Hello everyone,

First time on the forum here...I have an '04 Stumpjumper fsr and I need to replace some cables and a front derailleur. I was also just thinking about getting rid of the front derailleur and 2 chainrings altogether. I ride in the city a lot and I want the chain to stay on when I'm bombing down stairs, off walls, ect. If I were to do this, would I need to get a chainguide/bashguard system? If so, recommendations? Will my middle chainring work or will I have to get a single speed-specific set-up? Also, will I run into chainline problems with a 9 speed cassette in the rear?

I ran an MRP 1.x chain guide last summer with good success. I've a friend who runs one as well, and he's very happy with his 1x9 setup.

Just run a double with an bb e-type chain-guide... you're gonna ride around in a city with a 22 on the front? You must not go very fast? Yeah you'll have chainline wear issues(using the same triple spaced cranks i assume) with the low gears on the cassette. Also you might have issues with the size of your chainring hitting the chainstay if you go above 22... you'll have to check that out.

I've been running my bike in only the middle chain ring with no front derailleur for a while. Everything seems to be working out just fine. I may run into increased chain wear issues. I don't know yet. I love the simplicity of 1X9, though, so we'll just wait and see what happens. I plan on pulling my inner chain-ring tomorrow and I'm not sure yet if I want to just leave the big ring as is or grind the teeth off of it so that it's basically just a guard. In any case, my chain has yet to come off while doing some drops on the trail, 4-5 stair drops in town, or bombing kinda bumpy singletrack. I did shorten my chain, though, so that probably helps having it tensioned specifically for that chain-ring rather than still long enough to fit the large chain-ring. Otherwise it would be a bit looser and maybe come off? I don't know since I never tested it.