Chains

BOXKARS
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Bike Wall
Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
todhunter

todhunter

Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
127
Reaction score
63
Location
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
First off, I'm a total newb to bikes, so up-front apologies for my ignorance.

I'm going through and restoring an original Swingbike. It currently has a 40t chain ring, but I am planning to put a new Schwinn Lucky 7 chain ring on it (36t). I understand that I will probably need a new, shorter chain. Any good method to determine how long of a chain I need?

Another important question is chain width? How do I know if I need 1/8" or 3/32"? This will be a one-speed Swingbike.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
when you put the smaller chainring on, fit the original chain and see how many links too many it has. you can then with a chain breaker tool remove the necessary amount, or do the same with a new chain.
 
Fixie swing?!?!?
Both styles of bike seem like it would take getting used to but together! WILD

For the record I've never ridden either but want to give it a go sometime.
 
That sounds much better.

You will use a 1/8" chain for a coaster brake bike/single speed bike. The 3/32" chain won't fit on a coasterbrake hub or on a chainwheel from a one-piece crank.
 
4 less teeth = 2 links, or one set of inner/outers. So, if your chain is good, just use a cain tool to take out 2 links. If your chain is worn, get a new one.

For the record, many cb sprockets and opc chainwheels will take 3/32" chain. Most will require 1/8", but exceptions are extremely common. A real Schwinn lucky7 will need 1/8".
 
Fixie means fixed gear whether it be free wheel or coaster brake.
track bike mean suicide hub.
thank you please return to your original thread.
 
mikeeebikey said:
Fixie means fixed gear whether it be free wheel or coaster brake.
track bike mean suicide hub.
thank you please return to your original thread.
Click to expand...

Naw.

"Suicide hub"= freewheel hub with a track "cog" screwed on, sometimes with blue loctite, but no lockring available--- hence, danger of the rear sprocket unthreading and messing your life up. That's where the "suicide" comes in.

"Fixed gear" is not ever gonna be a freewheel or a coaster brake--- fixed means that if the wheel is spinning, the cranks are spinning. "Track bikes" are required to be fixed gear, but many bikes run a fixed gear drivetrain without ever being used on-- or designed for-- a track. And, fwiw, any real velodrome would probably kick you out if you showed up with a suicide hub set-up. (Brakes not allowed, either...)

A bike with only one rear sprocket and no internal planetary gears is a "singlespeed" (ok, sure, so long as there's no planetaries or multi-sprockets at the crank), and these come in many flavors: freewheel, cassette, coaster brake, fixed gear, and free-coaster. So, yeah, basically every set-up discussed on this thread is a singlespeed, but just being singlespeed does not make it "fixed".
 

Latest posts

Back
Top