The Chainlink

I saw this post by Ted Ernst(*) on the Classic Rendezvous list this morning. The discussion topic was fixed gear hubs which lacked lockring threading. I reproduce it here with his kind permission. I thought the rationale for use of fixed gear without lockrings was pretty interesting. Clearly, this is only advisable in an actual velodrome.

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The no locknut hubs always bring up questions. At the ADT velodrome in Carson, all the rental bikes have no lock rings, and people are asked not to use lock rings on their personal machines. The reasoning is that when learning and during training sessions, riders shouldn’t backpedal.

The emphasis is on pedaling forward to keep going and not slow down so you don’t slide down the 45 degree banking and take out the field! If you backpedal, then the close riding and limited response time could have someone climb aboard your bike from behind.

Idea is to pedal forward and maneuver around whatever and ride your way out of trouble! Speed is your friend and there is no stopping so learn to steer and read the riders and what's happening around and about you on the track.

This all works fine in learning and forward training sessions, but when you get into competition, all bets are off and even tho the aforementioned is proper, you do what is necessary to save yourself out there!

When it gets squirrely in team, point, miss & out, etc., type races you better be able to back pedal somewhat to occasionally save yourself.

It’s possible to roll the cog off and then it get’s interesting. On a steel hub, you can bomb the cog tight and probably not roll it, but on alloy hubs sometimes it’s not quite tight enough, and. the roller coaster surprise makes your heart rate double rather quickly!

I wonder if these were made for pursuit riders, or was cheaper and with pro riders in mind, locknut was thought too amateurish. But then I saw too many pursuiters in the ’50’s have SF hubs to save weight.

Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA 

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(*) Ted is a fount of bike knowledge, having been a professional rider in the 1950s. He started out at his father's bike shop here in Chicago in (I think) the 1940s, as well as founding and running Ted's Manhattan Cycles in 1962.

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REALLY bad idea... i was once thrown down by a stripped track hub that the owner who lent me the wheel had ridden without a lockring. The remaining threads just let go. Another reason to not borrow a wheel (or any equipment,) without checking it over very carefully.



mike w. said:

REALLY bad idea... i was once thrown down by a stripped track hub ...

On the road or track? Note that Ted was writing mostly about training on a velodrome, teaching new riders how to pedal out of trouble. As he pointed out, unexpectedly slowing down in a race can have serious consequences for the other competitors, not just for the back-pedaling rider.

I have a fixed gear bike which I like to ride. I thought I know a lot about bicycles.

I don't understand any of the original post. Can someone explain it to me like I'm an idiot? Which apparently I am. Thanks.

It was new to me as well (though I had developed a lot of respect for Ted Ernst prior to that post). The intent of riding without a lockring on a velodrome is, I think, twofold. One, the idea is to train novice track riders to ride out of problems instead of slow down to avoid problems. Two, if you slow down on a steeply banked track, the odds are very good that you will fall toward the center of the track, taking out anybody who happens to be between you and the skirt. By removing the lockring, you promote both riding out of trouble, and keeping up your speed on the curves.

Note that this only applies to track riding. On the street, a lockring is obviously required.

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