[dip n ride]

I figured everone here would appreciate the following:

Last night, I rode my bike home from work and started hearing a really annoying clicking sound. I was pissed, because I had spent about 3 hours tuning just the drive train the night before, and I thought I had gotten rid of all the weird noises. So, I was able to attribute the clicking to my cassette, so I took it off, cleaned it, and began adjusting the derailleur. Well, I didn't have a pair of plyers with me, and when I went to loosen the tension on the bolt of the derailleur, the cable sucked itself into the housing, and was frayed beyond use.

So, I figured, this was my bike's way of telling me, "listen bud, I know you've been thinking about it, now it's about time you turned me into a single speed."

So I've decided to do my bike this favor.. I had been thinking about it for a long, long time anyways, and this was the last straw.

I am not looking to completely convert all in one night, I want to test the waters a bit, first by removing the shifters/derailleurs, then removing some links from the chain and putting a tensioner on there. I don't want to remove the cassette and the chainrings quite yet, mostly because I can't afford it right now (and yeah, I know it is going to look ugly as hell but let's please move past that for now). Also, at this point in time I only have my one bike with me in DC, so I can't convert it to a commuter for good.

I have ordered a tensioner (Rennen) so my question is, is there anything else that anyone on here can think of that I absolutely need.. the way I see it, once I remove all that is geared I can basically run the gear I want to on the cassette, and the largest chain ring without too much trouble, since my chain line seems to be pretty spot-on. Any suggestions or comments are welcome.. thanks guys.

 

[dip n ride]

And by the way, I have a 2005 GF Tassajara w/ vertical drops.

 

[Sparticus]

My luck running cogs & rings designed for shifting on a bike that I want to stay in one gear hasn't been good. You can get an 18t or 20t BMX cog for about $4, and a dedicated SS ring isn't expensive either. These won't automatically derail your chain like gears designed with shifty intent.

That's my advice -- invest in SS-specific gears.

--Sparty

 

[ihatemybike]

Yep, Chainrings and Cogs without shifting ramps are better for singlespeed use. If stepping into it, get the Cog first.

 

[dip n ride]

Thanks

Well I did myself a favor and after the response from Sparticus (who has helped me a lot with this whole conversion thing over the past couple months whether he knows it or not.. thanks for that by the way) went to Harris cyclery's website and ordered a few different things from there. I have ordered with them before and had very good luck, good customer service, quick shipping, etc.

I ordered a shimano cog (inexpensive, seemed like a logical choice for my very first cog), a set of spacers, and a single speed chain. I also ordered a rennen tensioner, as mentioned before.

So all that being said, can I get away with using my current chainring for a little while? Or is it going to mess with the chain too much? Also, I can use my current lockring, right?

Thanks for everything so far guys.

 

[ihatemybike]

Depends on your chainring. If it doesn't have a lot of goofy ramps or profiled teeth, it should be okay for a while.

Your lockring should work with most spacer set-ups.

 

[dip n ride]

Awesome... thanks a lot, i appreciate it.

 

[mud'n'sweat]

Be careful with those shimano cogs. Make sure you are not running a aluminum hub, otherwise the cog will eat into the hub body under high torque.

 

[Jwiffle]

Depends on your chainring. If it doesn't have a lot of goofy ramps or profiled teeth, it should be okay for a while.

Your lockring should work with most spacer set-ups.

actually, he will probably need a new lockring...a 12 tooth lockring works best with the spacer set-up. I found that out when the spacers slid right over the 11 tooth lockring that I tried to use from an 11-32 cassette.

 

[dip n ride]

Be careful with those shimano cogs. Make sure you are not running a aluminum hub, otherwise the cog will eat into the hub body under high torque.

It's a shimano m525.. I think that's steel, but I am not positive. Can anyone back me up?

 

[lubes17319]

Soundz kinda similar to my conversion.

PunkBike 2005:
Had 8gears at the beginnning, but 100m into the 1st stage, I pushed on the shifter to drop a gear & POW! Something inside popped. Voila, 1 gear to finish the day & fortunately it was around 34/20.

Next day, I stripped off the extra parts, pulled apart the rear cassette & used the 20t cog & a singleator lying around for my rig.

No mechanicals since.

 

[dip n ride]

Soundz kinda similar to my conversion.

PunkBike 2005:
Had 8gears at the beginnning, but 100m into the 1st stage, I pushed on the shifter to drop a gear & POW! Something inside popped. Voila, 1 gear to finish the day & fortunately it was around 34/20.

Next day, I stripped off the extra parts, pulled apart the rear cassette & used the 20t cog & a singleator lying around for my rig.

No mechanicals since.

haha, great story. So as a little update, one of my crankbolts got rounded out in the midst of all this excitement, so I am currently (and regrettably) ridin around town with a single cog in the back and three chainrings up front (yuck). But, it is working really well and I'll post pictures as soon as I can.