Singlespeed conversion

Jon · Singlespeed conversion

I'm taking my old Rockhopper apart to make into a single speed mainly for the ride to the station morning and night. I think I know what I have to do etc but is their any pitfalls I may encounter?

At the moment its been done on the cheap so its existing back wheel with spacers on rear.

On the front just running on the middle ring, how do I acheive this, do I need more spacers to replace the inner and outer ring?

GTDave

No, no spacers on the chainrings. At most, a bashring to make it look nice, or keep the font mech to keep the chain in place. Nice little how-to for Shimano chainrings here:

http://barq.org/blog/?page_id=19

Bigguy

What do you think of you On-one frame, GTDave. They are on sale at the moment. I was quite interested, just gotta get my girlfriends to let me buy one.

Good luck Jon, you'll have legs of steal, once you start riding SS.

Bigguy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALEX-DM24-W...PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I realize you aren't building from scratch but I thought these wheels might be of interest.

GTDave

Love it to bits, it's a real nice ride.
Good bit of flex in the rear end takes the sting out of the trails very well.
Both my GT and Inbred are 18" frames, but the Inbred is slightly more stretched in the top tube.
I'd definately choose one again, 'that red' is lovely! Very Happy

Must update her pics soon!

Bigguy

I normally ride a 19" but thinking about getting a 17" or 18" for a bit more fun and after sitting on Jons 17" I am starting to wonder whether I should be on a 19" Laughing

So if the 18" is a bit longer in the top tube it might just be perfect.

They got the frames on sale on their site, just trying to get the girlfriends head around the idea of another bike in the house. Shocked

But, I suppose she has a fair point 3 bikes in a year will be a bit much?...... Embarassed

But it doesn't stop me trying. It might be a lot of fun if we get a few guys with SS, for the days when we wanna work a little harder.

Noel

GTDave

How many bikes is 'enough'?
There is a formula for that:

(How many bikes do you have)+1=Ideal amount of bikes.

Therefore the formula shows that you can never have enough bikes! Laughing

Epping on a SS is very doable. I have done it on 32:16 and 32:18 gearings, both work well with 32:18 being a little more leisurly (and easier on the knees)!

GTDave

Noel, may be of interest:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/On-One-Inbr...PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bigguy

Looks good, I will put in a bid and see what happens. Thanks for that.

I have just picked up an old Rockhopper frame for a fiver. I am going to build it up and see how it turns out.

Might take a little time to build, but it will be good fun! And if I win the inbred bid, it will be even better.