$0 single speed "conversion"?
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Is there anything wrong with just taking off the shifters (Shimano RapidFire style), unhooking the shifting cables, and adjusting the rear derailleur H limit screw in order to hit the cog you want / have the chain line (relatively) straight?
I don’t have a single speed chain or sprocket laying around and I really just want to try a few SS rides. So I mucked around last night using the rear derailleur as a tensioner, and front derailleur/big ring as a chainkeeper. The chainring I chose is the middle of the existing triple (42T) and the rear cog is #3 in an 8 speed 12-25 cassette (15T).
I can’t imagine it’s any more likely for the chain to come off than if it were all connected to shifters? Obviously with the jockey wheels and imperfect chainline the system will be less efficient than a true SS and the wear will be more concentrated but these are all older parts anyway. The only new parts were 2x Avid FR-5 levers I did happen to have laying around which I connected to the existing brakes/brake cables.
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Hmmmmmm well. Mostly a success. The tall Surly cog though doesn’t seem compatible with the KMC X8.93 chain. I ended up just shortening my old stretched Shimano chain which fits in the tall cog teeth fine.
But now I have a new shortened KMC chain that I don’t have a use for, and an old chain on a new cog.
@vvill 41660 wrote:
Hmmmmmm well. Mostly a success. The tall Surly cog though doesn’t seem compatible with the KMC X8.93 chain. I ended up just shortening my old stretched Shimano chain which fits in the tall cog teeth fine.
But now I have a new shortened KMC chain that I don’t have a use for, and an old chain on a new cog.
That is odd. I have used a few of those chains with surly cogs (they are nice and cheap!). What size cog is it? (And is it otherwise special?)
@vvill 41705 wrote:
Nope just the standard 3/32 Surly cog, size 15T.
The chain had trouble engaging each tooth, even with just gently turning the pedals (by hand) on a bike stand.
Yeah I thought it was odd too but when I did some Googling I found a few forum posts about it. Some people apparently took a file/grinder to the corners of the teeth to make it work.
Interesting — and good to know for the future. I have definitely used 2 different KMC X8.93 chains with my Surly chainring & cog setup on my horizontal-drop SS MTB, but I have probably just been lucky. Maybe also the larger cogs are less likely to have this issue (18t/20t) due to angle of the cog teeth (??) … that is just spitballing, haven’t applied any science there
Thanks, but aren’t Phil Wood cogs just for track hubs? I just have a standard Shimano/SRAM splined 130mm wide hub right now.
@hozn 41750 wrote:
Interesting — and good to know for the future. I have definitely used 2 different KMC X8.93 chains with my Surly chainring & cog setup on my horizontal-drop SS MTB, but I have probably just been lucky. Maybe also the larger cogs are less likely to have this issue (18t/20t) due to angle of the cog teeth (??) … that is just spitballing, haven’t applied any science there
It could well be that it’s a problem with the smaller cogs. Makes sense anyway.
For now I am just going to make sure I carry an 8 speed quick link and chain tool with me whenever I ride this bike. I cleaned the chain as well as I’ve ever cleaned the chain (which is to say, not much – but it’s no longer black) and it looks in decent shape still, even if it is a bit stretched.
@vvill 43014 wrote:
My conversion is no longer $0. I suppose this was inevitable, but it’s cheaper than a new frame.
I saw that ENO wheel on CL on Friday, and almost emailed the seller to buy it. Are you going fixed?
BTW you just opened pandora’s box – you will start noticing all the framesets on CL that you can convert to fixed, especially the CF ones.
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