Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - SS Creation

I'm working on getting a single speed together but first I have a few questions. I'm building it all of out parts from the co-op here unless there's something that they dont have.

Should I use a freewheel or cassette rear hub? I was thinking that cassette would be better because all that I have to do is slide on the cog size I want and then its all set. Am I thinking about this right? If I use a freewheel then I would need to buy a single speed sprocket, so that's why I was thinking cassette.

I shouldnt need any sort of chain tensioner as the frame that I will be using has horizontal dropouts, right?

Is there any other advice or important things that I'm missing?

Thank You!!

I would say that cassette would be the better choice provided that you have a rear wheel that has one. It depends on what type of rear hub you have. If the rear wheel you have takes a a free wheel, you don't really have much of a choice. You'd have to use a single speed free wheel and probably re dish the wheel to get your chainline straight. However, if you have a rear wheel with a cassette, all you would need is whatever size sprocket you want on the back and spacers to get the chainline straight.

Correct, you probably will not need a chain tensioner if your bike has horizontal dropouts.

Alright. I can most likely get whichever wheel that I would want. The co-op gets donated bikes and then you can build your own using all the tools and parts found there after you do some volunteer hours.

I know that they have alot of 7-8-9 speed cassettes and some of them have been broken apart, so I can just use whatever size I want out of that group and then use spacers on either side?

Thanks

Anyone have any more advice?

Thanks!

Do you have spacers?

Get the highest quality hub you can get and go from there.

Advantages to cassette: if you want to go geared later, you can.

I dont know exactly what they have available as its not organized all that well, but I'm heading there tonight and will see what I can get my hands on.

heres the conversion spacer kit you can buy if you want to use a gear rear hub. just choose the cog size you want and use the spacer to give you a perfect chain line.

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=23062&item=50-6550&slitrk=search&slisearch=true