$0 single speed "conversion"?

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  • November 20, 2012 at 9:33 pm #955930
    vvill
    Participant

    @DSalovesh 36253 wrote:

    The mechanics are that while the derailer is hooked to a shifter and operating normally it isn’t as steady as you may think. It moves a lot, and in all three axes. But it’s balanced, so when it moves away it also moves back pretty quickly, and it’s meant to be adjusted if it doesn’t snap right back in place. If the derailer hangs there with no particular connections it will still want to move as it can but it has no balance and no adjustment.

    Thanks! That makes sense. I have learned something about rear derailleurs today. They’re still quite confusing to me.

    @DismalScientist 36254 wrote:

    Can you just trim the chain and not use a tensioner? (Don’t feed the chain through the derailleur.) If you have horizontal dropouts, you can potentially adjust the chain tension somewhat by wheel position.

    Nope, I have vertical dropouts. The bike is a 3×8 flat bar hybrid. If it had horizontal I would probably have gotten spacers and single chainring bolts and the rest of it and attempted a proper conversion. Without a tensioner I believe I’d have to try for the so called “magic” gear or whatever that I’ve read about.

    @krazygl00 36258 wrote:

    I think a conversion using a derailleur is possible, but I think you’ll be happier using dedicated singlespeed parts. It may be worth your while to visit benscycle.net. While no longer a $0 proposition, single/fixed parts are still very cheap, and you’ll enjoy it more if you do it right

    Thanks for the links. I’ve read most of Sheldon Brown’s site before, and those particular pages at least a few times. The main reason I don’t want to add parts is because I don’t plan to keep this bike SS for too long, so I don’t really want to remove the derailleurs etc. I agree it’d be a more enjoyable ride if I spent a tiny bit of $ and did it right, but part of my enjoyment of this bike right now is for me in engineer-tinkerer mode. :)

    November 20, 2012 at 9:46 pm #955933
    jrenaut
    Participant

    @vvill 36259 wrote:

    Thanks! That makes sense. I have learned something about rear derailleurs today. They’re still quite confusing to me.

    More and more I find I strongly dislike derailleurs. It’s partly because I have not gotten myself to sit down with Sheldon Brown’s site or some other similar reference and just mucked around with them until they made sense, so they do not, in fact, make any sense at all.

    But they’re also dirty, noisy things that constantly annoy me.

    One of these days I’m going to try fixed, and perhaps I’ll never go back. Or maybe I will. Or maybe by then we will have moved and S-1 will be greater than 1.

    November 20, 2012 at 10:15 pm #955934
    vvill
    Participant

    I do actually enjoy having gears but I’m lazy and yeah I hate maintenance, so single speed appeals to me in that regard. (As does an IGH!)
    And taking shifting out of the equation does really change the ride. Now that my legs/knees are stronger from over a year of regular cycling, I can seriously consider riding with one gear.

    You could always get a folding fixie! My folding bike is the only one I have with horizontal dropouts.

    November 20, 2012 at 10:21 pm #955936
    vvill
    Participant

    Just for some context. Here’s the drivetrain in question (with FD cable already removed)
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]2087[/ATTACH]

    And I just did a 3 mi test ride on it like this. Might try a commute soon. This is my 2nd lightest bike right now…! And I haven’t even taken off derailleurs or unnecessary gears/rings.
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]2086[/ATTACH]
    (Saddle/seatpost position needs some tuning.)

    November 20, 2012 at 10:43 pm #955939
    dcv
    Participant

    @vvill 36265 wrote:

    And I just did a 3 mi test ride on it like this. Might try a commute soon. This is my 2nd lightest bike right now…! And I haven’t even taken off derailleurs or unnecessary gears/rings.
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]2086[/ATTACH]
    (Saddle/seatpost position needs some tuning.)

    I sense the the weight weenie is strong in this one. Loosing the gears and brake(s) will make any bike lighter, I’ll post my lightest FG on bike pics thread later tonight. FYI I’ve gotten my reynolds 853 steel frame LeMond FG down as low as 15.15 lbs with pedals.

    November 20, 2012 at 11:28 pm #955945
    Dirt
    Participant

    It’s weird. I’ve had featherweight fixies and anchor-weight ones and I think it is the ones toward the middle that are my favorites. I keep toying with the idea of building a Litespeed carbon, aero, fixie for Total200 next year… I figure I could get the bike down under 12 pounds in my size, and still have it be durable, comfortable and really aerodynamic. Then I think that I’ve got to spend 11-12 hours for the event and many hundreds of hours training for it on the bike…. and I keep coming back to how supremely comfortable and lively my 20+ year old, steel, Big Pink bike is. I just can’t pull the trigger on that Litespeed. Who knows. I might get fickle and give it a try. All else fails I can put gears on it and use it as an aero road bike.

    The other thing that I’ve found is that my knees actually like riding fixie and are stronger and give me less pain when I ride fixie than any other bikes that I own. Fixies do not always mean that you’re being hard on your knees.

    November 21, 2012 at 1:13 am #955950
    OneEighth
    Participant

    Big Pink rocks.
    Y’all rock.
    It’s all good.
    Except when it isn’t (but that’s another story).
    My Surly is in the low 20’s, my Special Ed is 17.5 lbs. I sometimes actually feel faster on the Surly just because of the gearing. And, the Surly is frankly indestructible, which makes for a different ride in and of itself.
    vvill—pull the trigger! Bet we’ve got enough parts between us to set you up.

    November 21, 2012 at 2:33 am #955953
    vvill
    Participant

    Considering I bought 2 new bikes this year already I think I should wait at least until Jan to pull any kind of trigger… another reason to convert a bike for cheap from my existing stable. The fit on this frame actually isn’t too bad either. I thought it was a bit big, but that’s only compared to a compact road frame. For commuting fun it should do nicely. (And almost completely off topic: lock-on grips rule!! At least for flat bar installs. I put nice waffle-y ODI Ruffians on this bike.) If I do pull the trigger, it will be on a steel bike methinks… I have 5 Al ones already.

    Who doesn’t like lighter bikes! But a “light” bike for me is < 25lbs. My folder is around 26, MTB beater 30, and this hybrid was about 26 as well until I removed child seat parts/etc, switched out the wheels and "converted" it. It's around 21 now, not bad for a £300 bike. My road bike is around 19 I think, and my CX around 23-24. I feel like I do actually notice lower rotating weight, esp. on rolling terrain, so I'll spend money on nicer wheels/tires but not much on making the whole package super weenie (at least not while I continue to commute on each/any bike and have to lock them up to an open rack). @Dirt 36274 wrote:

    I keep toying with the idea of building a Litespeed carbon, aero, fixie for Total200 next year…

    I’m wondering more what you’ll ride for the Dirty Kanza! The Van Dessel I assume, but will there be any mods for the race? Aero bars? That’s a looooot of dirt miles.

    @Dirt 36274 wrote:

    The other thing that I’ve found is that my knees actually like riding fixie and are stronger and give me less pain when I ride fixie than any other bikes that I own. Fixies do not always mean that you’re being hard on your knees.

    How come? I always thought between the mashing and high speed spinning and using legs to slow down there’d be a lot more strain.

    November 21, 2012 at 11:38 am #955967
    dcv
    Participant

    @vvill 36265 wrote:

    This is my 2nd lightest bike right now…! And I haven’t even taken off derailleurs or unnecessary gears/rings.
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]2086[/ATTACH]
    (Saddle/seatpost position needs some tuning.)

    This is starting to look nice, much cleaner and I like the flat bars. Looking at the amount of seat post showing the frame doesn’t look too big for you, like you said it’s not a compact frame. If you needed to reduce reach you could get a shorter stem, 80 or 70mm?

    If you can get it to work with magic gearing that would be really clean, all you would need is a spacer kit, single cog and single chainring bolts (ditch the 2 inner chainrings and both derailleurs). If not just add a chain tensioner. A SS conversion would compliment your stable nicely.

    Pic of my spacers and surly cog (for shimano free hub):
    IMG_20111217_193639.jpg

    November 21, 2012 at 1:16 pm #955969
    Dirt
    Participant

    @vvill 36282 wrote:

    I’m wondering more what you’ll ride for the Dirty Kanza! The Van Dessel I assume, but will there be any mods for the race? Aero bars? That’s a looooot of dirt miles.

    ….

    How come? I always thought between the mashing and high speed spinning and using legs to slow down there’d be a lot more strain.

    Definitely the Van Dessel. Not sure I’ll put Aero bars on it. I’ll keep it light and simple.

    No idea why my knees like the fixie so much except they’ve always felt better when the muscles around them are strong. It wouldn’t be the first thing I’m a mutant about. If Bob’s knees can do fine in the cold while wearing shorts, then mine can feel better hammering up hills an spinning at 160+ rpm. I guess my point was to make your own decision on the knee thing. Give it a fair shake before avoiding it because of knee problems.

    November 21, 2012 at 5:12 pm #956003
    jnva
    Participant

    I bought a cheap single speed conversion kit years ago and it worked, but not well. For vertical dropouts you need to either get the magic gear ratio, which may not be possible, or use a chain tensioner.

    I used this little piece of software and did get the perfect gear ratio without using a tensioner and have been very happy with single speed. Have never tried fixed.

    [url]Http://eehouse.org/fixin/fixmeup.php[/url]

    November 23, 2012 at 4:23 pm #956045
    vvill
    Participant

    @dcv 36290 wrote:

    This is starting to look nice, much cleaner and I like the flat bars. Looking at the amount of seat post showing the frame doesn’t look too big for you, like you said it’s not a compact frame. If you needed to reduce reach you could get a shorter stem, 80 or 70mm?

    If you can get it to work with magic gearing that would be really clean, all you would need is a spacer kit, single cog and single chainring bolts (ditch the 2 inner chainrings and both derailleurs). If not just add a chain tensioner. A SS conversion would compliment your stable nicely.

    Thanks, I’m enjoying the cleaner look too. The flat bar came stock with the bike – I’d actually prefer drop bars but I’m not invested in this project (yet). I actually tried to loosen a couple of the inner chainring bolts (figured I could at least ditch that) but they are very tight – no dice.

    That Surly cog + spacers look nice.

    @Dirt 36292 wrote:

    No idea why my knees like the fixie so much except they’ve always felt better when the muscles around them are strong. It wouldn’t be the first thing I’m a mutant about. If Bob’s knees can do fine in the cold while wearing shorts, then mine can feel better hammering up hills an spinning at 160+ rpm. I guess my point was to make your own decision on the knee thing. Give it a fair shake before avoiding it because of knee problems.

    I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to resist trying it sometime. Soon.

    November 24, 2012 at 1:42 pm #956059
    dcv
    Participant

    @vvill 36359 wrote:

    Thanks, I’m enjoying the cleaner look too. The flat bar came stock with the bike – I’d actually prefer drop bars but I’m not invested in this project (yet). I actually tried to loosen a couple of the inner chainring bolts (figured I could at least ditch that) but they are very tight – no dice.

    I have several sets of drop bars you can have, they’re take offs from bikes that are wider than I like. I also have a set of silver bars (26.0 clamp I think) that I flopped&chopped, and a set of drop bar brake levers I took off the Motobecane. Just let me know if you want.

    Honestly though, I forsee bullhorns & bar end brake levers in this bike’s future.

    As for the chainring bolts, I’ve used a socket wrench with allen hex socket set. The extra leverage of the longer handle works. Single chainring bolts are usually in stock at Revolution Cycles, you’ll need to replace the chainring bolts on there now if you leave only one ring on.

    Let me know if you need any help.

    November 24, 2012 at 8:49 pm #953730
    vvill
    Participant

    Thanks very much! I also have a spare drop bar (31.x – whatever the large is, clamp) which I felt was too wide. You’re reading my mind with the bullhorns, I just put bar ends on as imitation bullhorns yesterday and even looked up a few possibilities on flea-bay. But I’m going to stick with close to my current set-up for commuting and then consider getting a dedicated SS CX when I’m back from vacation. Only thing worse than a new bike is a new bike you can’t ride!

    That Motobecane looks decent value for the price with the 4130 steel frame, and a SS/FG is about the only style of bike I’d consider getting from bikesdirect given my lack of wrenching experience (and fear of derailleur/shifter adjustments).

    November 24, 2012 at 11:58 pm #956067
    ShawnoftheDread
    Participant

    This is my fixie-to-be. Someday.
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]2103[/ATTACH]

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