I've written elsewhere about how much I hated the trigger shifters of my 2014 7.6 FX. Given that the Dahon Vigor I test-rode the other day also had a trigger shifter that I had no problems dealing with, I figured that my problem with the 7.6 might be that there's one too many shifters.

This morning, I decided to test out a makeshift 1x conversion. I swapped the positions of the chainrings; the spider bolts being too thick to hold the 50t chainring alone tight onto the spider, the 34t chainring ended up serving as a spacer: :



Next, I unbolted the front derailleur and its shifter, and took the bike out for a test ride. With just one shifter to worry about, it's a much more pleasant bike to ride now. Even with the long-legged 50t chainring, the 36-11 rear cassette seems to have more than enough spread for most situations.

The chain jumped off the chainring and/or jammed itself between the cassette and the dropout several times. It looks like it might be an issue with the extreme chain lines, but a couple of adjustments to the H and tension screws seemed to have taken care of these issues for now:





I'm still testing the bike out, but a chainring that's between 42t and 48t might seem a little more useful. Amazon have this really nice FSA Vero 42t crank that looks like it might work as a direct bolt-on. Other sources have several chainrings that can bolt to the factory crank spider, such as this 46t Origin8. I'll see about these later.