I've never ridden a singlespeed bike ever..

I have a old 1999 stumpy ht i might convert.

However,..

Before I make the plunge..

What gears could I use to emulate a singlespeed for a couple of rides and try to keep my paws of the gear changer?

Would bottom sprocket on the back and middle ring on the front be normal ?

Can I use a single speed conversion kit on the back and keep the front rings and derailler? Sort of three speed! that I could use on the road to the woods and drop a gear for the woods?

Any thoughts. Or just stick with gears.

RT

maybe just stick with gears? But bear in mind you don't have to throw your gears away… I use 32 (middle ring) on the front and a 17 up back. a hub converter kit can be had for £10 off ebay, use your regular chain, use your rear mech for tension and see how it goes. if you don't like it, put it all back together, sell the ss converter kit on here for about £15 (i think thats how classifieds works?) and all are happy!

I think you're missing the point of singlespeeding if you want more than one gear on it.

1×9, although I hate the very idea with a passion, is probably more suitable for riding at road speeds then having OKish gears for off road speeds, and unless you use an old rear mech for chain tension, I don't think you'd be able to keep a 3×1 setup.

You'll probably end up somewhere around 2:1 so go count your teeth and work out what gear would give you that.

Otherwise, remember you can keep the old gears, mechs etc. as spares, and just go the whole hog.

Not missing the point. But a higher gear for the journey to the woods would be nice. Sadly, I sometimes have to ride 15miles road just to get there.

But long for the minimal maintenance of a ss. Everyone talks about.

Alfine?

So long as you've got all those geary bits stuck to your bike, you won't know what it's actually like. Your bike will be heavier and slower, and at the back of your mind will be the thought that, if push came to shove, you could always just change gear.

So you'll have all the worst bits of a single speed and none of the best bits. I think it would just be unpleasant.

15 miles road singlespeed is fine as long as you don't have to keep pace with anyone else.

3*1 got to have all the disadvantages and none of the benefits.

32 – 16 is a normalish single speed ratio. thats middle and 5th/6th on the casette.

if you want 2 gears look up dinglespeeds. might be difficult with a tensioner though.

HTH

Either properly singlespeed the bike or keep the gears. You could mess around with internal gears as oxym0r0n says but you will have to source a new rear wheel. Just try converting the bike to SS and see how you get on.

I would have said the 16t and 18t on a Shimano 11-32t 9sp cassette are 4th and 5th (smallest) gears. 11-34t has 15t, 17t or 20t (3rd, 4th &5th smallest gears). SRAM had a slightly different sequence IIRC.

you could twingle speed it. up front go for a 32T middle ring and a 34T big ring (actually a 34T middle but run reversed in the outer position). On the back go for a 16T and a 14T. to swap gears move the chain over and adjust the doofer – will take about a minute.

However yu will son learn to spin and maintaining okay speeds on the road at 32/16 is not too hard.