Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Front shifting whilst using a SS rear cog on a bike with gears – explosion risk?
  • mcj78
    Free Member

    Hi all,

    Anyone ever attempted such a thing?

    I have 2 sets of wheels for my commuter – one built on Halo Aerotrack rims which usually wear 25c Duranos, the other with some Alex XD Lites which are wider & either wear 32c Small Block 8 or 35c Voyager Hypers.

    The wider wheels with the Voyagers will be staying on the bike for commuting for the forseeable but I have a spare SS setup kicking around & will probably stick this on the other wheelset as a lightweight SS set with the Small Block 8s on for “exploring” some local farm tracks etc. (i.e. escaping the house at the first hint of cleaning the oven / removing those bikes from the spare room)

    Soooooo – will it be possible to still change the front rings (36/46) with the ss setup or am I missing something & tempting a fiery explosion which will tear my balls off? (i’m aware £12 or so would give me a spare cassette & 20 gears instead of a prospective 2 – where’s the excitement in that though 😉 )

    J

    robinlaidlaw
    Free Member

    Well, you’ll need a rear mech or some kind of sprung tensioner on the rear to allow the length of the chain to change and you’ll need to be running a dérailleur chain not a SS one but if you do those things it should work.

    ndthornton
    Free Member

    cant see a problem wi that

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    ndthornton
    Free Member

    …as long as the SS sprocket will take a 3/32 chain

    mcj78
    Free Member

    Cheers guys, yeah i’ll be using the standard 2 x 10 setup already on the bike & basically swapping the geared wheelset for one wearing a ss converter with a Shimano DX 3/32 16t cog (left over from a ss MTB experiment which lasted about 2 hours, haha) – as long as I line up the cog in between the front rings & shift the rear mech into line with that (then try not to touch it again) I should be golden right? What could possibly go wrong?

    breadcrumb
    Full Member

    IMO if you’re going to have a rear mech hanging off your bike you might as well have the range of gears to go with it.

    Some kind of sprung blackspire stinger style tensioner could be quite neat for a dinglespeed though..

    TiRed
    Full Member

    I was thinking of exactly the same setup to convert a SS cross bike to 2×1 to have an overdrive. Will need a chain tensioner that can take 10T and a 3/32″ sprocket. I was considering Pauls’s with my Surly sprockets, but that looks abit like a derailleur, as does the Alfine. with all the mud clogging that entails.

    TimP
    Free Member

    I tried for a while to get it to work as my commute was downhill one way and uphill into a prevailing wind the other. It was surprising the amount of chain it needed to change 10T on the front ring and in the end I could only get it to work with a mech. You will also be best moving the shifter out the way to start with for when you are tired and forget!

    mcj78
    Free Member

    Usually i’d just use the availability of a spare set of wheels to build a whole new bike around as everyone knows a whole bike takes up less space than 2 loose wheels… ahem… but alas the frame & wheels are 130mm disc flavour so aren’t readily swappable with much at the moment.

    I know the idea of sticking a SS wheelset on a bike with front & rear mechs is slightly contrary but I have spare wheels & an inquisitive mind so might as well give it a bash until I replace the cassette on the other wheels & generate some more spares to find uses for!

    j

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