some guy once told me that he uses a short piece of a spoke instead of cable to set the rear derailer to a fixed position so that he can have chain tension with verticle dropouts on his single speed. i don't know how to describe it any better, but he basically uses a spoke in the rear derailer where the cable would usually go, which eliminates having to run cable up to a useless shifter to hold tension. has anyone heard of this or know how it's done?

once again i have answered my own question but i cannot delete my own post! so, for anyone interested in a homebrew single speed chain tensioner, here you go. i had to find the right derailer, but it works pretty slick to just slip a spoke through and clamp it down.

you don't need a useless shifter if you use a piece of cable.

i tried and it didn't work because your keeping the tension out not in, so a cable in place of the spoke just bends while a spoke is rigid enough to keep the derailer pushed out.

(i think he meant if you use a cable then you have a functioning shifter instead)

last i checked you don't need a shifter on a single speed

can't you just get screws to set the hi-low in the gear you wan't, i'm quite possibly wrong but i belive thats how a buddy did it a few years back