Originally Posted by
IAmSam
Foresight? Maybe, but…
OP - is the road bike you are converting that Defy? I can not help but wonder at the wisdom of actually converting a really nice Ultegra equipped road bike to a single-speed as an experiment? Especially in a very hilly city?
Sounds like I may be too late to the party (as usual), but why not leave it as is and just not shift if you want to see how riding a SS bike works for you? Or pick your gear and tighten the chain so that you cannot shift if you are afraid you will be unable to resist shifting?
Good luck & have fun whatever you decide…
My patience got the best of me. That's really the only reason. When I took the bike apart it was simply to give it a good cleaning, but on the way to putting it back together, I started wondering how light I could make it. That's when the conversion to single speed began. Really it wont be hard to put it back to geared which I will most likely do, but I just have the single speed bug right now and just had to try it out. Going with a 50x20 to start. We will see how that goes.
Also decided to get top mount brake levers instead of using the ultegra hoods. Should be a bit lighter for sure but another $20 in the hole. Will post pictures of the progress tonight although it looks kinda the same really.