Road bike back wheel with gears... Anyone who can help?

I stupidly bought the wrong back wheel for my bike. It's a 700 but it's a single speed and my frame needs a wheel to have gears.

Can anyone help this damsel in distress? Even though my name is Jordan, I am female.

I'm trying to build a road bike and i have quite a lot of the stuff to build it but it's honestly a lot of guess work so if someone's relatively local to Clapham, and they actually know what they are doing then PLEASE LET ME KNOW and wouldn't mind helping.
This was a birthday project (8.8) and dont want it to run into September.

Please help??

I have a pair of break and the spare single speed tyre if anyone wants to swap it??

There are two types of rear hub and both can accept multi-speed rears:

If you have a track hub (two threads on the same side) you can also get away with using a screw-on freewheel. Hope this helps.

This^.

Sheldon Brown is the best website in my opinion for researching technical bike articles. I sometimes just Google a term and add "sheldon" to get direct links.

Once you determine if you require a screw-on freewheel, or a cassette, you will then need to measure the gap between where the rear wheel attaches on your frame. Shoudl be roughly either 120mm, 126mm, 130mm or 135mm. This will determine how many gears you can fit!

There are two types of rear hub and both can accept multi-speed rears:

If you have a track hub (two threads on the same side) you can also get away with using a screw-on SINGLE SPEED freewheel. sorry this doesn't help.

lol.... fixed that for you.

can't believe you'd even write that.

I had a 3-speed freewheel on a track hub on my 1950s Dawes, and it never caused any problems.

OLN and rim dishing might be an issue with 5 or 6 speed freewheels, admittedly.

thanks guys really appreciate it but does anyone have any spare ones or ones to sell?

Jordan, it sounds like the wheel you have is more likely to be the type pictured on the left if it was fitted with a singlespeed freewheel, ie. it is a "thread-on freewheel and hub".

You will still need to specify how many gears it should have though; 5, 6, 7, 8?

Maybe you could mention the model of bike. If you do buy a multi-gear freewheel, try and stick to a better Shimano one.

Thanks rodabod. the bike is a Cannondale S R 400. The back wheel i have is a single speed 700 but i need help because i dont really know what im doing. I'll put the wheel and a pic of the bike frame and see if you can get anything from it- wont do it so here is the link

Thanks

wheel-

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/road-bike-back-wheel-single-speed20-breaks-too-20/85718846

frame

http://velospace.org/node/19303

rodabod, would you help me add gears to the wheel if you're local?

Thanks rodabod. the bike is a Cannondale S R 400. I'll put the wheel and a pic of the bike frame and see if you can get anything from it- wont do it so here is the link

Ok, assuming it's the same bike as in the link (ie. roughly the same year), then it appears to be 7-speed. You can check by looking at your shifters.

I think you should just buy a decent wheel with a 7-speed block. That can use either type of gears pictured above, ie. "hub and thread-on freewheel" or "freehub and cassette". The latter is usually preferable.

I'll have a look and link to anything I see that looks suitable.

rodabod, would you help me add gears to the wheel if you're local?

I would, but I'm over in Hackney. Surely someone here who's a bit closer might be kind enough to help out though; it's a simple job, though one which some bike shops could over-charge you for.

I have a rear wheel with 7-speed already fitted. Not in London but I can deliver.

Speak to lae, or post a wanted thread in the classifieds section with a link to this original thread.

Otherwise, if you were buying new, I reckon you could get a so-so wheel fitted with a screw-on 7-speed Shimano freewheel for ~ £43. You'd be best buying something better quality second-hand though.