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Just finished converting my old Miyata road bike into a single speed. I took off the derailleurs, shifters, and the larger chain ring.

I plan to use a dremel and take off the chain ring guard, and also figure out what to do about the cogs in the back.

2 questions:

1) I have a quick release wheel in the back, is that going to work? I took it for a ride today and it slipped a little bit. Wondering if I need a different kind of wheel.

2) What can I do about the cog in the back? Is the only option a single speed cog? Any suggestions on where the best place is to buy it?


Thanks for any help!

A solid axle and track nuts will certainly grab better. But even then it can slip if not tightened strongly. On a semi horizontal dropout single speed I did I ended up putting a chain tug on the drive side just to avoid slipping. As a result the wear on the dropout was greatly reduced.

To properly sort things out on your build you will most likely need to buy a proper SS/FG rear wheel with a nutted axel and SS freewheel.

I've run quick-release rear wheels on singlespeeds before, even with fairly low gearing. As long as you use a proper QR skewer like Shimano hubs come with, not the open-cam ones some new hubs come with, you ought to be OK. As for the cog, if you have a thread-on freewheel hub, you can just buy a singlespeed freewheel and put it on, but you may have issues with chainline and you'll probably be re-dishing the wheel. This article ought to be some help explaining the issues you're likely to have - it's about fixed-wheel conversions but the chainline and rear wheel dish issues are the same, read the section on using a conventional freewheel hub with a fixed sprocket and ignore the bit about the cog unscrewing.

+1 this. In fact, track hubs used to be available with quick releases. Safety concerns about wheels catching other riders' quick releases led to rules forbidding their use on the track. From ~1967 Campagnolo catalog:

I have found ss or geared that the axel slipping in the dropouts is often a result of a bad chainline or incorrect rear spacing. If the spacing and chainline are correct one should be fine with a better quailty metal scewer. That said the best way to typically get a correct chainline and spacing is to get a proper SS/FG wheel.

I would have kept the large chainring and mated that to an 18 or 20 tooth ss freewheel to give a nice all around gearing... a quality QR will work fine on an SS and the SS is not as finicky about chain line as a fixed gear.

Ideally one would want to use a single chainwheel with a narrower bottom bracket than the road double requires...

If you have a multispeed freehub, you can use a single cog and a stack of spacers on both sides to locate it for the proper chainline and allow the lockring to tighten properly. I agree that a enclosed cam qr skewer tightened properly should locate your rear wheel securely.

Freewheel hub re tensioning the spokes in the rear wheel will let it come more to the right .. combining that with the axle respacing the rightward motion .. to balance and align the cog

Id leave the guard ring on and save getting your pants leg in the chain ..

bike shops have single speed freewheels ..

You will need a shorter chain than you had with the derailleur. The chain length will be for the front chainring you have and one of the cogs of the rear wheel. I have built single speeds using the smaller front chainring and the middle (third or fourth) cog in the rear, like it would be comfortable with the derailleur. That will work now until you get a SS/FG wheel and cogs.

Yup, I took out a few links. Will look into getting a ss cog for the rear.

Thanks guys, I'll start doing some research on SS cogs. Also, don't think i have a high quality quick release. The wheel was a cheap replacement when the original wheel broke some spokes. I think the brand is weinnman.

If you post a picture of the quick-release lever we'll be able to tell. Sheldon explains the whole lot here: Bicycle Quick-release Skewers

Just took a look and it is definitely the exposed cam one. Darnit, I just sold some 27in wheel bikes just the other day, should have swapped out the rear wheel before I sold it. those were the bolt ons which I think would have been better than what I have now.

Now that I think about it, why would the exposed cam QR not work on a SS but work fine back when my Miyata had gears?

You've just gotten lucky with that one, I personally had a lot of trouble with an open-cam skewer on a bike with horizontal rear dropouts, and I've both seen other people use them with horizontal dropouts and seen them have problems doing that.

The only thing I can think of is that what pulls wheels out of line in frames is chain tension, and having lower gears available for climbing hills and pulling away from a stop means you never have to apply quite as much tension to the chain as you do with a SS, because a larger rear sprocket will give more torque driving the wheel for the same amount of chain tension.

I'd still suggest getting hold of an enclosed-cam skewer, they aren't expensive and they're a lot easier to use than open-cam ones, because you don't have to apply anything like as much force to tighten them properly.