Idlers...

[Recumbent_Guy]

Hi All,

I was looking at my bikes the other night and noticed that they all had plastic/nylon idlers to guide the chainline. Thinking back, I had replaced the original idler on my Greenspeed with one that was essentially a large jockey wheel(actual cog shaped, with teeth, etc). The original was just a channel gouged into a plastic wheel.

The idler on my shockproof is the same, plastic with a channel in it. I got to thinking and wondered why they werent being made of some metal product, like the rear cassette is.

Im not trying to replace them, nor am I unhappy wit hthe performance of the nylon/plastic ones, just curious if anyone has experimented with different materials and what the conclusions were.

Matt.

[Triker]

I have built a couple of Greenspeeds and made idlers out of roller blade wheels and bearings. The bearings fit perfectly over the sholuder of a 5/16 inch bolt that I weld to the main tube. I made a jig to hold the wheel on my drill press and I cut the groove with a wood chisel. I get a few thousand miles out of the thing before the wheel gets too chewed up. It is cheap and effective.


I have also used a hocky puck for an ilder on the non-drive side of the chain, using nylon bushings or roller blade bearings and had good luck. I cut a groove in it as described above.