I really fancy doing a project with a difference and making a road bike with lefty wheel, English cycles in America have done one but I’d be keen to do it a little differently… Anyone here able to machine me up a lefty front axle?

Cheers

Lol for the record I meant to type fancy and I blame auto correct on my phone for making that in to “dance” 🙂 yet to work out how though!!!

Mike Burrows has been doing single-sided wheels for years – normally with drum brakes, though,

Hmm interesting I will look up his work, really I’m after a lefty axle to build my own fork from

anyone have access to a lathe?

Yes, but a quick google of lefty axles makes me think it’s somewhat more than a 5 minute job.

It might be cheaper to buy a knackered lefty fork off someone and salvage an axle? Maybe contact one of the independent service centres and see if they have any lower legs available 2nd hand?

I’m fairly sure I have a very old lefty, and probably a hub too that I might be tempted to part with if your interested…

If he’s not interested then I am

700c of Bad Boi Leftiness

I have looked for duff lefty’s but they seem few and far between, Urban I have sent you an email

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if you lack the skills and/or equipment to machine up an axle, how are you planning to make the rest of the fork?

Forks are mission-critical things, even more so than frames, and especially ones like this where the crown is under a lot of stress.

BenC, I had a spin on a lovely fixed example of just such a (Mike Burrows) bike recently at Bikefix. Very nice it was too, and oh how I coveted it!

I would hope he’ll be using lots of carbon fibre, and plenty of cutlery.

That’s the STW norm

Mike does make lovely things 😉

His 8Freight load carrier is a particular favourite.

Hi Ben

I have the skills to turn one, I do not however have a lathe to use, I am considering either a carbon or titanium fork which I am happy to build however, out-sourcing items I am unable to produce myself.

Ah, fair enough – it’s just that I’ve seen several people buy an arc welder from Screwfix and have a go at making bike frames 😉

I’ve seen several people buy an arc welder from Screwfix and have a go at making bike frames

Are you talking about Orange?

nope I have a good tig and building experience, happy to take advice and happy to do it correctly. I have a reasonable engineering background and a reasonable knowledgebase but always interested in learning more and am lucky to have a few very good people around me with a lot of experience in various areas. I just need a good dental plan now just in case 🙂

Are you talking about Orange?

Actually I meant me 😉

(first thing I ever built was a recumbent bike made out of two old frames arc-welded together)

If you can do a drawing of what you want I’ll gladly have a look at doing one for you…got access to some nice CNC’s 🙂

I can’t find anywhere which lists the dimensions of the axle… does anyone have one handy and some suitable measuring tools??

You’re probably best off speaking to English Cycles. If what they have is not suitable I’m sure they can point you in the right direction.

well I could do that but i don’t want to have stuff shipped around the world, would rather it was all built here…

But exactly what you need. I know what I’d prefer.

you could ask Dale Winton nicely but I’m not sure about his politics.

It’s a bit of tapered bar.

Just do a drawing and send it to a machinist?

Not to buck against the crowd or canondale’s wisdom but is there any reason it has to be done using a tapered axle and not a parallel 20mm axle?

Is a cantilevered road axle not under less stress than an MTB equivalent? It would also mean that the hub options open up a bit and be simpler to machine…

Why build a lefty ? why not build a RIGHTY 😉

Disc can be mounted on the right but it’s easier to stick with the standard and use the left leg.

I’ve got a USE Sub axle and leg for a Mavic hub which from memory is the same as a Lefty hub.
The Sub Hub was different and I was running Crossmax SL wheels on my Lefty and Sub at the time.
Happy to sell as it’s redundant in the shed now.
http://numplumz.frankencrank.com/Review_BIN/Sub_fork/Subfork.htm
It’s the bit in the third picture with the nice machining on it.
Tim
(drop me an email if you like)

actually a righty is an option (and I like it a lot :))as it will be a rim brake road bike, straight axle, interesting question which I will ponder however an off the shelf hub would be a lot easier – I don’t want to go reinventing the wheel :). iolo I do agree however if I can get it done here at a reasonable cost with minimal shipping then I know what I would prefer and I would still have to detail a lot to English I am sure, so if I can measure a lefty or find the measurements I can happily spec the rest of the design to anyone able to turn it.
Have just seen a solo fork on the bay though….

Hey Tim, thanks for the offer I love those forks but a bit over kill for my road bike project 🙂 and certainly couldn’t buy it to raid just for the axle, that would be such a horrid thing to do.
I can probably get the measurements I require from a hub, and will have to buy one anyway to make up the wheel…

Righty ho… by Ben Cooper, on Flickr

😉

I’ve only got the linkage part left. The fork went a while ago :O)

These would be the simple way. There’s a choice between 70mm and 90mm brakes.

XL-SD
Description

• Front side mounted hub with 90mm drum brake
• Specific side mounted, left or right side
• Solid axle or quick release axle
• Available now with high polish hubshell

thanks Tim, I have sent you an email.

hmm interesting sturmey hub, it still looks like it would be supported both sides but I have not seen one before. goooogle here I come 🙂

What type of hubs/mounting systems do trikes by the likes of Hase use? Might there be something of use there?

Hase trikes use a through axle – the hub has no bearings, it’s bolted to a long axle the runs thorough the frame with bearings at either end. Other recumbent trikes use stub axle hubs – sometimes just a normal hub with a different axle on the same cartridge bearings, sometimes something custom.

There’s no common standard for stub axles, unfortunately.

I like the idea of a single legged (composite?) fork on the road, especially for something like my commuter where it does away with taking a wheel out for changing / fixing a tube…

I would be wanting a front disc or drum brake though, for one thing having a caliper straddling the tyre / rim sort of affects the flat fixing access benefits a bit, plus if you’re going all fancy and new-fangled you might as well go the whole hog.

Although in terms of braking forces a single leged, disc brake fork is going to have to contend with more stressing of that single leg / crown than a rim braked one so there is a major benefit to doing your suggested way…

Using a 20mm standard hub makes sense to me, designing a fork/hub with the bearings in the leg itself would be a fun exercise but I’m not sure it would actually be beneficial, probably adding cost and even mass, more for novelty than function…

It can be done in a Garage, with some help / input form others I reckon, first thing to figure out though before the actual detail of it’s construction is the geometry you want, A-C dimension, offset and steerer dia…

I like it… Do it!