Converting to single chainring in the front
 

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.

You'll spend a tad less making it 1x on the front. But you'll have to be real careful choosing what you get. Why not just fix or get new FDR and shifter? Are both truly broke requiring replacement of them?

Otherwise, it depends on how much you wish it to look like it was 1x from the start or how much you want to spend.

At the least expensive, you can just put it in the middle ring and go with that. You might take the big and small ring off, but the middle ring might depend on the other rings being there.

You can buy another crank for 1x, but then you have to learn about BB's, shaft diameter's and lengths, chain lines (maybe) and other things that might just bite you for your particular bike and replacement crank you picked.

2) Depends on what you have on the back. How strong you are. How you ride and how long you ride. What ring did you stay in the most for your previous rides on that bike? Did you need the smallest front regularly for anything you rode? Did you like pedaling down a hill in the middle ring?

3) No, but I used to own a 1x bike.

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.

Man,and here I.was thinking I find simpler and cheaper solution to my problem, there really isn't much about bikes mechanics that is either chip or simple,!

Chip or simple? Assuming you mean cheap or simple, you should try owning a 30' sail boat, or a small two seat airplane.

Cycling is one of the least expensive pastimes I've had. I even shudder at the expense some of the golfer friends I have spend on golf.

I used to own a small boat and I found that it was faster and easier to just throw my money into the water! Flying sailplanes wasn't cheap either.

Derailleurs are pretty cheap, so repairing is your best solution - I agree with others who have said this.
Modern 'basic quality' derailleurs are really good and also cheap compared to components 65 years ago when I first worked on my bike. :)
Or just put the chain on the middle ring (as suggested) and ride around like that for a while.
I've been changing cassettes, chainrings and derailleurs lately and even ordering from China, the cost adds up.
That said, it's pretty cheap compared to other hobbies and sports.

Sailplanes. I don’t know if you guys tow the plane behind a truck for slope soaring, but out west sailplanes means you get to pay for 2 planes and an extra pilot.

Who knew ditching the engine would be more expensive?!?

Cycling is really cheap, as long as you continue to buy the same type of older bike and keep it in the back garden, and then when it breaks you strip it down to parts and store them in your shed. Eventually you will have enough parts to repair most problems with your current bike. Of course, you cannot have any 'real' cycling friends as they will want you to spend money on not embarrassing them when you go out for a ride, and living with anyone can be problematic because they probably will want to use the garden and maybe the shed too.

However, those friends, family and neighbours you manage to retain on speaking terms will expect you to offer to repair their bikes, while taking their dead bikes off their hands expands your own opportunities to slyly repair and sell them, until you make enough to expand or replace your shed. Eventually you may wish to move, and finding a property with improved working facilities becomes a priority.

Chef1978 , here are some pictures of the 8 speed Sora shifters I have. I have a derailleur also, but I am not sure if it works. I can take a look at it.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9eaa5c261e.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9ebed1cedf.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b4e6e9f2d7.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8be989084c.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6481d9e630.jpg

I was a bike mechanic for a fleet of bikes and I was going through what you are trying to do. When the 3x bikes started having an issue with the front derailleur or shifters we replace it with a 1x set-up. What I did was replace the whole crankset for around $125.00. You could probably get by with just replacing the chain ring but you need to get the specific 1x chain ring. The 1x change rings have teeth that hold the chain on the ring when the chain is on the extreme cog in the rear. If you use your current chain rings you'll need to either keep your FD and "lock it out" or get a chain keeper so that the chain doesn't drop off the chain ring when you shift.

Paul components has one
https://www.paulcomp.com/shop/compon.../chain-keeper/
not sure f anyone else makes them.

The cheapest way to do this is to keep your crankset and lock-out the FD to the middle chain ring.

There is a girl here with a bike and no money. The shifter for the front derailleur is broken. The cable for the rear derailleur is broken. The chain was continually rubbing on the front derailleur, and made a noise. She asked her friend to find a rock she could put between the front derailleur and seat tube, to hold the derailleur in position, and stop the noise. When I saw this, I adjusted the limit screws in both the front and rear derailleurs. It now works fine as a single speed, and did not cost any money.

The bike would be a lot better with a new cable for the rear derailleur. I may or may not buy a new cable for her in the future.

To the op. I don't know how much you understand about mechanics. On the front derailleur are two screws. You can adjust these to hold the derailleur in the position you want it in. It will be single speed on the front, and you wont need to spend any money, like the example in the post above.

did just that,works great,I guess the biggest problem will be when.i decide to sell the bike,to explain the problem / solution situation.

You could either, replace the broken part(s), or just explain the situation. If you sell the bike a bit cheaper than you would normally, somebody will probably buy it anyway.

My question to you is "how fast do you need to go?" The big chain ring is for going down hill at 25-40 mph, which is absurdly dangerous. ( been there- done that )You can loose that ring and be safer for it. The small ring is for going up steep hills and you ride on the flat so you don't need that one either. If you use only the middle ring with an 8 speed cassette out back you won't have any trouble with your chain line and you will have 8 usable gears which should be fine for most sensible riding. If you are absolutely clueless about bikes you can have your local bike shop or co op take the crank off and remove the rings and front derailleur.

I have a n old Peugeot road bike that I set up as a 1x7 with a 36 tooth front ring and a 13-28, 7 speed Hyperglide freewheel in back shifted by a nice Suntour friction thumbie and I live in the hills. My 73 year old legs are not quite as strong as they were when I was 18 but I still manage fine with this set up. If you can do your own wrenching you should be able to do this for $ 00. or maybe the cost of a chainring (used at the co op?) If you want to get fancy , buy another used ring slightly larger that your new middle ring and grind the teeth off it and re install it where the old outer ring used to be .This will keep the chain from ever hopping off the chainring and it looks kool to.

I'm totally sold on 1x for my current gravel bike that admittedly, I ride almost like a MTB--at least 70/30 dirt/pavement, fairly technical singletrack too. But after the last 4-5 years on 1x's, I've come back around to thinking if I had a dedicated road bike, I wouldn't go that route. 2x at least for sure.

I don't know why people are making this harder than it has to be. Remove the derailleur, remove the shifter, remove the big and small chainrings, You may need shorter chainring bolts because they"ll be too long to tighten down. You can remedy this by grinding down the rear ones with a bench grinder, or shimming the bolts out with washers. Put the middle chainring back on and go ride. Enjoy your bike at 600-800 grams lighter.
If you have a problem with dropping the chain, get a dedicated single speed chainring with no ramping.