One of the members of my fleet is a 99 GT Zaskar which is spending it’s twilight years as my back-and-forth-to-the-shops type of bike.

It was cut down in it’s prime after I’d only had it for a couple of months when, during a spectacular collar bone breaking crash, the handlebars whipped round and put a huge dent in the top tube. The bolt on the x-lite bar-end created a dent within the main dent which provoked quite a bit of beard stoking when inspected by my local frame builder.

His advice was to claim on my insurance for a new frame as this one was terminally flawed and could fail quite spectacularly.

Anyhow, time has moved on and I’d like to remove the gears from it. It’s never going to be used off-road in anger for the reasons described above.

So, what bits do I need?

I’m guessing some form of chain tensioner as the frame has vertical dropouts. Which one strikes a balance of performance and reasonable cost?

What about the sprocket and adaptor, which ones to the STW singlespeed aficionados recommend? I’m keen to retain the Hope hub which is currently on the bike.

Chainset is XT (from the era of the square BB), and it’s going to need a new chainring. Which one?

And lastly a chain, which one?

Any other suggestions welcomed.

Ta in advance.

VeloSolo

Can get everything you need there at good prices. I did find CRC better for chains though.

Thanks for that link to VeloSolo. Very useful indeed.

Charlie the Bikemonger has a good guide and cheapish full kit (except chain ring) details here

Also try Charlie the Bikemonger – top chap, good service and good advice. He’s even got videos on his site that talk you through the whole thing. FWIW the VeloSolo tensioner looks like the SSC one, which I found to be a bit shonky (until it got nicked) – Charlie’s 4-Jeri one seems far better put together.

I used…

superstar singlespeed kit for spacers and cog – £10
deore chain ring – £12
On one doofer – £8
Charlie the bike monger narrow chainring bolts – £5
SRAM PC-1 chain – £9

Works a treat. On one are out of doofers, but superstar do a cheap one which will work pretty similar I’m sure.

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/index.php?cPath=58&osCsid=f4dea5e45732a24ff82958d5c69ccc3f

As above, I used the superstar singlespeed kit (wide cog) as the Hope body is quite soft and narrow pressed cogs can cut into them quite badly. The wide cog version is only a few £ more so worth it IMHO.

If you want a single speed specific chainring look at the FSA DH 3mm rings. Only around £14-15 from CRC and been great so far. Much cheaper than Velosolo and not much more than a thinner, ramped Deore ring.

PC-1 chain is a good choice but I got the nickel plated version – have heard a few things about the non-plated one not lasting well.

Cant help with tensioners unfortunately – horizontal dropouts here.

Cheers all. Most helpful.

Good advice on the FSA rings – just mentioned the deore as I had one floating around i could use, and I know they’re cheap.

I’d had both versions of PC-1, and the none-nickel ones have been as good as the nickel ones, they just don’t look quite so pretty!

I’d had both versions of PC-1, and the none-nickel ones have been as good as the nickel ones, they just don’t look quite so pretty!

I’ve only had the nickel so no direct experience. They do look nice though…

Tip – I recently did a reto ss conversion uing a 1993 marin eldrige grade frame. I love it. Anyway, I started off using a doofer, but then decided to look for a way of getting rid (much nicer). So I took a file to the dropouts and widened them by a couple of mm. I Have found this gives me enough adjustment not to need the doofer, and even using a qr, the wheel has never slipped once in the drop-out. It depends if you are willing to take a file to your frame – I was, and didn’t regret it.

With carbon forks the bike is 21.5 lbs !

I’ve got an unused Gusset tensioner if its any use. You can have it for £7.

ps..

I also bought a velosolo 1/8″ chainring, and its wide enough to use standard chainring bolts, so you can sort of offset the cost of narrow ones..

I also bought a velosolo 1/8″ chainring, and its wide enough to use standard chainring bolts, so you can sort of offset the cost of narrow ones..

Thats a point – the FSA ones arent quite wide enough for that (with my bolts at least). They must be just 0.1mm or something to narrow unfortunately.

File them down?

Might want to try 32:18 if you intend to ride in gloop, and its your first foray into SS .Its a torque v traction thing i think , plus your legs will thank you for it till you have built up some strength.
I did my Zaskar with a DMR roller tensioner , but i think the on-one springy ones are better , if only they had the same spring tension as a sram mech does.

You will need facial hair.