Rearwheel gear/fixed - how to change from gear to fixed?

[creindesign]

Silly question maybe :facepalm:

If a bicycle was set up for 5speed with derailleur, and has a fixed cog on the other side of the hub - how did they change it to fixed?

I assume they did not simply flop the rear wheel and rode it fixed with the derailleur as tensioner...
I find it hard to imagine they had to remove derailleur and shorten the chain every time it was used as a fixed gear...

Cheers, Rogier

 

[hamster]

Normally a flip-flop hub had a single freewheel on one side and a fixed the other. Sounds like you have some kind of butchered thing. Fixed with derailleur is a recipe for stuffing the whole thing through the rear spokes, as you rightly fear.

 

[creindesign]

@hamster that's what I thought as well, however I have seen some other 50s classic lightweights set up with gears. Many of them with airlite or bayliss wiley hubs. Some of them had a fixed cog on the non drive side, but were riding it as 4/5 speed geared bikes. They didn't look like "butchered" bikes

"The recipe for disaster" is why I ask how people used to do this in the past...
I find it hard to believe they had to remove derailleur and part of chain as soon as they entered a TT

A picture from classiclightweights website showing what I mean - Claud Butler 1953 Avant Coureur

 

[pigman]

Re:

My guess is that the 50's were austere times where people didn't have specialist equipment for different disciplines. So those wheels were used for training, touring and at the weekend the same wheels were used on a single speed racing bike.

Other than that I cant think of a plausible reason.

Or perhaps, freewheels of that era were that unreliable and prone to failure that the fixed cog was a get-u-home solution with lots of careful pedalling.

I really don't know

 

[COUPES]

Re:

Often wondered this myself. For many it was their only mode of transport, too and from work and race at the weekend. Different disciplines geared or fixed. Did they have two chains or take links out? 3-4 was the norm at first but I have a Sun Manxman that has fixed and a 5 speed cassette.

Simon

 

[pigman]

Re:

where's keithglos when you need him?

 

[keithglos]

Re:

Hello, I'm still here (sometimes)
Fixed and free (never never flipflop) hubs were commonly used in the 50s and 60s. More than single sided. As suggested, one wheel would do both. Not unknown to ride home on a fixed cog after the freewheel has given up. They used to get water in, and wear away the pawl springs. Quite easy to do with care, just have to keep a little pedal pressure forwards.
We used to deliver bikes by riding one and pushing the other. I once carried 3 new Hetchins frames from the rail depot by strapping the top tubes in the saddle bag cape loops and tying a string round the bottom brackets, over the shoulder and looped round the handlebar.

And how about the Paris Roubaix gear I used in 1956? 14 to 24 with 51 x 48 on the front. Used a Campagnolo handlebar control on the left while undoing the rear wheel with the right hand, and pedalling forward to change the front. The wheel would only go forward in the ends until the tyre touched the bridge, then roll back in.

For most of us the bike was the only method of transport.

I suppose all this will be forgotten soon.

Keith

 

[Midlife]

The picture is silly, in reality the fixed cog wouldn't have been there.

Shaun

 

[keithglos]

Re:

It should be remembered that time trialists really only started using gears in the mid 50s. I was on 10 speed and tubulars for most riding by 1950.

Here is some transport from 1957, Western Road Club Bristol, the bike was Rotrax. I can name the miscreants.



Keith

 

[keithglos]

Re:

Shaun,

I usually agree with you but in the 1950s the fixed cog (3/32) was frequently in place.

Keith.