I am thinking about running a single chainring up front. 9 speed at the back.

I currently have a Deore LX triple crankset. I have replaced the large ring with a bashguard and resized the chain and put on a medium cage rear mech (Shadow SLX).

If I remove the granny ring and front derailleur, will I need to use some sort of chain device? Or do I have to get a single speed specific front chainwheel (32 teeth)?

I want to do this on the cheap, so if I can keep the current middle chainring and dont need any chain device that will be great.

I dont see any reason why I would need anything else?? But not sure. Maybe the ‘geared’ front ring will jump? But it never jumps now.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

You will need some kind of chain guide, otherwise you will be bothered with the chain way too often on the offroad. Superstar have decent one – http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=56&products_id=362

On the cheap, adjust all movement out of the front mech using the adjustment screws & use without cables & shifter, works fine

Thanks for the advice.

My understanding of using the front mech as a chain guide is that it wont actually stop the chain from falling off, but it will at least stop it from tangling and jamming the cranks/BB area.

I might give that a go and see how it works.

I also like the look of the superstar one. I just bought a singlespeed conversion kit from them for my other bike. Looks reasonable + Cheap and quick postage.

The front mech thing works fine to stop the chain falling off

Forget chain devices. Get yourself a thick/thin profile chainring.

Such as this…

http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/works-components-104bcd-chainring-alternating-thickness-extended-tooth-design-270-p.asp

And a clutch mech at the back. Chain slap gone, chain drops none.

i’ve got one of those superstar jobbies.

s’actually quite good, it even comes with a few thin BB spacers to tweak the alignment.

but…

chain guides which are only held on by the BB were a bad idea 15 years ago (it’s why iscg got invented), they’re still a bad idea now.

so i also use a DMR hinged-seat-tube clamp, like this:

£3 from wiggle

and a long bolt, to help keep everything in roughly the right place if anything comes loose.

(and it will come loose – hence iscg)

as for ratios, i’m a scrawny pathetic weakling, i can just about survive with a 32 c’ring (on-one, steel), 34 cassette, on a 29er.

You got a bash on it allready, an N gear jump stop would be all you needed to buy, just not sure if it is as cheap as the superstar guide…

Superstar guide would allow you to ditch the bash ring though, but you would need different chainring bolts, or if handy grind the ones you have down.

N gear & bash is kinda the old method of doing it before dedicated 1×9 guides.

Thanks guys. Am hoping the bash guard and rear SLX clutch mech will keep the chain on for now.

Am looking at getting either the N-gear jump stop, or the superstar seat tube device thingy. I know the superstar is not designed to work with a bash plate but it looks like the outer half comes off so u just end up with a device like the N-gear jump stop.

Can get the N-gear cheap but postage to Oz kills it. Superstar looks the go.

Had N-gear jump stop but it only stops the chain jumping inside, not outside. Like other stuff clamped on the seat tube the chain occasionally would jam between the stop and chainring or go under it and twist the stop round the seat tube, despite very tightly done up and no physical way it could do it, but it does. Make the gap small enough to reduce it doing that and the chain rubs on the metal of the stop when in bottom gear which is irritating.

As I say, a thick-thin toothed chainring. Definitely the way to go now.

Very impressed and so stupidly obvious and simple. An old design apparently, just no one bothered until SRAM did it on the XX1. Others are doing them now, and massively cheaper.

Thanks dead Kenny. Yeah, the thick/thin idea looks so simple. Will definaty consider it when I’m due to replace the chainring ( or sooner).

when I ran my old love/hate 1×9 I used a bash on the outside and the N Gear jump stop on the inner and it always worked a treat for me.. No chain drops or the like,

Oh how I miss that bike

Thinking about doing this as well – M970 chainset with a single ring on the middle mounts. That thick/thin effort looks fab if it works with the elegant simplicity, thinking something else hopefully small, cheap and discrete to go with it would be required, though?