Originally Posted by
cuyd
I got a singlespeed bike made out of old road frame with vertical dropouts, something like this:
I am looking for a chain tensioner(tugnut) for such frame, mainly to align rear wheel in frame properly. I don't want ones with pulley wheels(sprung), as I don't have any good experience with them.
I was wondering are there any tensioners of this kind(track frame) but for the frame I own:
I can say that I've tried using these track tensioners on my road frame and even when they didn't work properly, they helped with wheel alignment - ie. I've set wheel in position, tensioned chain with them, then tightened QR skewer and finally loosened tensioners so the chain was tensioned by the wheel held by skewer and not by tensioners themselves.
Traditional horizontal dropouts as pictured, if they're good quality forgings, have adjustable M3x0.5 stop screws on each side; once you've set them you just have to pull the axle against the stops as you tighten the QR. Cheap or vintage plate steel dropouts don't have these, and the steel can be soft so it gets chewed up by the axle - this makes it harder to get the adjustment right, and the axle can slip. A better axle has more bite, a nutted axle
with good track nuts may be easier to use and more secure. You can make small adjustments one side at a time to set the slack, using the wheel as a lever. When you're done, with the bike in a stand or hanging, pedal while looking/feeling for tight spots;- both the chainring and rear sprocket/freewheel are likely to have a degree of non-concentricity, you want to set the chain slack at the tightest point.