I bought a singlespeed Whippet second-hand last year and I love it, but I’ve been having problems keeping the rear wheel in place.

It’s got horizontal dropouts and a QR with a chain tug which eventually bends or snaps when the wheel works loose.

LBS suggests either (1) vertical dropouts and a chain tensioner, or (2) building a new wheel on a Surly bolt-on SS-specific hub.

With (1) I feel I might as well have a derailleur
With (2) it looks a bit freeridey, i.e. heavy (bearing in mind this bike is for XC racing)

What do/would you do?

I’d try and work out why the QR is coming loose – I’ve been ridign single speed for years with QR wheels and chain tugs and never had it happen.

Are you using just one chaintug?

Maybe worth trying one each side?

Change your QR first?
I’ve nver had this problem with SS; is your chain tug aligned properly?

The chain tug is one of these from Charlie the BM: link
As you can see, the thread and nut naturally align slightly outside the line of the dropout. This can’t help.
Now I think of it, I used to have the tug inside the stays but LBS wanted it on the outside, which is when the trouble began. Could that be it? Does it actually matter?

And yes, I only have the one tug. Charlie the BM says you only need one…

PS I’m not incredibly strong so it’s not brute force that’s shifting the wheel, just clattering down descents.

is the end of the axle actually sitting insde the hole of the chain tug – fit it without the QR on and look in the hole – there should be a fair amount of hub axle in there. The QR is only there to clamp the ends of the frame together, not stop the axle moving.

are the QR skewers getting bent at all?

Are those tugs for solid axles only??

On one have some QR specific ones http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FSOOCT/on_one_chaintug

wwaswas – not much, about 2 mm, you think it could be popping out?

kinda666 – I see what you mean, but isn’t the issue more the QR not clamping hard enough? Why would it help having the tug yanking on the QR rather than the axle? Shouldn’t it work either way?

Sorry, I’m a mechanical dunce and this is doing my head in!!

OK, let’s try another angle: What kind of chain tug do you have on your Whippets etc?

I have a QR On One chaintug, BNIP you can have for £6 posted.

APF

APF, you’ve got a deal, it’s got to be worth a shot, please message me your details

Maybe try a Halo Hex skewer with it

Cool, been sorting the cellar, and stumbled across it.
I don’t see an e-mail address in your profile.
Drop me an e-mail and I’ll let you have payment details,

Cheers

Alex

Oops.

It’s alexb1636 AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

APF

I have a SS Whippet with horizontal dropouts, a normal QR wheelset and a single chain tug. All has been working perfectly for over a year. Email me and i can help you out. 🙂

I used to have the tug inside the stays but LBS wanted it on the outside, which is when the trouble began. Could that be it?

Could this be the answer? Running the tug on the inside seems like a good idea. What am I missing here?

running it inside will push the stays further apart than intended and really shouldn’t be required if it’s all set up right.

All that the tug is there to do is provide a travelling ‘stop’ for the end of the axle to rest in. If the axle isn;t very far into the tug then it’s like having a normal dropout where the axle isn’tt resting in it properly – you may have problems if there’s any flex.

The axle should be in a position when everythign is assembled that it’s not flush with the outside of the tug (because then the QR won’t do up properly) but not far off it.

what QR are you using?

Most external cam type QRs simply can’t clamp hard enough, even more so if they’re crummy nylon/plastic bushed ones, but even brass or alu ones ike hope will not hold that tight.

Try with a decent internal cam QR like a shimano one, or with halo hex skewer because there really is no reason why a rear wheel should slip like that even without chaintugs.

In all my 15 years of SSing the only time I’ve had rear wheel slippage issues it was down to crummy QRs

Those big steel shimano skewers will probably fix it. Or I sell Allen key skewers which lock down tight.

I used Allen key skewers until I switched to an eccentric bottom bracket frame. Inbred frame not whippet though.

I have had a the same issue on a different frame and the fix was all down to a quality skewer.

But i do like to make sure that I have a snug drive side tug as well for a failsafe…..

OK, I’ve ordered a Halo Hex skewer from CtheBM and got a QR-specific tug off here and I’ll let you know how I get on.

Thanks everyone for your input!

Quick update:
Put on On One chain tug (after grinding it down to fit in the frame) and Halo Hex skewer and went to the Dyfi Enduro and… it’s holding perfectly!

Thanks for all your input!