I want to convert my bike to a fixie/ track bike....what do i do?

Question

any help is appreciated

Answer 1

You can but very time and money consuming. preferable get a new bike.

Not really sure how to

Answer 2

I did this one time for a time trial that I knew I wouldn't have to have multiple gears for.  Let me fill you in on the main problem that I had with my conversion.

First you have to make sure that you have enough adjustment in your rear drop outs to accommodate the chain length.  By that I mean that the drop-outs should be horizontal and not vertical like on most road bikes.  When you go to a fixed gear you eliminate all the chain adjustment that the rear derailleur accounts for.

Next step is to remove both the front and rear derailleurs, shifters and shifter cables.  Then you can either find a fixed gear hub for your rear wheel or buy a new rear wheel with a "track style" hub.  And you can also remove one of the front chainrings.

The reason I mentioned about the horizontal drop-outs is that when you change rear cogs, the distance between the hub and crank center lines change slightly.  The bigger the cog and sprocket combination the closer the wheel mounts to the cranks, and likewise with a smaller combination the wheel mounts further away from the cranks.  There isn't enough room in a vertical drop-out set up to accommodate for the mounting distance difference.  You have to keep breaking your chain to get the proper chain length for everything to mount in the drop-outs correctly and it's hard to figure out with just tyring lots of combinations of gearing.  Fortunately I got it "sorta" right with my 3RD!!!!!

Also, track rear axle spacing is different than that of a road bike by a few millimeters smaller in size.  I believe by about 4 millimeters.

If you use one of those single speed conversion kits that you can find from any mail-order company, it includes everything to convert your bike to single speed, but not fixed gear.

Hope this helps and good luck to you!!