And so, rather than clean the derailer of my 1974 Schwinn Le Tour, I am going to remove it and do my first fixed gear conversion.

I was thinking I would remove the 39T ring, keep the 52T ring and set it up with a 20 in the rear.

Wow.
Sick.

ARe you gonna drop the derailer, shorten the chain and go pseudo singlespeed till the parts come?

Though not a big fan of slugs, I will often go out of my way to save an earthworm that is drying on the pavement. I usually find some moist earth to deposit them on, or dig up some soil and bury them under it.

When I resodded my lawn, I tried my hardest not to cut any worms in half and to always cover them with dirt.

I have just been riding it around with 39 - 15 gearing without shifting since I decided to convert her. I may go to the LBS and get an extra chain pin to shorten the chain later this afternoon, then I'll go ahead and strip her down.

I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now, the slug just made up my mind. My main motivation was getting 700c wheels (rather than the 27") on her so I could use my studded tires and have a fun bike to ride in the winter.

slugs are the ****

Why do you need an extra chain pin?

slimy invertebrates are what makes compost happen. dont be such a hater.

52/20 is a wussy gear anyway.

****ING RIGHT!

At least it's Scwinn approved! Hey, coulda been worse, it could have been a squirrel:

https://www.goatboycycles.com/miscpages/squirrelpage.htm

Same here. In fact, I found another one of these guys on my living room floor that same night and put him outside before he got a chance to ooze his way up into the derailer of my tourer. That is one of the pitfalls of a basement apartment I suppose.

Well, I guess I'm just a wussy then. I'd change my username to reflect that, but then I'd lose my red star.

sorry, I was only being mean because I thought you disliked slimy invertebrates. its really not wussy, promise.

nah, you're alright. if for no other reason than that you rescued the living room slug.

looks like the first one had a death wish anyway.

us slimy invertebrates get defensive sometimes.

I'm somewhat new to bicycle tinkering. Can I just reuse the pin that I remove then?

dont take the pin out all the way. leave it embedded in the outer plate, then push it back in. NEVER remove the pin all the way

No offence taken. I don't really hate slimy invertebrates, I just used that as my opener. If I titled it, "I hate dried up slug guts all over my rear derailer",well... you get the idea.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine trying to reinstall a pin that had come out.

it's a ****ing pita. i accidentally pushed the pin all the way out when i was living in bushwick bloody miles from a bike shop. i spent half an hour with a hammer trying to tap the pin back into the plate. obviously the pin was way smaller than my fingers. by the time i got it back in i was very very annoyed indeed.

You can't, I've tried. Sucks ass.

Cool. I'm gonna ride home and start taking her apart. It might be fun to eventually paint her as well, but that might make it more appealing to thieves.

Good chain brakers will bottom out without having pushed the pin completely out.

or a good hand with a chain tool. you will feel more resistance as the pin begins to exit the outer plate. stop when you feel the pressure change.

So, how do I go about deciding on the proper chain length for a single speed or fixed gear?