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Singlespeed, but with a screw on freewheel (shimano tourney)

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Jag Brah

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi all.

I've got a mountain bike that I want to convert into a ss. I've got all the parts needed: tensioner, spacer kit and cogs. This LBS specialising in singlespeed and track bikes said that they couldn't do the conversion because they didn't have the tools to remove the cassette off the threaded hub. They also said "even if I got it on for you the chainline wouldn't be very ideal, you know".

How do I go about converting my bike into a singlespeed?
 
#2 ·
You still can use single freewheel and use spacer on the axle for chainline, re-adjust the spoke to get the wheel center.

OR

Change to freehub and use the singlespeed kit you bought.

BTW I use hammer and nail to remove the freewheel LOL.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
I'll get another lbs to check it out.

For now, I think the most economic course of action would be to remove the freewheel cassette, sand down some spacers and see what happens. If that doesn't work out, then I suppose I'll just sell the tensioner and 16T freewheel and save up for a proper SS bike.

:(

Edit: Maybe I should have done more research. The Shimano DX SS freewheel looks just like what I need. Thanks for the link.
 
#6 ·
Taking apart a freewheel and using spacers works well, although freewheel cogs are not very strong - you can fold them over or crack them. I made spacers from PVC pipe.
I just bought a bike with a BMX style freewheel and see that someone has put a lockring behind the freewheel to adjust the chainline - very clever. Seems to me I read somewhere that a bottom bracket lockring fits the freewheel threading.
 
#7 ·
do you have a cassette or a freewheel? if the hub is threaded, it would have a freewheel. if you take the freewheel off and replace it with a single-speed freewheel, the freewheel teeth on the hub will be too far to the left (toward the center of the hub) to line up with a center chainring on a crankset. you can get the freewheel closer to the dropout and in-line with the front chainring if you re-arrange the spacers on the axle so the spacing still adds up to 135 OLD.

however, this will move the whole wheel to the right on the bike and the wheel should be laced such that it has a neutral dish: the spokes put the rim centered relative to the axle. so when you re-space the axle, the tire will rub on the right chainstay.

you MIGHT be able to correct for this by loosening the drive side spokes and tightening the non-drive spokes proportionally until the rim is correctly dished relative to the center of the new axle spacing. there's a good chance that your wheel was built such that the non-drive spokes are a bit longer than the drive spokes, so dishing the wheel this way could be impossible without completely rebuilding the wheel.

if all that went way over your head, i apologize. it's not easy to convert a hub with a freewheel hub to single-speed. also, if you have a freewheel hub, there's a likely chance that it's a cheesy, cheap wheel with a flimsy single-wall rim that's going to get destroyed if you ride trails on it or even drop off a few curbs. you would be much better off buying a decent wheel with a freehub designed for multiple gears (because these hubs are easy to find at any bike shop), and put a SS cog and spacers on it.
 
#8 ·
OP, you're using some of the terms mistakenly. Freewheels and cassettes are distinct, and hubs either work with freewheels or cassettes.

Freewheels are single units that have the freewheeling mechanism inside them. They have a female thread that is used to attach them to the hub, which has a corresponding male thread on the right side. The thread is 1.37"x24TPI RH, which is the same as the left side of an English (common) bottom bracket.

Freewheels can either have one cog or they can have a cluster of them that looks like a cassette.

Cassettes are just a cluster of cogs that have internal splines. They slide onto a freehub, which is a type of hub that has the freewheeling mechanism inside the hub. The cassettes are attached with a threaded locking that uses a splined tool to turn.

I guess you have a kit for making a freehub singlespeed, but if your hub is a freewheel hub, you can't use your kit on it. It's odd that they don't have the tools to remove the freewheel, but some freewheels actually don't have a way to remove them without destroying them. Maybe yours is this type.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
Thanks for all the advice. Kanik, I wasn't very sure of the technical terms but Mack has got it spot on. This is a pretty cheap bike so I'll get another lbs to see what the best course of action is. The bike has doublewalled rims though, according to Raleigh's website. One observation I made is that the rear wheel is parallel but not in line with the frame and the front wheel. It's more towards the drive side by less than half an inch. It has been this way since I got the bike.

The thing I'm most worried about would be the cost of respacing/redishing the wheel and the unwillingness of the lbses here to do things that they don't come across every other day.
 
#11 ·
What kind of crank is on your bike?

I was originally running on the middle ring of a triple crankset and the chainline was off. I thought I'd have to redish my wheel but when I got a single speed crank, luckily, everything lined up perfectly -- no respace, no redish.
 
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