Considering doing this but don’t know really what work and parts are involved.

Like the idea of simplifying things and the benefits of a chain guide and bash guard.

But…

Can I keep my shifters or do they need replacing?
Which of my three up front gets removed? I don’t want to lose the ability to have a nice easy gear to get up the harder hills and I don’t want to send up spinning out when I’m on the flats because I don’t have a big enough range of gears.

Any advice from those that have done it for a relative newbie?

Thanks

buy one of these and one of these. then replace your biggest chainring with the bash ring and put on the stinger (youll need to take your cranks and bottom bracket cup off). actually, you might not need the stinger if where you ride isnt too gnar. and thinking about it if you dont need the stinger then you wont need the bashring, just buy shorter chainring bolts and take off the big ring.

i presume you have a 32 as the middle ring at the moment, some people change to a 36 or 38 whereas ive kept mine 32. so that part is up to you.

why do people think they are going to remove the small chain ring? It’s the big one that is redundant.

Stinger and bash is the minimum, however swapping to a 36t middle is not a bad idea, adjust nothing maybe drop some chain.

@mikewsmith – possibly because not everyone’s as knowledgable as you? Some of us haven’t done this before. There are 3 rings currently and 1 is coming off – I’d assumed it would be the inner or outer but sorry for troubling you with my ignorance.

So removing the outer ring is the way to go – but as I use this a fair bit on the flat I’m guessing the best step is to go slightly up on the number of teeth on my middle ring to give a wider range?

I know some shifters can be adjusted to be 2x from being 3x

Is there some kind of giveaway sign on the shifters so I can be sure?

Thanks

I know some shifters can be adjusted to be 2x from being 3x

Is there some kind of giveaway sign on the shifters so I can be sure?

you dont need to know. keep the shifter 3 speed but dial in the limit screw on the front mech so you cant shift off the middle ring.

sorry for sounding a bit off but it always seems a bit weird to get rid of the little ring 🙂

Leave shifters as is, you can overshift the world wont end it mostly wont go anywhere.
Upping middle ring to 36 compensates mostly for lack of 42t ring

Whats involved:

Pros – you get nice new gears and loose the ‘redundant ones’

Cons – money

Neutral – weighs the same if replacement like-for-like ie SLX for SLX

IMO Its only worth it is your current 3×9 needs fully replacing, no real benefit otherwise.

Thanks all!

My main reason for considering is that there is some redundancy and I’m getting a lot of chain suck and slapping of my chain in certain conditions. Most front rings are worn.

Shortening the chain any more causes it to snap so seeing as the rings need replacing a may as well go 2x and add in the benefits of a tensioner/guide along the way.

Moneys not a worry as kit needs replacing anyway so I’d still be spending

I had middleburn so could change to a duo setup easily – 27/40 and 11/34 at back – all the range I need. Just turned down the limit screws on the front derailleur to limit the range, although a little faffy to get it right.

I got a set of Kore double specific cranks complete with rings and new BB,adjusted the stop screws on my front mech ,2×9 job done.

Actually a bit more too it than that as my drivechain needed replacing anyway I decided to go 2×9.
What I actually got were the new Kore cranks/rings and BB as mentioned,New sram cassette with a 32T bottom gear,New KMC 9spd Chain running with my existing Sram XO rear mech and XO gripshifters and a old Shimano front mech that works perfectly.
All fitted up and adjusted with new Jagwire cables fitted and it all works perfectly.
The Kore cranks actually use a 30/40 mix of rings so I have actually lost the granny ring but with the 30/32 combo front to rear I can still get up pretty much anything.

Not read all posts as I got lost with the first few

All I did was remove big and middle ring, replaced them with 36t ring and a bashguard, adjusted front mech limit screw to stop it over shooting and shorten the chain a few links

I found no need for any tension device and tbh could have not bothered with the bash had my chainring bolts been the right size

I liked it still had low gears and only lost a few up top but best bit for me was I found the 36 ring a good size for most riding and stayed in that ring most of the time

I went from 3×10 to 2×10 and found it great I would defiantly do it to any bike I get in the future, however I would wait until parts need replacing before I did it.

When I changed I had lost a few teeth on my big ring and there was a bit of wear on middle ring, so I personally brought an slx 2 speed crank set from chain reaction, it comes with bash guard and 22 36 cogs. I also changed my BB from crappy gxp to an xt type. I added a stinger chain device, a new chain and cassette! for the front shifter, as said all you do is wind in the limit screw on the front mech till the shifter only operates 2 clicks

The results are great IMO I now get no chain slap when decending and the gearing is almost silent!

The slx chain set is advertised as 9 speed but works absolutely fine on 10 speed!

why do people think they are going to remove the small chain ring? It’s the big one that is redundant.

Depends where you ride, 42×11 at 100rpm is only 48km/h. 😉
As I asked here, http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chain-suck-on-a-tandem-should-we-go-for-2×8 I’m thinking of doing away with the granny gear and going four teeth bigger on the rear, which will effectively only lose the bottom two gears.

Any reason why we shouldn’t do this ?

You know, it’s a good question. I thought I was fairly clued up but this set up has m a bit confused. Specifically the stinger – how does this tension the chain and can you still change between the two gears with it running?

If I fix this on say to the bb cup then I have to assemble chainset etc with it in place, then hook up the chain so how do I set the tension when I no longer have the access to the retaining (bb cup)?

Can I use this tensioner therefore on a fixer set up with vertical dropouts?

Good article

The stinger isn’t really a chain tensioner it’s more of a chain GUIDE there are differant mount options available such as isis mine is bb mount and just goes in place of one of the by spacers. The roller of it is set about 1mm off the bash guard iirc and yes it allows you to change between the 2 front rings.

The stinger is just mounted to about the 7 o clock position or maybe 8 can’t remember off hand, then there is adjusent on the roller to adjust it into/away from bash guard!