sentral dogma

Has anyone here seen(in real life or the internet), had a weird idea about, or built a bike with a singlespeed hub and freewheel cog in the back(with chain tensioner) and a double crankset/front derailleur up front? just wondering...

Ok. You can make fun of me now.

thurstonboise

It will work, use a 2 wheel tensioner like the one from Paul Components or an old rear mech. The single wheel tensioners won't pull enough chain for more than 2-3 teeth difference.
A friend of mine had a cruiser set up like that.

blickblocks

Front derailers don't shift as well as rear. A better version would be a track crank up front and 2 cogs in back with a rear derailer. Or some kind of internal hub mod.

You need a tensioner anyways, why not just make that the derailer?

streetlightpoet

I was thinking about doing that today but as a 6-speed with a 3-speed internal in the rear and a double up front simply because I have a road double that I have nothing to use on.

sentral dogma

that Paul Components 2 wheel tensioner sure is pricey.

blickblocks

How about a Surly Dingle cog for a two speed fixed gear?

edit-Wait, since your rings probably aren't within 4 teeth of difference, there's no point in getting the dingle. What sizes are your rings?

roadgator

any old derailleur should have enough travel to pull up the slack if you are running reasonable front rings.

But once you have front and rear derailures, the question becomes: why not run a cable to both?

kemmer

just do a 1x9. I love mine to itty bitty bits and pieces.

that would be cool if what you are after is the ability to shift while stopped, otherwise the 1x[whatever] is so much easier, simpler and efficient. One of the reasons a lot of people like SS/3 speed/fixed/whatever is that front derailers suck.

sentral dogma

exactly.

Well, i'm not gonna buy that RS2 group buy frame I've been impulse lusting over for a few hours anyway, so all this thinking bout 'what components can I swap off of this bike' and 'what can i do with these random parts i have lying around' is moot.

Enthusiast

Kemmer, I've been considering a 1x9 setup. What do you use to keep the chain from skipping off the chainrings up front? I rode a mountain bike 1x9 for a while but found that the rear derailleur didn't keep enough tension in the chain.

Cynikal 

I have the 1x8 on my cross bike. I have a dummy chain ring on the outside and a chain keeper on the inside.
This is for off-road. For on road, I just ran the single ring and had no issues.

squeakywheel

I have a 1x8 MTB (which I only ride on the roads). No problems with dropping the chain. Well, it did happen once when I lost traction mashing up hill in the snow. But, I think in that case I may have taken the chain off accidentally with my boot when the rear wheel broke loose. I think the people who have trouble keeping the chain on the chainring are riding off road. For them, there are various chain tracking devices that attach to the seat post or bottom bracket threading.

I've thought about building a 3x1 gear train. No plans to do it, but sometimes I think it would be useful.

MIN 

1x9 wins!

Why bother with a 2x1 for only two gears?

NitroPye

I had this crazy idea of doing 3x1 on my mountain bike because I find that is how I ride (although this is probably not possible)

I am either going fast, medium, or need a granny gear. I'm not a compulsive shifter at all so having just high, medium, low seemed like a good idea to me that would still allow for me to have the granny gear for those steep steep technical climbs. I am sick and tired of fixing RDs.

MIN 

3x1 would still require a RD or a chain tensioner, thus defeating the purpose of "simplifying."

NitroPye

What about just a chain tensioner? I can't decide. I'll probably end up going 2x8 or 2x9 with a bash ring for a more traditional setup and adjust the way I shift to use the RD more.

Kol.klink

My vote
Internal gear hub, They are wicked
or
1x8/9
Or just rock the single speed, get a higher gear and Kick it

MIN 

If you do a 1x9/(8) then you need a chainring guard and an inner chain guard, like my cross bike.

kemmer

Mine is used on the road only and I haven't had any problems with it. It's a CX bike though, so once the trails are ridable again I'll probably have to rig something up.

blickblocks

I was doing 1x8 on my road bike until the road bumps started derailing my chain every ride. It only started happening after a few weeks though. I wouldn't mind something like MIN's setup.

hockeyteeth

My co-worker has a 3x1 setup. His rationale was that he had a front brake/shifter lever to use for his rear brake (he grew up with motorcycles which use a left lever for the rear brake) and didn't want to pay to enhance the setup, so he just hacked up a freewheel to singlespeed it, and used the derailleur as a chain tensioner.

It's totally stupid but funny at the same time. I've been trying to sell him drop bars for $40 so I don't have to look at the monstrosity any more.

jchechile

yeah why not just i.g. it? seems alot easier and cleaner if you're looking for gears...

TRaffic Jammer

StephenH

My idea: Put unicycle cranks on the rear wheel, with normal chain to front cranks. Normal riding like a bike. Steep hill, just hop up on the back cranks and go at it.

BMonei

White Industries makes a special Crank/Cog combo that allows a SS MTB to have Road and Mountain gearing using a double crank with a double cog. It requires you to manually switch the chain from side to side, but the gearing is worked out to produce the same chain length.