I’m converting an pretty rubbish racer into a singlespeed.

Is it as simple as the following:

Take off cassette
Fit single speed cog and use spacer kit to fill gap.
Take 1 x cog off my chainset
Buy a new chain

Do I need a chain tensioner in place of the rear mech or can I just take the rear mech off?

I don’t understand all this talk about the verticle dropouts? Is this a problem?

Any advice would be great!

if it’s got vertical dropouts, you will be lucky to get the chain length right so you have decent tension (so it doesn’t come off) – i.e. you will probably need a tensioner.

if the dropouts slope, you’re fine

you don’t necessarily need a new chain

Depends if your bike has a feewheel or a freehub and cassette. If its a free wheel it will be pretty hard to single speed without a new wheel/hub.

This is a verticle drop out which means you cannot addjust chain tension.

This is a horizontal drop out where you can adjust the chain tension.

another option is track drop outs which give you loads of adjustment.

The late, great Sheldon Brown is your friend:
http://sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

It might be that simple, but depends what kind of dropouts your frame has (http://sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html#vertical), whether it’s a cassette hub or screw-on freewheel etc

check the old bike hasn’t got a screw on freewheel/cassette combined thingy rather than a modern freehub – you can’t just swap to singlecog then.

that red one isn’t a vertical dropout.. though it still doesn’t exactly give much room to move! you might get away with that.

Thanks – I’ll check the dropouts

Silly question but how do I now if I have a freewheel, hub or cassette.

The bike does have a 8 speed cassette so I assume its a cassette?

Sounds like a cassette – does it have a lock ring?

I did a very cheap singlespeed last year, left the casette on and picked the gear and shortened the chain to suit. Make sure though that the chainline is not too extreme.

Yes it does have a lock ring.

So the dropouts allow you to tension the chain correctly. I think mine are vertical.

Was thinking about that higthepig but thought it be best to get off cassette and lose the weight.

you _can_ try for a “magic gear ratio” (and i even think there are things online that work it out for you) but it’s a bit of an arse and any “stretch” will make itself quickly known

I did to work out what was the best ratio before I pulled off the casette and replaced with a single sprocket, took me about 3 months to work out what was best though!

Thanks – will give it a go this weekend and see what happens…