I recovered my 20+ year old road bike the other week and am singlespeeding it.I’ve replaced the freewheel, stripped the gears, cables and shifters and I was starting to put the chain on when I hit a snag. The teeth on the new freewheel seem to expect a fatter/longer link than the old big-ring.

I’ve tried new chains I’ve got for my other bikes but whilst they work up front, the rear is not going to happen. Do I need a new chain AND new bigring or am I missing something?

Are you attempting to put a 9spd chain onto a singlespeed sprocket?

Yep. I was initially just checking the alignment with the 20 year old chain and noticed that although the big-ring was happy, the rear wasn’t. So I have a feeling even if I DID get a new chain, I’d have the reverse of the problem, hence the request for guidance.

Just get a BMX chain and use it with your original chainring. Thats what I’ve been using on my fixed from ’95 onwards.

It’ll be fine with the big ring then? Off to the shops I go.

To be honest, that’s not a bad thing, I can’t get the cranks off at all.