Originally Posted by
Chef1978
Hello everyone, today I have question about concertimg my road bike to single chain ring in the front.i have 8 gears in the back with shimano sora,and 3 in the front.the front derailleur and shifter are broken,so.i decided to give a try and change for single chain ring in the front.when I talked to guy from bikestore ,je told me that it's impossible because I.only have 8 gears in the back.jere are my questions.
1- do I have to change the whole crank set or just the ring ?
2 what's the best teeth number for this job? My terrain is mostly flat with some hills.
3- if you have done it already ,what's your experience? Thoughts? Cheers.
Its not impossible. Its not even difficult. In fact the most challenging aspect of it will be actually sourcing a suitable crank.
Like the poster above me, I recommend staying with your 3x setup in the front, and just getting it repaired. Any 3x8 roadbike will need all of those gears to help you on your way. If you change that front sprocket to a single, you will definitely miss those extra gears. Another thing to consider is that your 3x8 setup has a smaller cassette on the rear hub. Unless you have legs made of steel, 1x setup would need a cassette with larger cogs at the low end.
Converting to a 1x setup is something you do to the bike while doing a complete overhaul/mod/resto. Suddenly your old shifters will be less than satisfactory. Then there is the cost. I've never done this conversion to any bike where I actually said it was a good bargain. Again, my advice is to repair the bike, sell it, and buy a new one that is already set up for a 1x gearing. Just my 2 cents.