Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Bicycle Mechanics
Reload this Page >

Turning my bike single speed.

Notices
Bicycle Mechanics Broken bottom bracket? Tacoed wheel? If you're having problems with your bicycle, or just need help fixing a flat, drop in here for the latest on bicycle mechanics & bicycle maintenance.

Turning my bike single speed.

Old 12-12-10, 09:16 PM
  #1  
Newbie
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Turning my bike single speed.

I have a GaryFisher Wahoo disc, amazing bike I love it. Although I love this bike to death I am a pretty large man and the lack-luster square taper crankset is not cutting it for me. I plan to convert my bike to singlespeed because I love the ease of operation and lack of work it takes to keep them going. I want to use an EightInch brand crank it comes with a full bottom bracket, I wanted to know what size of bottom bracket to use on my bike and how to measure that. I also don't know how to check clearance so if anyone out there can help I NEED HELP.

Samaican.
Samaican is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 09:20 PM
  #2  
bike whisperer
 
Kimmo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Melbourne, Oz
Posts: 9,533

Bikes: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=152015&p=1404231

Mentioned: 15 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1520 Post(s)
Liked 716 Times in 508 Posts
Not cutting it? Are you destroying cranks?

You could just get stronger cranks... square taper's old hat.

Ease of operation, eh? You prefer hauling a too-tall gear upwind and/or uphill and spinning a too-short one downwind/downhill?

Nicer gear needs less maintenance; mid-level stuff in decent nick should stay in tune for ages.
Kimmo is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 09:27 PM
  #3  
Newbie
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Kimmo
Not cutting it? Are you destroying cranks?

You could just get stronger cranks... square taper's old hat.

Ease of operation, eh? You prefer hauling a too-tall gear upwind and/or uphill and spinning a too-short one downwind/downhill?

Nicer gear needs less maintenance; mid-level stuff in decent nick should stay in tune for ages.
I was born a monster in size but I love to ride a bike. I live in a completly flat area and I'm going to school next year in a flat area. I would prefer a splined crank system and the whole fuss with gears has really upset me alot. Thank you for your help...
Samaican is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 11:22 PM
  #4  
Senior Member
 
surreal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: NJ
Posts: 3,084
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 4 Posts
Originally Posted by Samaican
I was born a monster in size but I love to ride a bike. I live in a completly flat area and I'm going to school next year in a flat area. I would prefer a splined crank system and the whole fuss with gears has really upset me alot. Thank you for your help...
Not to be a total DB, but here's a few points to ponder:

-if you are a big/strong rider, you will kill an isis or octalink BB before you kill your square taper, unless it's a rubbish square taper, which it probably is if it's oem on a disc-equipped GF. Regardless, either keep your crank or go with an external bearing crankset. I like shimano's hollowtech II over other competitiors at all but the higher pricepoints.

-gears. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Actually, neither clause in that last sentence is true, but i found it nigh irresistible. Anyway, do you ride this thing on trails? "Flat" or not, if you ride trails, you'll want a low gear for SS. Even in flatland, you'll encounter short-n-steep hills offroad, plus varying terrain that is best attacked with a fairly low gear. I used to like 32x17t with 26" wheels, and 32x19t with 29" wheels, for off-road use.

Will you be commuting with this thing? If so, the ratios conducive to trail-riding will suck for riding on the road. If I were to be commuting on a disc-equipped atb with a singlespeed, i think i'd be inclined to try a 44x18 or similar in a flattish area and 26" wheels. Just me.

If you plan to ride trails and commute on this same bike, you might want to scrap the singlespeed scheme.

-you don't need new cranks or hubs for your singlespeed project. You can get short chainring bolts and just run one ring up front on your existing (or virtually any other) crank. The chainring you've got is likely ramped and pinned, which can lead to accidental dropped chains in my experience. Ppl will post replies about how this isn't true, and maybe it hasn't been for them. But, too many ppl running rings designed for multiple gears complain about dropped chains, so if you truly wanna do this, get a SS-style chainring.

You can run spacers on your freehub, and use any hg-compat SS cogs you desire. Running the existing wheels with spacers on the freehub body will help you get your chainline right; shift the cog around amongst the spacers until it lines up just-so with the chainring in the front. You can rather easily switch the cog for riding trails one day, and commuting the next. But, this will require different length chains and removing the wheel, the lockring, many spacers, and the cog--then, replacing them all with the different cog. Not very hard, in reality, but much more work than just keeping your derailleurs/cassette/shifters in place.

Your main issue is going to be with maintaining chain tension. Some folks will tell you to seek out the "magic" combo for your bike, where the right length of chain with the right cog and ring will create tension on your bike. This is difficult to achive and, chances are, the gear ratio won't be conducive to your riding. There are other macgyver methods, such as the famous filed-down eccentric axle, but i cannot recommend these, and won't go into them here. There are eccentric rear hubs and, while white makes one that is disc-compatible, running an eccentric with a disc is a frustrating and expensive proposition. The most common way to do this would be to run a chain-tensioner; there are many available, at several different price-points. I cannot suggest any, as i've never used one, but many folks complain about their ability to hold tension off-road. To me, if you're going to mount a rear-derailer-style thing from your derailer hanger anyway, why not just run a derailer?

For the amount of money that you're likely to spend converting this bike, you might be better off keeping it as-is for trails, and buying a bikesdirect cheapie track bike for SS commutes with appropriate gearing. However, i get the impression that you want to do a SS conversion on this GF, and i respect your tinkering instincts. Hopefully, the above has helped ya some. If not, the web is replete with DIY SS conversion info; google away, take your time, research your moves, and things'll likely turn out ok.

good luck!
-rob
surreal is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 11:27 PM
  #5  
Banned
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NW,Oregon Coast
Posts: 43,598

Bikes: 8

Mentioned: 197 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7607 Post(s)
Liked 1,354 Times in 861 Posts
I would propose , if you are so strong a brute, you should revert to a massive one piece crank
forged of steel , and get a thick wall tube frame with the appropriate BB shell .
this has a lot to recommend a Schwinn Varsity for your purposes.
fietsbob is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 11:28 PM
  #6  
Senior Member
 
surreal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: NJ
Posts: 3,084
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 4 Posts
ps- there are other options, such as external eccentric BB cups that run in a normal, english-threaded BB shell, which you could conceivably use if you're replacing your crank anyway. I've got no experience at all with these, so maybe someone else can jump in here and help. Still, the one thing i do know about these is that they're expensive, so...

-rob
surreal is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 11:31 PM
  #7  
Senior Member
 
surreal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: NJ
Posts: 3,084
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 4 Posts
Originally Posted by fietsbob
I would propose , if you are so strong a brute, you should revert to a massive one piece crank
forged of steel , and get a thick wall tube frame with the appropriate BB shell .
this has a lot to recommend a Schwinn Varsity for your purposes.
heck, yes. ashtabula, baby. Get yourself a worksman; they're SS from the factory, with american BB and one piece steel cranks. If'n when you kill that crank, get a profile racing bmx crank. now, that's some indestructible SS stuff right there....

seriously, i think the OP wants to keep his bike, but he's going thru that SS thing that we all went thru back in college. My dad said it was "just a phase", but i still ride SS from time to time.

-rob
surreal is offline  
Old 12-12-10, 11:32 PM
  #8  
Senior Member
 
surreal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: NJ
Posts: 3,084
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 4 Posts
oops

Last edited by surreal; 12-12-10 at 11:33 PM. Reason: weird, duplicate post
surreal is offline  
Old 12-13-10, 12:53 AM
  #9  
cowboy, steel horse, etc
 
LesterOfPuppets's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: The hot spot.
Posts: 44,712

Bikes: everywhere

Mentioned: 71 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 12575 Post(s)
Liked 7,464 Times in 3,952 Posts
I'd sell the Wahoo, take the proceeds from that sale and the $200 or so you'd spend on the conversion and get something that's ready to roll
Like this Bianchi BOSS for $450.
LesterOfPuppets is offline  
Old 12-13-10, 06:10 AM
  #10  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Fredericton, NB, Canada
Posts: 1,430

Bikes: 2010 S1, 2011 F75X

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Conversion can be done pretty cheaply.

STS conversion kit - $45
Truvativ BB - $30
SRAM SS Crankset - $80

Those are normal prices. Snatch them during a sale/promotion and you can go even cheaper. Or go with cheaper parts.
simonaway427 is offline  
Old 12-13-10, 09:41 AM
  #11  
Senior Member
 
Andy_K's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Beaverton, OR
Posts: 14,785

Bikes: Yes

Mentioned: 522 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3228 Post(s)
Liked 3,848 Times in 1,435 Posts
Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets
I'd sell the Wahoo, take the proceeds from that sale and the $200 or so you'd spend on the conversion and get something that's ready to roll
Like this Bianchi BOSS for $450.
I agree with this. Converting a bike with vertical dropouts (which I'm guessing the GF has) to singlespeed is a hassle, and you generally end-up with some extra moving part for chain tension that nullifies the whole simplicity thing.

OTOH, if you really like the Wahoo, there's a company that makes an eccentric external bottom bracket that is supposed to solve the chain tension issue cleanly. I've never used it, so I don't know how well it works.
Andy_K is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
pcb09
Cyclocross and Gravelbiking (Recreational)
2
02-16-16 11:13 AM
arppra
Bicycle Mechanics
11
10-26-13 02:48 PM
corwin1968
Singlespeed & Fixed Gear
2
06-14-13 03:42 PM
Van Damme
Singlespeed & Fixed Gear
2
06-06-11 05:51 PM
Sblie44
Singlespeed & Fixed Gear
5
04-09-11 11:31 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.