Sacrilege - gearing up a fixed

ive just acquired a fixed conversion with a sugino maxy 52t single chainring. its a nice bike, but i already have two fixed bikes and two single speeds. i fancy a geared bike to add to my stable.

it still has both its brakes, and i have a 8 speed wheel, so effectivly, i only need a cassette and derailleur+shifter to make it geared. but with a single front chainring.

i use a 70" gear on my FG and SS bikes, which my favourite gear to ride on. im a little unsure how i should gear a bike with only one chainring up front. a normal cassette is likely to be too highly geared i reckon, as it would have been designed to be used with the option of a lower front chainring.

should i get/build a cassette with a 70" in the middle, as its my normal favourite, and then base the other gears around it? the problem i see is that a 70" gear on a 52t up front is 20t, which is quite a large tooth gear in itself, and bigger tooth gears are kind of unusual and hard to get. and big gears like this might cause shifting problems.

what do you reckon?

would it be better going for a 42-48 up front or something? surely it would be less hassle to change the chainring than to change the cassette?

nippy 7 speed is a good addition to any stable.

Maxy is the one where you can't change the chainring isn't it ? Might be easier in the long run to bin it and get something with a 42 tooth chainring.

Did you check to see what spacing the frame is at the back ? Will limit what size cassette or freewheel you'll be able to put in.

Theres lots of different sugino maxy's , some look just like mighty's. Ive seen much more maxy's with separate chainring than built-on.

mmm... puppy reincarnation.

yeah, its one of the maxys where you cant change the ring. i always thought they were a bit cheap, but having seen one in the flesh, i quite like it. it would be alot easier to change it, but my lack of funds doesnt allow it to be easy.

my rear hub, is a modern shimano 8speed. i dont know about the spacing, or how this affects the cassette i can use.

I have a couple of road bikes, one has a compact chainset on it, 50t and 34t rings, the 34 is completely useless IMO, used to ride with a 12-26 cassette on it and would be fine for getting up pretty much anything with that (on the 50t ring). Have recently changed the cassette to a 11-21 though for tighter ratios. Other road bike is 53/39 and 12-25 cassette, spends the majority of its life in the big ring too.
Fixed ratio is 47-17 so 72.3gi

You would possibly be fine with the 52t ring but depending on cassette size used it might be better to switch the front ring to something in the 47-50t range

yeah, its one of the maxys where you cant change the ring. i always thought they were a bit cheap, but having seen one in the flesh, i quite like it. it would be alot easier to change it, but my lack of funds doesnt allow it to be easy.

my rear hub, is a modern shimano 8speed. i dont know about the spacing, or how this affects the cassette i can use.

I have a maxy road double which you're welcome to have

as ive said id rather not change the front chainring as it means a whole new crank and BB, which i cant really afford. im pretty low on funds and spend whatever is left over from life costs on bikes.

i might just get a 12-26, and maybe try to get a few bigger sprokets for the hills. 52x26 works out at 54gi, which should be alot easier up hills than the 70gi im used to.

Alc- do you have that old 12-26 hanging about and be willing to sell to moi?

i could also get another 48t maxy if i find more money, as they are pretty cheap. what casette gearing would you recommend there?

im very unexperienced when it comes to geared bikes, ive pretty much always ridden bikes without them!

as ive said id rather not change the front chainring as it means a whole new crank and BB, which i cant really afford. im pretty low on funds and spend whatever is left over from life costs on bikes.

Not sure I understand mate.. I have a maxy double chainset (cranks, two chainrings etc) which you can have for free if you want to convert to geared.

What's the pitch of the sugino maxy chainset? Will a 3/32" chain work on it?

my rear hub, is a modern shimano 8speed. i dont know about the spacing, or how this affects the cassette i can use.

Have you tried the wheel in frame, and fits ok ? Does the dish of the wheel place the rim in the centre ? and will the chain run on the smallest sprocket without rubbing on the inside of the chain stay ? If so don't need to worry

Very roughly

120mm rear spacing - max 5 speed block
126mm rear spacing - 6 or 7 speed block
130mm rear spacing 8 speed cassete upwards

its 130 then cause the hub is 8 speed. it fits in the frame fine, ive fitted it with cassette.

the maxy chainset i have is one of the types where the chainring is cut from the same piece as the spider, so its one piece. you cant change out the ring.

thats very generous soul, ill pm you aboot it.

I have an old square Taper Shimano 105 (170mm) chainset I wont ever be using again. You can have it for the price of postage (£5-7?). 52/42

Alc- do you have that old 12-26 hanging about and be willing to sell to moi?

Fraid not. It was completely shagged when it came off in any case so not worth using. Think I took it apart and used the spacers for something

If you dont have the shifters then depending on the chainring you might want to run 8spd or 9spd. 10spd would work too on the wheel but its all more expensive and tbh i notice very little difference between 9/10spd bikes. Just need to check what width chain the chainset is meant to take. If it is 9spd then a 9spd system will work better, I've found that using a 9spd chainring on a 3/32 set up (7/8 spd) with no front derailleur has a tendency to drop the chain off the chainring a lot. A dog fang will help a fair bit. Or get an old non working front derailleur and set the limit screw really tight so it acts as a chain device.

Something like this would be a fairly reasonable cassette http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Shimano-HG50-8-Speed-Road-Bike-Cassette-12-25-NEW_W0QQitemZ360138725508QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR?hash=item360138725508&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1688%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318
If you get a bigger range one - like for a mtb make sure the rear mech you get can cope with the teeth range. I think this is okay on a single ring set up, but more of a problem on a double.

What's the pitch of the sugino maxy chainset? Will a 3/32" chain work on it?

Width not pitch

Regarding running 3/32 chains on the Maxi...

Available with 165mm arms and usable with 1/8" or 3/32" chains.
From here.

8spd then or 7.

If you ever do encounter hills (i.e. using the extremes of the cassette) I think you may have problems, like stated above, whereby the chain may come off the chainring in these positions. Also this will increase the rate of wear - It's not like you can replace the chainring once worn either...

Have you tried the wheel in frame, and fits ok ? Does the dish of the wheel place the rim in the centre ? and will the chain run on the smallest sprocket without rubbing on the inside of the chain stay ? If so don't need to worry

Very roughly

120mm rear spacing - max 5 speed block
126mm rear spacing - 6 or 7 speed block
130mm rear spacing 8 speed cassete upwards

hijacking the topic, it's perfectly fine to put a 5 speed block on an 130mm rear spacing? I'm building a bike up for my dad, and decided to have 1 chainring and 5 speed rear as he never change gear on the front.

hijacking the topic, it's perfectly fine to put a 5 speed block on an 130mm rear spacing? I'm building a bike up for my dad, and decided to have 1 chainring and 5 speed rear as he never change gear on the front.

If you can find a 5spd cassette that fits on a 130mm hub then yes it should work i think. However I think most 5/6spd stuff is all based on a screw on freewheel/cassette, so it might be hard to find a cassette suitable for a 130mm hub freehub

hijacking the topic, it's perfectly fine to put a 5 speed block on an 130mm rear spacing? I'm building a bike up for my dad, and decided to have 1 chainring and 5 speed rear as he never change gear on the front.

I'd imaging it should be ok, if you're using an existing wheel you'll probably need spacers and have to re-dish the wheel.

As Alc says though, you'll need a hub that'll take a screw on block rather than a modern freehub