Anyone any experience of running a single narrow/wide chain ring on a what would normally be 2×10 chain set? Will have to run it on the outer (obviously) but does this make for a bad chain line on the larger rear sprockets?
The chain set is an FSA SL-K 2×10 on a Whyte 29C

Most people run it in the middle ring position. With narrow chainring bolts.

Seen as its a 2×10 I thought the outer would be reasonably close to where the middle is on a traditional 3 ring set up. I can’t put it on the inner as anything bigger than a 26 tooth ring will could the frame.

Sorry, missed that it’s a double.

A 1x setup is always going to have a wide chainline in the extremes. It seems to work fine in practice though

Will be fine on the outer, unless you can run the chainring inside the spider?

Regards, Paul

quite a good discussion on this a few days ago.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chain-line-on-1×10

Bottom line – I think it works OK, if a little noisily. Chainline will be slightly suboptimal due to the slightly outward spacing, and you tend to notice it more than you may have noticed a non-NW, or when running a NW on a middle-of-a-triple position, but the benefits still far outweigh the slightly noisier running. IMHO.

Thanks, that answers a lot of questions, reckon I will knock out a drive side BB spacer and go for it. Next question anyone know where I can get some shortened chain ring bolts

from the beardmeister

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/id-cromo-chainring-bolts—single-speed-double-and-extra-large-128-p.asp

or CRC

Be aware shimano 2x chainsets won’t take less than a 34 tooth ring unless you use spacers to get the chain to clear the tabs in which case chainlike might become an issue? Can’t speak for other brands…

There’s Shimano 2x chainsets that you can’t fit the ring on the outside of the tabs like you can with a triple, so be aware before splashing out on stuff. If you fit a ring you might want to buy some Wheels Manufacturing alloy spacers for wangling the chainline. Also find some of the newer HT2 bb washers of different thicknesses to fine tune it all. Not to mention the chainring bolts. Single ring bolts will probably be too short if you end up fitting the spacers, so keep a hold of the original ones. If you mess around before buying anything and think about it, you should be able to suss out what you’ll need as far as chainring spacer thicknesses and bolt/nut lengths are concerned.

I’ve just been cought out with the 32 tooth ring catching the tabs! Only read this about 5 minutes before going to fit my new ring!
Going to order some spacers to clear the tabs, which in turn will help with the chain line as slx 2x cranks run the rings on the inside.

‘from the beardmeister’.. yes,all great info but for the OP it’s not the information he needs to be reading as he’s taking about a 2x chainset so a set of single ring bolts won’t be long enough to sandwich a tab,chainring and 2.5mm of spacers in there so choose wisely.

A triple chainset you can just fit the ring in the middle, but the 2×10 will cause a few extra probs with the chainline. Even 1.5-2.5mm in the extremes on a narrow/wide will piss you off.

If I was to use a slx 3x chainset instead of my slx 2x chainset, would I still have the issue of the chain rubbign the tabs with a 32t chainring, runnign it on the middle possition?

No. I run a 30T on the middle of an XT chainset and it’s fine, had a 32T on there before and was also fine.