best ss converters

What is the best option or kit to convert to ss? I'm converting a Sanderson Life for muddy wood duties( particularily if this summer keeps up :()

Any recommendations on kits or use or used of rear mechs to take up chain tension. Running an Azonic kit on pub bike which seems to do ok. Would like the external bb( Trickstuff Exzcentricker) but reet pricey.

ta

The rear spacer kits are all of a muchness in my opinion but i always use Surly Singleators as tensioners as they enable you to run the chain pushing up or down. Look nice too.

In the past I have used Gusset (awful), DMR TSII (even worse) and Surly (best by far, but most expensive)

It just got too much hassle, so I got a SS specific frame.

This is a little cheaper than the Exzentricker

gusset is ace in my experience. well recomended.

ta for the thoughts- a friend recomended the Surly one too. Not seen that other external EBB, so good spot.
When will it the never ending acquitions end!?- hopefully just one last one component… 🙂

Surly spacers look nice but other alternative is to get a spacer kit from Charlie the Bikemonger or London Fixie (can't remember which I used in the end) and a Groove Armada sprocket from On-One. There's enough spacers in the kit to use skinny sprockets or big wide surlys if the mood takes you – nice to have options.

I'm running singlespeed on Roadrat so got track ends – I'd try to avoid running a bike with a tensioner as I think they look gash but doesn't seem to worry plenty of other people.

I used a Surly Singleator for about 6 months, and for those first six months it was great.

Then the spring bent.

On the last lap of the Thetford Summer Series.

I fiddled around with it trying to convince myself that I could make it work somehow, but I finally gave in to the inevitable and bought myself a new frame with proper drop-outs (On-One Inbred).

Don't buy a tensioner.

They are marketed to suck you in to the dark, addictive world of single-speeding. It seems like such a simple change at first; what harm can it do just to lose a few gears? It's only later, when you find yourself craving steep hills, or fast twisty single track, that you realise there's no going back, that you're hooked, with no possibility of cure or remission.

Your friends, who at first were so admiring of your "cool" single speed bike, now shun you, afraid of what you have become. You no longer to talk to your family, except to mutter about "chainline" or "drop outs". Your stunning FS sits disconsolately in a corner of the garage gathering dust, abandoned and forgotten, loved only by mice.

Just say no.

its all possible, there's the start of a goatee beard going on too….

Sprung tensioners like the On-One Doofer seem to work OK, although the springs are pretty cack and stop working after a year or two. I'd try a push up/bolt in place tensioner like the Other Doofer as they basically have just one moving part to wear out (the roller)

IME horizontal dropouts are a whole new level of faff, and if anyone thinks your bike looks ugly because it has a tensioner then they are probably borderline OCD. 😉

Luked2

😀

My 3rd hand Surly Singulator is still going strong after 12 months (thanks Si). It's been ridden a lot through filthy conditions and generally neglected – no problems at all. Seems like a fit and forget solution to me: no adjusting brakes/chain tugs/dropouts/EBB as the chain "stretches", easy to get the wheel in/out and no tight spots from slightly imperfect sprockets/spider/chain-ring bolts. Looks bad, eh? It's just a bike – you should be thinking about the ride not the tool. My SS stays covered in mud anyway, so it's well camouflaged. Chain length is an issue though. I like a stainless chain and the half links I've used have been short lived/unreliable. Now using an Excentiker as well as the tensioner so no half link required. Yeah, I know, but I want a bike I can completely neglect inbetween (frequent) rides and swap ratios easily.