‘If the kids are out riding, they will never be divided! ‘  Sham69 sang that (or something fairly similar) back in 1978 and it still rings true today! …

By down_and_across

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Back From The Dead – Building Bargain Dirt Jump Bikes

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Posted 2 months ago

Love this! We just picked up a Giant STP for £cheap and we’re going to nail it together into something we can hurt ourselves on 🤣

Posted 2 months ago

Brilliant. These are quickly becoming my favourite articles on the front page. This one makes me want to go and smash up my hardtail and myself on some jumps. 😁

Posted 2 months ago

Mr dead, could you please do a how to on the mech to singlespeed tensioner conversion. Want to know how you mod the cage! Cheers!

Posted 2 months ago

@tomsir

No problem, ideally an old road mech works best as they have higher spring tension and a smaller, neater body. Because you want it to look smart as well as work well!

I then chopped the lower jockey wheel off with my Dremel, (you could use a junior hacksaw if you don’t have access to a Dremel.

Then its just a matter of inserting an old cable into the derailleur with the nipple sat in the cable tension adjuster.

Pull the derailleur vaguely into line with the rear sprocket and fine tune the chainline with the cable tension adjuster.

All done!

I’ve used this type of tensioner for years in the past and it works wayyy better than any of the proper dedicated chain tensioners do!

Posted 2 months ago

Cheers for that dude. So it really is just chop the bottom half of the cage as short as possible and nothing else? I always thought there would be more modding! Good to know there’s not.

Posted 2 months ago

@tomsir

Yeah man, slice and dice! Unless you’re running it on a full sus then leave the whole cage intact so you have some room for chain growth! Probably should have put that in the article!

Posted 2 months ago

Where is that Like Button?

Posted 2 months ago

Brill stuff man. The noble set of bodging singlespeeds. My first tensioner was called a “spatulator” as the chain guide cage was part kitchen spatula. Little did I know that first single speed was the starting point for a Bikemonger, my career for many years, organising the SS champs, and ten thousand beers.

Posted 2 months ago

Great article. Really hits home – my 13 year old can’t get enough of digging and jumping, which is keeping me busy with bike repairs (he’s looking for a jump bike). Time to resurrect one of my old frames!

Posted 1 month ago

This story warmed my cockles more than any ‘Here’s the latest greatest that’ll cost you an arm and a leg’ story on here ever did. All we need now here in Calderdale is that pump track…

Posted 1 month ago

Brilliant stuff – great to see kids being supported like this (as well as your other customers)!

Posted 1 month ago