chain length for SS with rear der.
 

Got tired of downtube shifters and shifting in general so I swapped out my cassette for a single cog and a bunch of spacers. I am also using my old rear derailleur so now I just needed to know how to decide on proper chain length.
Should I have it as tight as possible as I can while everything still works fine (with the derailleur cage rotated/pulled as far to the right as possible -looking at the bike on the right/drive side-) or should I leave a fair amount of slack in it like with a geared setup?
Thanks.

Not as tight as possible, but tighter than a geared setup.

You don't want that chain to slap about too much - if it comes off the cog, it's not going to drop into another one!

The derailler should be vertical.
Meaning the wheels should be in a straight line one on top of the other.
Enjoy

Short as possible without having the chain under loads of tension. For the derailleur, try removing the top pully and backside of the cage, then reverse the bolt for the lower pully and use a bolt to secure it. Use the limiter screws if possible to lock the derailleur in the right position, or if needed, a short section of cable and housing. Without the top pully, the knuckle will be held against the dropout by the spring tension, so it won't knock, and the single pully wheel has less drag then the chain twisting between the two pullies. The other neat feature of this mod is that because the cage is now one sided, is is easily disconnected to allow for easy wheel removal. I'll try to see if I can get pics of this set up.

that would be real nice if you could get those pics. The der works without cable and I have not had any problems running so far for 10 rides or so. The der is a little past vertical towards the chainrings so I will add a couple links till I try taking apart the der.

Shouldn't need cable if you have limit screws.

Heres the pictures
http://www.dropmachine.com/media/dat...58DCP02248.JPG
http://www.dropmachine.com/media/dat...58DCP02250.JPG