And if so, any tips?

don’t ride over bumps.

unramped chainring, shorten chain as much as possible, be smooth. Its OK for commuting and canal paths but offroad you might drop the chain

Was doing pretty well running a dialled lovehate 1×9. unramped chainring and running the chain pretty short, although it could have been shorter.

only the roughest tracks caused the chain to drop, and I’ve now popped on a front mech with limit screws adjusted so its acting as a chainguide in a similar way to the superstar / e13 offerings. So far its been faultless

Dont bother, its a waste of time.

One bike that is, one that isn’t

Superstar guides are a tenner or something daft. Its worth it not to stop every few hundred metres to put your chain back on. I did it for a few months and it was a ballache. SS guide and an unramped ring now and its not dropped the chain in 7 months.

Nope, it failed about once every downhill, and thats because I didn’t bother fixing it untill the bottom!

FSA DH front ring, short cage mech, Ultegra 11-23 cassette never dropped the chain off road, even over roots’n’rocks – using an unramped chainring is pretty much essential and a close ratio cassette helps a lot…….

Who’s successfully running mincing around on 1 X 9 WITHOUT a chain guide?

FTFY

I’d be interested to know if the new fancy-pants M985 XTR rear mech is enough to keep the chain on without a guide up front (in a non-mincing situation).

I dropped the chain WITH a top-only guide, until I shortened the chain. Maybe the new clutched derailleur from Shimano would help?

I use an unramped chainring, medium cage rear mech, bashguard on outside and a n gear jump stop on inside. Not dropped a chain for months. Did occassionally lose the chain when using a deore (geared) chainring though.

Never droped the chain. Short cage mech un ramped chain ring. Been like that for 1-2 year perfect

Never droped the chain. Short cage mech un ramped chain ring. Been like that for 1-2 year perfect

Where and how do you ride?

Mainly leith hill. I do a lot of single track drops jumps etc.

Also I have my mech screw on mid to tight so the mech is under more tension than usual.

its a great idea, but became frustrating having to hop off and put on, or when it was getting really good and fast, off it comes when you dont want it to…..

go for superstar stuff; i have gone back to a 2×9

I drop the chain with a ss guide on some downhills. Might need to shorten the chain.Think I’ll buy a top and bottom one next time.

I ran an XTR cassette ,X SL chain and rental ring without a ‘devise’ for 500 miles or so. As soon as they component’s had some smooth edges they soon began to drop the chain on a regular basis.

peddling a little when going over jumps and bumps definitely helps keeps the chain on, don’t need much just a little forward movement. I broke my front derailleur yonks ago and never bothered to replace it, and used it for atleast a good six months like that, would even manually shift the chain to the granny if i needed it, occassionally you forget though and the inevitable happens.. mind you I’ve broke my rear derailleur and haven’t yet replaced that either, i’m sensing a theme here !:D

Mainly leith hill. I do a lot of single track drops jumps etc.

Yeah me to but I can’t so much as look at my drive train without the chain falling off 🙁

I ran my inbred 1×9 with no guide through a year or so of hooning up and down the Malverns which are fairly lumpy. It worked with the long cage mech it had on it to start with, but on changing it to a new short cage mech it didn’t work so well and I ended up making it a 2×9 instead. I can only imagine the long cage mech had more leverage to keep the chain tight over lumps than the short cage on did.

I have one bike using 1×9 and no guide for the mincer paradise of Leith/Holmbury/Peaslake. Seems to work ok for that area/riding.

Long cage, unramped chainring, shortened chain.

running 1×9 unramped front (38t shimano saint) and 12-23 ultegra rear with sram x9 short cage and chain tight as it will go. never dropped chain, even on welsh downhills.

depends where you ride. if i was regular on chunky downs id fit a guide. i live near thetford so thats my regular, no need for guide if you keep chain tight.

mincer paradise of Leith/Holmbury/Peaslake

Have you SEEN what they’ve been building around here lately? Mincer isn’t the word I would use. 😯

Renthal 34T, Tiagra short cage mech, Deore 12-34 cassette. No problems in the Lakes this week.

Surprised you would even think of needing a guide. Seriously. My system is a 3 x 9 with the outer and inner rings removed. Never even considered anything else. Sorry if thats not good enough. 😆

Surprised you would even think of needing a guide.

Because if you’re going to ride DH with any kind of pace, you’re going to loose your chain. Period.

Look it’s really simple and I know this is going to sound rude, but it’s the truth.

If you can ride a single ring set up without needing a chain guide of any kind that’s fantastic, I’m really happy for you. But the reason is that you’re riding slow enough for the chain not to get bounced off.