Left Side Drive

[panelman]

I have seen some people running chains on either side of the rear wheel. I want to put the entire driveline on the left side. Has anyone done this and how did you do it? Any Ideas are welcomed, even if they are to tell me I'm losing it.
Thanks

 

[sqrly]

There are some bmx hubs for left drive or you could go the fixie hub route.

 

[rickpaulos]

You are pretty much limited to single freewheels or fixies on the left side.

Some brands of single freewheels have a lip on one side that will prevent you from screwing it on to the hub. And how do you get it tight enough to keep it on as the removal pins/slots are on the side that will face the spokes. Getting it off again will be way too easy, just pedal hard. Doh.

A track fixie uses a reverse threaded lock ring so using that will prevent the cog from spinning off. No lockring and it will come off pdq.

I've seen a bike with drives on both sides! Identical gearing of course. Unless you use modified PowerCranks and are coordinated enough to pedal each leg at a different rpm. Yowza!

any igh or derailleur system is pretty much out as is a coaster brake hub.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Rickpaulos is exactly right, this only works with single speed, either fixed or freewheel.

Here is one I built for the last Muscle bike build-off, dual side drive...

Build thread here: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=68143&st=0&sk=t&sd=a my build is in the green writing.

The left hand freewheel can either be held on with a weld tack or a loctite style product. The hard way to do it is to disassemble the freewheel, screw it on using the internal shelves to grip on and do it up REALLY hard, then reassemble the freewheel, from the back, on the bike... Can be done, and is what I did, but really do not recommend! :roll:

As for the crank, you will need to weld your chainwheel to the lefthand side, not just swap the cranks or you will have pedals undoing on you. If using a single piece crankset you will need to cut off the pedal bosses, switch sides and weld them back on... OR, cheat and just use more of the loctite on the pedal threads...

To sum up, yes it can be done, it takes some work, but can be done.

Luke.

 

[panelman]

Making it stay together I think is the easy part(weld or loctite), mainly just want ting to know how people did it. It will be a single speed I'm not really fond of changing gears.

Thanks for the info!

 

[kingsting]

Haro was pushing their "LSD" (left side drive) components for freestyle bikes a while back. Find one of those bikes for cheap and use the hub, freewheel, and cranks.

 

[Bicycle808]

The left hand freewheel can either be held on with a weld tack or a loctite style product. The hard way to do it is to disassemble the freewheel, screw it on using the internal shelves to grip on and do it up REALLY hard, then reassemble the freewheel, from the back, on the bike... Can be done, and is what I did, but really do not recommend! :roll:

As for the crank, you will need to weld your chainwheel to the lefthand side, not just swap the cranks or you will have pedals undoing on you. If using a single piece crankset you will need to cut off the pedal bosses, switch sides and weld them back on... OR, cheat and just use more of the loctite on the pedal threads...

To sum up, yes it can be done, it takes some work, but can be done.

Yeah, you can go to the trouble of trying to chop and/or weld stuff to make satandard stuff work OR you can just get some tandem crankarms or a LHD crank and/or a lhd freewheel or a LHD hub. They actually do sell stuff to do this; many tandem bikes have chains on both sides, and as others mentioned, LHD used to be trendy among bmxicans. Yeah, you have got to spend and/or work (probably a combination of both), but it can be done. The question is, why do it?

 

[Alsfelt]

Fit Bike Co. makes a left hand drive bmx. I'm sure you can order hubs from them. Not sure how the chainring is fixed to the hub though. Fit comes with that really small chainring. Dunno if any other rings will work.

 

[panelman]

The better question Is; Why Not? People shy away from it because it is work to find and make work. Which is more reason for me to make it work.
Thanks for all the leads, Im sure I can some up with some combination of the things mentioned here to make it work.

 

[Bicycle808]

I think that anyone who wants to spend the money can buy some XD tandem arms and a LHD bmx hub (or use a track hub), wait for 'em to ship out, and have 'em hung on their bike 20 minutes after the UPS truck leaves. That's the "spending" way to do it; I don't have to work many hours to afford that kinda stuff.

Anyone with a welding rig and some ingenuity can chop-n-weld something together, but you'll spend a lot of time doing that right, and in the end you'll find it hard to replace the parts that've been welded up. I guess that's the "working" way to do it. but, you've got to spend to get the welding equipment-- plus, despite frequent participation in online forums, my time is valuable to me, too.

So, why not do it? The most compelling reasons not to do it would be to save some time and/or money over just running regular RHD stuff. another reason not to do it is b/c it's been done a million times before; ppl who don't ride or build bikes might be impressed, but others might be inclined to say "why'd you spend all that time/money doing that?"

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be judgmental. I've spent a lot of time/money doing goofy stuff with bikes; who am I to judge? But, being that you're just now starting a thread about this topic, it seems to me that the concept may be new to you. As someone who has seen scores of LHD threads and pics on the internet over the past decade, and who once (2004, maybe?) toyed with the idea of converting a track bike to LHD before realizing that'd be a waste of cash, I still gotta wonder "why?"

There's probably more useful or more innovative ways to spend time and money, is all.

 

[alecw35]

I think if you do use BMX left hand drive parts. You might be limited in choice. tooth count on freewheels.

It might be that the hubs have 30mm threads, not the more usual 34mm. Axles might be 14mm. Not 10mm or 3/8"

I think that the thick axles could be swapped for thinner ones. Have to play about with cones and bearings tho.

Axles could have flats filed onto them. Ive seen axles like that. Or frame drop outs can be filed