Confused abotu flip flop hub

I just received a fixed/free flip flop hub from Poodles of this parish for an absolute song in response to my wanted ad. It's 120mm over locknuts which is what I need, but what I wasn't expecting is that the hub body isn't currently centred:

The distance between flange and locknut on the sprocket side is 10mm less than that on the other side. Why would anyone have set a flip flop hub up like this? Won't it give different chainlines? I'm quite comfortable taking it apart and replacing the long spacer on the freewheel side, but I want to check I'm not missing something first?

BTW it was either Chomsky or Ricky Tomlinson's autobiography, so...

5 speed screw on block on one side, fixed on t'other.

Really? That would be a PITA to change over. You'd have to make sure your der was lined up with your fixed sprocket, and God help you if you accidentally knock your shifter. It's the only plausible explanation though.

Really? That would be a PITA to change over. You'd have to make sure your der was lined up with your fixed sprocket, and God help you if you accidentally knock your shifter. It's the only plausible explanation though.

AFAIK the idea was to ride geared spring-autumn then pull the derailleurs and stuff off and flip the wheel for winter. Kept the gears out of the worst of the muck and kept your legs/knees moving in the colder weather.

^ correct. That's what I used to do in the 70's

And to the OP, try it as it is, you'll find the chain line isn't as off as you think it would be.

Thanks, will do. Thats assuming I can get the sprocket off! Currently resisting increasingly brutal removal methods (think vice, hammer, chain whip, hot glue gun).

Hot glue gun? I dread to think how you are using that to remove a sprocket.

glued clear plastic hose around hub body. Glued two halves of wood block with hole cutout around plastic hose. Wooden block in vice, tightened to the max. Chain whip on sprocket, hammer on chain whip. No budge. Beauty of hot glue is you can prise it all apart after, no damage done to hub. Much damage done to pride/ego.

Next stop? Blowtorch <8-O

If the sorocket was I stalled when the hub was built into a wheel then the spokes were cut, good luck.

I think you might have a paperweight that rolls around the desk.

Not all is lost.
I've been given a nice hub with sprocket still on, and managed to take it of. Put it back in a vice, between two thick pieces of rubber to avoid damaging flanges, get a chainwhip and a long tube that you could use on the end of it to give you more leverage.
Good luck

is that rubber sandwiching the thin part of the hub shell? Or clamping the flanges themselves? Cos if the former, been there, done that, no juice.

Build the wheel up with the cog on, then un-rotoscope it.

is that rubber sandwiching the thin part of the hub shell? Or clamping the flanges themselves? Cos if the former, been there, done that, no juice.

I clamped by the flanges.
Maybe I was luckier or used a much longer piece of tube to lever chainwhip :)

Build the wheel up with the cog on, then un-rotoscope it.

Where will the spokes go genius?

There's enough room to fit the spokes in. Doesn't need to be well built in fact the spokes don't even need to be the right length. Get some cheap plain gauge spokes bend them past the cog, lace the wheel as quickly as possible, un rotascope, dismantle.

I took your advice, laced it into a wheel Ok, still wouldn't budge, went at it so hard I have now broken my chain whip! I'm cutting my losses on this one.

If anyone has a cheapish 36 hole flip flop hub please let me know. Those with a cog still attached need not apply!

Don't use a chain whip... Rotoscope it.

Edit, that's the wrong word, can't find the right word.

What I mean is put it on a bike wrap the chain with cloth at the bb end and let it hang off the bb, wrap the chain around the cog and keep turning the wheel till it's wrapped around itself and you can use the rotational force of the wheel to remove the cog...

WTF is a rotoscope? Google only brings up the special effect applied to cartoons.

Ah rotafix!

No offence, but that sounds like a recipe for damaging a bike, and I don't have a shit bike I can try that on. I'm done damaging things in pursuit of a hub which cost me £8, I'm back on the market.

Like this:

http://youtu.be/5qIVEpyelP0

The only damage you could do is scrap the paintwork if you don't wrap the chain.

On the other hand I wouldn't use it to put a cog on.