Hello,

I picked up a 1990 Trek 750 the other day and intend on making it a single speed bike. It has an old Suntour XCE groupset and I'm wondering what kind of SS conversion kit I will need. The previous owner received the bike "as-is" and was little help in discovering what had been done. Right away I notice that this bike has a Bontrager Race wheelset - I'm wondering if they had to use some sort of adapter to get the suntour cassette on there? The hub on the rear wheel seems to be a Bontrager unit as well.

I've been bicycling for a few years now and this will be my first "project" so anything helps.

Background on the build: Starting a graduate degree in Davis and want something to take to class. I want it to be relatively inexpensive and I don't want it to look flashy because of potential theft. There are no hills in Davis so I see no reason to have gears.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I will also need to figure out what gear ratios I will need.

Figuring out what ratio you want: just ride it as-is and find the sweetspot. A gear you can live with all the time. On my SS MTB when I was commuting that was just over 2:1, but I've done as high as 3.1:1 on an SS road race bike. So on your bike, I'd think somewhere in the 2.2-2.4 range would be a good place to start.

All you'll really need is one of those generic "SS conversion kits" which usually include a single-speed chain tensioner (you can use your RD but that just looks hack IMO), spacers to fill in for the cassette, and an SS cog. Should be about $30-40 I think. You'll also need new grips after you dump those grip shifters. Single-speed chainring bolts to run a single ring, or keep the big ring on there as a chainguard if you want.

If you want to make it look the most elegant you'll find the "magic ratio" and run it without a chain tensioner

I'll give it a shot - thanks for the advice!

Assuming the driveline that's on is working - why go SS?

If you're worried about theft, that's just money and work sunk into it for little to no payout.

Plenty of people who'd see an SS bike as more attractive than a geared bike, so no advantage there. Selling the gear bits off probably won't bring much money either.

Ny advice would be to ride as-is, until you wear the current drivetrain out - then (maybe) go for the conversion.

I have considered this... however Davis is flat and I want the easy to maintain nature of a single speed. Also, the drive train is old and probably just needs a tune up but its also suntour so parts are hard to come by... Plus a found a single speed kit at performance bike for 25 bucks that seems about perfect; just waiting for some time to do the install.

You have vertical dropouts on that frame so you are very likely to need a "Singelator" or similar device to adjust the chain slack.