[Turt99]

Here are some pictures of my old bike.
First off anyone have any ideas what year this bike is? I'm thinking around mid to late 90's but I don't know for sure. The bike has a 1" steer tube and has its setup with the original fork on the stand it has a threaded headset. You can see in the other pics that I have a Indy C fork for the bike that has a threadless steertube, but I just removed this so that the bike would work on the trainer stand and I noticed that the steertube on the Indy C is bent pretty bad.

The bike is 4130 Cro-Mo frame, and the only real damage is on the driveside under the chain, I don't think this will really weaken the frame but I thought I'd show you guys and see what you think.

From when I got the bike till now its had a bunch of parts replaced but really its still alot of lower end shimano parts. The brakes however are fairly new they are Deore V-Brakes, the levers on the bike are Tektro because I swapped them from my other bike to put the Deores with my BB7's.

Anyways what do you guys think, is this bike worth making a SS out of? should I try to find a 1" threadless fork? or should I just use it to test SSing?

Finally here are the pics

 

[Nat]

I think you should convert it to SS using the rigid fork already on it. The conversion wouldn't have to cost more than $25, maybe even no cost at all since you'd mostly be removing stuff. My "test-the-waters" bike is also a Haro.

 

[Turt99]

Thats a nice looking test the waters bike you have there, I'm thinking thats what I'll do when I start heading out to the trails again. For now it can stay as it is on the trainer.

ooh one question I forgot to ask was what tools do I need to get the cassete off this bike? I had the wheel off and I really didn't see anything that would make it come off.

 

[shiggy]

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=48

 

[Turt99]

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=48

Thanks thats a great link, my brother probably has the tools for this, and then I guess once thats don't I'll know what conversion kit I will need

 

[midtnSS]

Imho

Use the rigid, you won't find a 1" suspension fork worth anything anymore, use a big front tire. Use the FAQs for chain tension. You're set, maybe a tensioner, next to free. With a 1" headtube its early 90's at latest, 1 1/8 became the standard in 1993.

 

[day42]

That Haro is an early- to mid-90s bike. My roommate in college had one just like that! I remember he jumped off a curb up near school and bent the forks out like a chopper...this was about 2 weeks after he bought the bike?! Cool frame, but I'd get a different rigid fork!

 

[Turt99]

Well I borrowed the tools that I needed from my brother and I got to work on the bike to see what I had there, the cassette came off and is a series of cogs and spacers, I assume I could use on of these cogs for the rear gear on my bike but its notched for hyperglide or something like that to ad in shifting I'm guessing this might cause an issue. Or will this work and the only thing I need is to get some spacers?

I took the other parts off the frame so really the only thing I have to do know is get my hands on a conversion kit to get me started.

I'm planning on just leaving the crank alone for now and just running the chain on the 2nd ring, I looked for markings but couldn't find any so I counted and I think it was 32 teeth.

I guess this is all I need
http://www.misfitpsycles.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/25_38/products_id/31

I know there might be cheaper ones but I'm in canada and I might be able to do pickup with misfits and save the shipping, and if you look at the price of a tensioner it seems like the best deal is to get the full kit.

Am I on the right track?

 

[cyclodan]

Turt99 wrote:
"I assume I could use on of these cogs for the rear gear on my bike but its notched for hyperglide or something like that to ad in shifting I'm guessing this might cause an issue."

Yeah I tried to do a zero dollar conversion on an old late 90s steel frame. I had horizontal dropouts so no tensioner was required and the hyperglide cog was fine on the road. Even handled some steep gravel road climbs but as soon as I got to some steep singletrack it would jump off the cog, consequently my knee would suddenly impact the stem. Ouch! So I got a Shimano BMX cog and a new chain. Final tab, $23.00.
You know you could use your derrailleur for a tensioner.

 

[Nat]

Turt99 wrote:
"I assume I could use on of these cogs for the rear gear on my bike but its notched for hyperglide or something like that to ad in shifting I'm guessing this might cause an issue."

Yeah I tried to do a zero dollar conversion on an old late 90s steel frame. I had horizontal dropouts so no tensioner was required and the hyperglide cog was fine on the road. Even handled some steep gravel road climbs but as soon as I got to some steep singletrack it would jump off the cog, consequently my knee would suddenly impact the stem. Ouch! So I got a Shimano BMX cog and a new chain. Final tab, $23.00.
You know you could use your derrailleur for a tensioner.

Yep, use the derailleur as a tensioner and buy a single Novatech cog, some spacers, some single ring width chainring bolts, and you have a SS for all of $21.

http://www.webcyclery.com/product.php?productid=16975&cat=402&page=1

http://tinyurl.com/69mm7

http://www.webcyclery.com/product.php?productid=17089&cat=406&page=1

 

[Turt99]

Well I guess in order to save a little on the conversion I could throw the derailleur back on and just use that. Like I said its good to see the other stores but with Misfits being local it will probably work out better with shipping.

Also with the crank, I can't just get shorter bolts for it because the 3 rings are welded together (its a cheap Alivo crank) I guess I could use a new ring but thats just a waste I would assume.

How do you run the derailleur if your going to use that as the tensioner? just run the chain through normal and have it pulled tight along the bike because of removed links?

 

[Nat]

Well I guess in order to save a little on the conversion I could throw the derailleur back on and just use that. Like I said its good to see the other stores but with Misfits being local it will probably work out better with shipping.

Also with the crank, I can't just get shorter bolts for it because the 3 rings are welded together (its a cheap Alivo crank) I guess I could use a new ring but thats just a waste I would assume.

How do you run the derailleur if your going to use that as the tensioner? just run the chain through normal and have it pulled tight along the bike because of removed links?

There are a few ways to use a derailleur as a tensioner, but the way I did it was to run the chain through normally and pulled tight. I used a short length of shift cable (sans housing) from the cable end stop to the pinch bolt to hold it in position over the cog. The little barrel end was bigger than the cable feed hole so it didn't pull through.

You can use your current triple ring, but I like just having a single ring for increased ground clearance to get over logs, rocks, etc. The Salsa ring is pretty cheap.