when I built me conversion, I knew that it had shortish dropouts. I am running 52/19 and now, possibly due to chain stretch, I am at the back of my dropout, and still have some slack (see, it was tight before). Can I remove a whole link, or should I put a half link in? should I modify my gearing and/or change the chain length? I'll try to get a picture, but any help is appreciated. I'm talking about just enough slack to get that "tink, Tink" when trackstanding. It looks OK, but I can feel it, I guess.

I used a half-link on my conversion as a full link removal would have brought the axle too close to the dropout openings.

time for a new chain?
measure it.

the chain is only as old as the bike, like 4-5 months, and it's an izumi.

Removing a link will bring the wheel 1/2" forward.
replacing a link with a half link will bring it 1/4" forward.

does the chain have a master link? if so just take a link out

thanks; the 1/2" and 1/4" was insightful. the chain has a master link, But once a link was out, I don't know about putting one back. Here is a photo for reference.

Keep your master link on- it will still be handy after resizing the chain.

Take a look at this half link at Harriscyclery:

https://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?ID=1274

Take a look at shipping...$8 for a $4 link.

Yes.

I thought it would help to see picture of a half link.

not trying to hijack your thread or anything, but i too am having chain slack problems. more like needing to loose just a lil of the slack, the lbs guy made it really tight and i got a flat and now i can't get it back to almost where it was at. any tips on how to lose the slack?

Loosening the chain should be the easiest tension adjustment you could make, unless I'm missing something here. Just loosen the nuts, tap the wheel a bit, make sure the wheel is straight and you got the tension right, and lock it back down.

Looks to me you have room to remove a link and keep the axle in the dropouts.

What I do is pull the wheel back as hard as i can against the chain. I actually have the wheel crooked
at the start, with the front of the wheel almost touching the inside edge of the right chainstay. I
tighten the nut only on the right side. After that I pull the wheel so its straight, and then tighten
the left side nut.

+1

that really helped. good looking out.