I have my itch again to build a leftside drive (chainring, chain, etc all on left side) cruiser with a fixed hub. Anyone ever do this before? Gonna use a 83' Huffy frame for this at first.
Left hand drive cruiser. Anyone ever?
- Thread starter roadmaster
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83 feet! That's an awful long bike! 
Sorry, I had to. I'm interested in what information/advice comes forth. I'm watching......
Sorry, I had to. I'm interested in what information/advice comes forth. I'm watching......
yoothgeye
I build stuff.
I'm curious about 2 things, 1 is reason and the other is technical. When I was into sport compact cars and guys would be doing right hand drive conversions on their USDM cars I always wondered why. I mean I get that you are trying to mimic a Japanese car, but it's not practical at all in a country where all the other cars are left hand drive, think about drive-thrus and passing! And I asked, none of them delivered mail. So I know it's different, is that why you wanna do it? I'm no knocking it, because I have a LHD BMX bike, it's supposed to be so that when you do a peg grind you don't mess up your drivetrain, but I'm not grinding, haha.
Secondly I was going to ask about what type of hub you would use, but duh, a flip flop or track hub with the lock ring can operate easily on the left side, I'm done. haha
Secondly I was going to ask about what type of hub you would use, but duh, a flip flop or track hub with the lock ring can operate easily on the left side, I'm done. haha
Thread direction might pose a problem in reliability and safety, Dont forget the loktite! I had one years ago that was LHD, but I've slept since then. Doh!yoothgeye said:
i know some BMX bikes are left hand because they are right sided grinders. there are flip flopped hubs and reversed cranks, so if you convert to a three piece and a free wheel i know it is possible, the problem you will encounter is the left side of the frame doesnt have an indentation to make room for the sprocket. could always flip everything around with a smaller sprocket and take the brake arm off, and so long as you ride very slowly, maybe get 50 feet before something un threads
I'm gonna have to agree with on the unthreading problem.snydur said:
yoothgeye
I build stuff.
If he uses a flip flop or track hub, there are no issues with unthreading, he did say he was planning on a fixed gear. I think he'd have to use a LHD BMX crank to keep things from unthreading, I know of no other option that doesn't include lots of loctite, torque, or welding. :shock:
You shouldn't have any issues at all if you make sure to always pedal backwards.
:lol:kingfish254 said:
Sorry if it sounds weird, really stupid or just plain over stupidly thinking :lol: .
How about not having to flip flop a flip flop hub?
It might be too complicated and expensive but both sides have a chain that you just use a special bottom bracket that can shift off & on from one sides sprocket to the other that way you can switch sides by using a shifter but this will be used if you have more than 1 speed free wheels on the normal right side.
Is there a free wheel/fixed gear hub that is not a flop flop?
The single speed free wheel hub that has a switch/shifter to lock the free wheel in place to make it fixed geared.
How about not having to flip flop a flip flop hub?
It might be too complicated and expensive but both sides have a chain that you just use a special bottom bracket that can shift off & on from one sides sprocket to the other that way you can switch sides by using a shifter but this will be used if you have more than 1 speed free wheels on the normal right side.
Is there a free wheel/fixed gear hub that is not a flop flop?
The single speed free wheel hub that has a switch/shifter to lock the free wheel in place to make it fixed geared.
kngtmat said:
Are you trying to talk about this:
http://www.sram.com/sram/urban/products/sram-torpedo-single-speed-hub#/path/term-id/261? Obviously, you are also talking about a bike with dual drive-chains, which would be impractical, although I always wanted to build a bike with a regular square-taper english BB, a fixed/fixed rear hub, and 2 different Sugnio XD crankarms...a regular drive-side one on the right, and a tandem left-side one on the left, so i could ride it without worrying about pedals unthreading. I wonder what would happen if you made the gear-ratios different. I'm thinking it would either strip/maim some components, or allow for time travel...
-rob
PS-- to the original poster: as someone else said, you could run a left-hand drive cruiser with a fixed rear-end and a BMX LHD crankset, or you could probably rig something up with a euro adaptor and tandem cranks, but that wouldn't save you enough money or look any cooler over the BMX LHD crank...
I cannot think of a reason to do this except to say that you did it. Even folks with disabilities related to their right leg wouldn't benefit from a LHD cruiser, as the left pedal will turn the ring just fine on a RHD...
I cannot think of a reason to do this except to say that you did it. Even folks with disabilities related to their right leg wouldn't benefit from a LHD cruiser, as the left pedal will turn the ring just fine on a RHD...
They sell left hand drive single-speed freewheels for the flip flop hubs. If you lace the hub into a cruiser rim you should be fine. Most old cruisers (my 37 colson is a good example) have the same frame design on the left and right. If I mounted my crank/sprocket backwards I'd have no problem with frame clearance. I'd say it's absolutely do-able. And since you're thinking of fixed gear, I'd just tack weld the rear cog to the hub shell. You'll have to remove the guts from the brake arm side if you need to clean/regrease the guts ever. Also you might never have access to the inner drive side bearing again. And if you weld, do small bits at a time so you don't overheat the bearing or grease.
Yeah you shouldnt have any problem, just put the cranks on backwards, which isnt difficult, then get a freewheel rear wheel if you dont have one already, than put on a fixed gear cog, and screw a lockring on overtop. Should work perfect.
ozzmonaut said:
And there it is!... i'm finna weld it up good to make sure that cog don't move.
So my plan was: 1. Thread a track cog onto a cheap steel 26" rim from a mountain bike and weld it fully. I am a powerfull rider
and I have a few friends who live to weld and can weld just about anyhting from steel, stainless and alloys
and aluminum.
2. Run the cranks in backwards and I think i'm gonna have to chaulk up the chainguard. :lol:
3. Add a hand brake up front because this would not only be my first "fixie" build, but also the first fixed
gear bike I have ever riden. What I lack in experience I will make up in comphrehension of theory, so the
brake is probably a wise add on.
Why am I doing this you ask?... because I wanna "pop my "fixie" cherry and i'm down to try something different. I also wanna build a bike I call Leviathon, being a full sized tandom bike with a trike rear conversion kit (heavily reinforced, of course) and a homemade utility tadpole tandom type front end (kinda like an ice cream vendor trike) actually making it a quad cycle having four wheels. And to even make it more ridiculous, I may even extend the rear tricycle section a few more feet and add two more smaller wheels behind the rear trike wheels, making it a six wheeler. Oh, and a small bicycle trailer behind it with a homemade 5th wheel style hitch coming up from the front of the trailer hooked up to an automotive ball trailer hitch mounted on the extended rear section 5th wheel style. Leviathon, totally obsurd and ridiculous contraption that probably wouldn't be street legal on it's best day.
But for now, a left side drivetrain cruiser it is. Will definatly post picts later this spring when I get to it. :mrgreen:
roadmaster said:
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but some things to consider:
1- You'll need to redish the wheel if you use a mtb rear wheel. Even the freewheel hubs for MTBs (which is the only type of cheap mtb wheel you could actually thread a track cog onto without modification) are probably going to be spaced 135mm; you can find ones at 130mm or even 126mm, but you'd need to look around, and even in those cases, you'd need to respace and redish the hub. Not entirely impossible, but unless you already have a rear wheel that fits the description, you'll need to spend $$ on that and time to make it work (how much is your time worth?) and then you'll run into the "make it work" issues, to whit:
-if your friend welds your track cog to the english threaded mtb hub, he will damage the bearings, unless you dissemble the hub first. Even if you do dissemble the hub first, you may damage the race surfaces.
- When that track cog wears out, you won't be able to replace it. Doesn't seem like a big deal now, but that's more time and money you'll have to spend when the time comes.
2- If you just reverse the cranks, your pedals will need to be constantly tightened. Like, every ride. Maybe this seems like another small point, but I sure am glad I don't have to do that on any of my bikes. Even if you get a crank designed for LHD, you may experience clearance issues, depending on your frame and how big the front sprocket is.
3- Good idea to run a front brake. Regardless of what the cool kids said back in 1998, you probably want to run a front brake on your fixed gear. Even on well-built fixed gears, and even if you have "madd tight skillz with the skidz, yo", the fact remains: Unless you have brakes, you will crash when the lady in the minivan backs out of her driveway without looking just a few feet in front of you. On a jury-rigged welded-up conversion with loose pedals, the brake seems like an even better idea. :wink:
I know how incredibly awesome the LHD concept might seem, but I don't think it'd be worth the investment of time and $$ to do it. That's just my opinion, and I wouldn't want to tell you not to make a LHD cruiser, b/c you probably don't care what I think anyway. But, you might be better served with a more sensible fixed cog idea (How about the old disc-ready front hub with the bolt on cog? That'd have the same MacGuyver appeal, without the drawbacks...) and with a crank where the pedals stay tight. (But, what's to stop you from having your buddy weld those on, too?) I know ppl who have tried this (Although, not on a cruiser), and while it never ended in tragedy, it typically ended in disappointment.
I'm not trying to be critical; I'm honestly just trying to help. LHD cranks and a track or disc-track conversion can be affordable, and way easier.
-rob
All very good points and if I were to ride this bike much, probably very valid. I wanna try this with a 84' Huffy Seqoia mtn bike frame that I had parted out recently. A visual inspection of the bottom bracket and the layout of the chain stays are symetrical enough for the chainring/cranks to go in backwards. Since this is a bike I will rarely ride, and this first Seqoia build up prototype before I decide to do this with a cruiser I care about riding.
As for redishing the rear wheel, i made a 99' Huffy Santa Fe ss cruiser with a freewheel mounted on a cheap mountain bike rear wheel and the difference in chainline and offset of a multi speed dished wheel wasn't enough to make me correct them. But if I do move the idea to the next level, i may do that. I also figured I can buy a BMX type 16 or 18 tooth freewheel and just put it on backwards to change the direction of freewheeling and drive. Worth a try and I have a ss freewheel that I remember being reversable. thanks for all the good advice guys!
As for redishing the rear wheel, i made a 99' Huffy Santa Fe ss cruiser with a freewheel mounted on a cheap mountain bike rear wheel and the difference in chainline and offset of a multi speed dished wheel wasn't enough to make me correct them. But if I do move the idea to the next level, i may do that. I also figured I can buy a BMX type 16 or 18 tooth freewheel and just put it on backwards to change the direction of freewheeling and drive. Worth a try and I have a ss freewheel that I remember being reversable. thanks for all the good advice guys!
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