Want to drop off one of the front chainrings on a friend's 80s steel frame road bike, since it's mainly for flat city riding. Wondering (1) if I should keep the front derailleur on (to keep the chain from coming off), (2) if I should switch the front chainring to a BMX or singlespeed ring with deeper teeth, and (3) if I should put on a thicker chain.

If you've done it, give me your input.

A wider, single speed chain probably won't work with your rear derailleur and cassette.

You will probably be able to eliminate the front derailleur as long as your chainring lines up reasonably well with the middle of the cassette (or freewheel). You might have to relocate the big chainring to the other side of the crank spider to make it line up.

You will probably need to get some shorter chain ring bolts.

Assuming it's an 80's w/original 6 or 7 speed rear - you may get away with it.

If it was newer (or upgraded): That front chainring is probably ramped and pinned & I'd bet you'd have trouble dropping the chain w/o a front derailleur. In that case buy a plain old style chainring. I know Vuelta makes non-ramped narrow chain rings.

My CX bike is a 1x9. I run the standard FSA front ring. No issue.

I also run an NGear chain guide and as short a chain as possible. No issues dropping the chain over some pretty severe terrain and run ups.

-Z

You will want some sort of chain guide as above in case of rough terrain.

Been away from the computer since I posted this, but just wanted to thank you for the info. This is an 80s Schwinn Tempo, and it seems to me that Bob Barker's tip is what I'm gunning for. This will be only for fairly flat urban street riding, and I don't think she'll be doing too much heavy terrain stuff. I'll see if the ring is ramped. If not, then I'll just get ss chainring bolts and a new chain to start it fresh.

Thanks again for the tips.

No need to get new bolts. Pull the old ones and grind them down. Reinstall.

You mean grind down the female parts, right?

1. Don't have the tool for such a job and I'm at my limit for bike tools. (Plus dropping the dough on the tool would kind of defeat the purpose of doing this 'alteration'.)
2. While I appreciate the DIY/waste-not/want-not quality of this approach, it's also about 15 minutes more effort than I want to spend on the project.

But I appreciate the input and it is something I will be able to keep in mind in the future.