So having got rid of the car I’ve put my old gt frame to work as an ss for getting about on. Problem
I’m getting is That it skips under heavy load (I.e climbing). I think this is probably down to the chain line not being totally straight (though I could be wrong) as I’ve fiddled about with the tension etc. my question therefore is how do you get your chainline straight? I’m currently running some old lx cranks with a new middle ring bolted to the outside. Is it just suck it and see or is there indeed some arcane science that I should be employing? I have a beard so the thought of not being about to ss about is all a bit strange to me now.

Cheers,

Jez

put bike in stand, put your eye behind the rear cog and see if the chain bends on it’s way to the chainring. If it looks straight you’re probably ok, if it looks like it curves then you need to move the rear cog (or put chainring inside tabs).

I bodged the back with spacers from an old cassette. I just swapped tham arround until it all lined up. If you are using the outside of the chainset then the rear sprocket will need to be quite far out from the spokes.

As above, I’d move the chainring inside. I’ve fitted an old bash ring which acts as a chain guard to keep the grease off (unless you go for the rolled up skinny jeans look)

I am currently running some old lx cranks with a new middle ring bolted to the outside.

Ring should almost always be in middle position on cranks.

Get a singlespeed specific wheel with a frewheel cog when you can ( assume you have singlespeeded a cassette hub ) as these are less prone to issues imho.

How is it being tensioned? What tooth sprocket on the back? Sometimes these can cause a slipping problem.

Are you running a chain tensioner? If so, and it can tension both ways, make sure it’s under the chain, pushing up. The chain may be skipping across the sprocket.

Did you change the chain at the same time? (also I assume a new rear sprocket)

Your GT frame has vertical dropouts? In which case you need to use a chain tensioner like this one for example:

You can fit that middle ring on the inner or outer position hopfully? But if you still can’t get close to a chainline, even with a sideways adjusting chain tensioner, then you need to buy a conversion kit that fits on a freehub made up of several spacers to put a single sprocket in the right place.

Cheers dudes