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135 front & 135 rear dropouts SS?

2K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  jdg 
#1 ·
A new, for me, SS bike concept is building in my imagination, that has 135mm spacing front and rear, which uses two rear hubs for both wheels, so that the wheels may be swapped, to obtain two different gear ratios, probably Dingle style, using two chainrings.

The ongoing pace at which I move on bike builds is slow, and this is two years away from actual construction.

Does anyone here ride a swappable front/rear wheel SS?

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#7 ·
I'm generally a 'live and let live' kinda guy; if what you do doesn't impact me, I really couldn't care less, but since this is a discussion forum and you posted the question for discussion:

Why though?

I suppose I could see this being 'a thing' for bike packing or ultra-endurance riding (AZT750?) where you have like *miles and miles* of desert before you get to *miles and miles* of mountains. And having a 2nd rear hub on hand in case one explodes would be nice.

for general riding... isn't the *point* of single speeding to just shut your brain off and pedal? Yeah, i definitely understand the monotony of spinning, spinning, spinning out miles of road on a 32x19, but that's (IMO) just part of riding a bicycle.
I can swap a cog and adjust the sliders in literally a couple minutes.

If I was planning on needing different ratios for different things, it would be so much more efficient to just hang a short-cage RD and a 6 speed cassette.


I'm not hating, just not sure I see the benefit personally.

All that aside, I can't see why it wouldn't work, there's 135mm spaced forks out there already. Throw one on and enjoy the versatility!
 
#8 ·
If you want a dingle setup you don't need a second wheelset unless you're using hubs with thread on freewheels. I've got my SS setup as a dingle. All I need to do is loosen the rear wheel and swap the chain. Just make sure both your ratios add up to the same number of teeth and you'll be all set. On my 29+ i run a 33x22 and a 36x18.
 
#9 ·
The first and only instance I've seen in reality of swapping front and rear wheels is the Surly Pugsley.

Yeah, I'm not building a fat bike, but that is where the notion ones from.

Why? Well, why not.

Inherited a fat bike 135mm suspension fork, similar to the Bluto, and thought about putting it ony old Mukluk, but I decided it would be like putting lipstik on a pig.

So having that fork doing nothing leads to the idea of finding a used 135 single speed frame with some good clearance to build a plus bike plush hard tail 27.5 or 29 with.

It's a valid point about why not just change a cog and retension the chain? Well in theory swapped wheels an be a cleaner and tooless procedure. Also, it appeals to me because it's rarely seen, and I would the enjoy experience.

I have had a couple of Dingle speeds, and I think they're great for mountain bikes that must pedaled on pavement approaches to trails.



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#11 · (Edited)
This is what I have so that I can have a fixed/free singlespeed. I put an On One fat bike fork on my 29er. One wheel is a Surly fixed disc hub and the other a XT free hub. I have 32 and 34 dingle up front and I can swap wheels to run either 34:20 fixed or 32:22 free. If you do it, just make sure the 135mm spacing on the front fork is a rear hub spacing. There are 135mm fat bike forks (like Jones) that won't work in a rear dropout without getting creative
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