Can someone recommend one. Need specific items as I have no idea of the bolt spacing. A quick scan has thrown up lots of 9 speed. Will I need new chainring bolts?
Renthal, and yeah you might need shorter bolts
Any 9-spd ring will fit. I usually end up with the cheapo FSA DH rings.
Oh, and BCD is 104mm, sometimes just called "four-arm".
Now we're talking 😀
FSA DH Single.
I got Raceface bolts just for the bling. I forget the size but was enough to fit the chainring onto the middle of my old 3x spider.
Note that I did have to file off some material to fit it on the middle of a 3x, but that was a Truvativ Firex crank. Hopefully will just fit fine, but if not just file off on the ring or the seat of the spider.
Would a good ring and one of those clutch rear mechs negate the need for a chain device? If not is a good ring going to make a superstar device work better?
Device wise is there a preference between down tube mounted or bottom bracket?
General consensus is that if you ride hard then no, it won't sadly.
Device wise is there a preference between down tube mounted or bottom bracket?
Seat tube mounted is more adjustable, a lot of people find the Superstar BB mounted one a bit flexy, the older seat tube one was crap by all accounts, but the new one looks a lot more substantial. I've bodged something very similar and it works well.
I've found I can get away with just a top guide and a shadow+ mech, but no guide at all didn't really work. (part of the problem being that you can't pedal the chain back on as you can with a double or triple)
As for rings... Not sure there's that much difference tbh. I've got an E13, a Renthal and I think a Gamut on my bikes and they're all round and toothy. I reckon the Renthal will last longest, their hard ano proved itself well on my motorbike, but I doubt it'll be a difference worth stressing over tbh.