I’ve got a geared Inbred with a worn transmission and some credit with the lovely people at CRC.
1) What do I need to convert to single speed?
2) How much will it cost?
3) Do I need to grow a beard?
Years since I did it, but I think you're looking at chain tensioner, rear cog, spacers to go either side of the cog on the freehub, plus some chainring bolts that are shorter for your middle ring. Can all be improvised for 10 pence, or bought as specific parts, probably run you 30 quid or so.
Think that's it - might have missed something. SS is for kids these days, so I'd swerve the beard. Get your mum to buy the bits for you maybe to get into the feel of it.
I've done it pretty recently. The short chainring bolts aren't needed if you run a bashguard with it (or even a spare chainring).
Get a dedicated ss cog for the rear (Charlie the Bikemonger on Ebay).
SS chains available for £4 in Asda 🙂
I bought a Superstar tensioner and don't recommend one, as they aren't adjustable enough and the tensioner wheel doesn't line up properly, so find a different make one of those!
[edit] Oh, cost was about £60 off here, but that included a wheel and chainset.
When I looked into it, the cost of the tools plus the new parts cost more than just getting it done by the local bike shop.
as above
New chain - about a fiver
new rear cog and spacers £10-20
Tensioner/doofer- £10-£30
Short chain ring bolts - if you have a triple use the bolts you remove from the granny ring in the middle ring - £5-£10
The superstar tensioner one works fine for me and a mate who uses one and ridden for about 6 mths of year
No beard and no knee issues
You could try it for about 50p, crack your cassette use the 16t cog (if you only have a 15 or 17 use the most suitable, 15 for flat area, 17 for hilly), buy some waste pipe and cut it to the right length for spacers so cog is inline with middle ring, shorten chain, bin shifters and front mech, leave middle and big ring on and rear mech for tension.
Chain reaction do a DMR kit for £30ish if you've got credit
I did mine with a Charlie kit which was great!
If you use a tensioner you don't need to have a beard so long as you are making an honest effort to grow one.
By the time the beard is grown you'll either have bought a SS frame or be ready to shave and downgrade to gears. 🙂
Donk, not to be a pedant but i always thought you needed to use specific SS cogs as the cassettes have profiled teeth and will try to drag the chain off unless held fast by the rear mech.
The on one doofer worked great for me for over a year.
...not to be a pedant but i always thought you needed to use specific SS cogs as the cassettes have profiled teeth and will try to drag the chain off unless held fast by the rear mech.
Its fine if you are just using one of the sprockets, i ran a cassette sprocket on my SS commuter for about 2 years, never missed a beat.
Sorry to spam up your thread, but I have a SS conversion kit in the classifieds with 3 different cogs so you could play with ratios if your interested. then you'll need a tensioner.
Alternatively you can buy these special eccentric BB for normal bikes but they are pricey.
Tails, how did you get on with the Cotic in the end...?
gusset is the best tensioner ime
Thats a whole new thread on it's own just there...
So so donks, I have tensioned the chain so I'm sure it'll work, but I bought the tugs over the bolt up kit to save a few bob but have now had to buy the bolt up kit anyway due to the way the tugs/frame work together. I'll let you know when it's all fitted.
Right then... another question...
Do I just need a standard middle ring with shorter chain ring bolts or are there single speed specific ones?
there's single speed specific (they're a bit wider at 3/16") but a standard ring will work with either normal geared chains or ss specific.
i use a normal geared middle ring, some short bolts from charlie the bike monger on ebay and a ss specific chain (SRAM).