQitemZ220408023184QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR?hash=item220408023184&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1688%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

it claims not to unscrew but surely the converter will just come off with the cog and lockring as well?

correct me if i'm just being thick....

I think the idea is that you can really wrench those things on with a big spanner (or better still with it in a vice holding the wheel to spin it on) and cover them in locktite.
They still could unthread and cause a bit of death, but it's less likely.

Personally, I'd shell out for a new hub

Are all lockrings the same, or are some better than others?

Any particular brands I should look out for?

Same for cogs...

Thanks everyone!

thanks jammy

i thought it looked a bit dubious...

ive literally done the same thing except the threads on my old raliegh hub dint accomodate a cog and a lockring , so had to mill 5 mm off the cog , not a good start its just chainline now haha

Im thinking of doing the same with my old hub too!