21sp to single?
 

New to this forum.
Fairly clueless to the jargon being used, so please, bear with me in my technical explanation of what I want to do.
I have a MTN bike I would like to switch over to single/fixed gear.
I've seen a kit for this on which include spacers, back cog and a chain tensioner on Nashbar.com for abt $20 buck while on sale.
Is this what I would use to do the job?
Would I need anything else?
Right off the bat, I want the wheel to spin/ for me to be able to coast, so do I need a "freewheel" kit?
I plan on using the rim that I have on the bike now, is this possible?
I am having a hard time believing I can just purchase this kit and remove the dérailleurs and not have problems, like I said, new guy.
If there is a thread that will explain this all to me I apologize for being repetitive in my posting.
I read the article on sheldonbrown.com, but thought I would question the horses mouths here.
Thanks for your patience and info ahead "o" time,
SpokeApe
p.s.
It's a 4yr old beater Mongoose that I'll be using for just "running round" as it will soon be my 2nd bike.

well, sheldon is the horses mouth. we are all just the bad breath that particular horse emanates.

that being said. Yeah, grab yourself a freewheel kit, take off all those unnecessary cogs/chainrings/derailers/chain links and rock it.

you may need to get your rear wheel redished to make up for the straight chainline/ less gears, blah blah.

just make sure you read up on your gear inches and find the right gear for your fitness/riding style/terrain. that is a searchable/browsable topic.

GOOD LUCK.

......wOw....horse gas.........
thanks for the info time bandit.
Just to be sure is this the kit I would need?
This is the one I spoke of from Nashbar.com.
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...A%20Freewheels
I've been riding just using my largest chain ring and one of the smaller cogs in back.
So find the one I like best, count the "pegs" (sorry, what are they called??) and go with that?
SpokeApe

.........redished??........

nevermind about redishing, there are enough spacers in that set to get you started. try it out. let us know how it worked out and if you want to make it a fixed mnt bike.

oh yeah, and they're called "teeth". You might find you'd be more comfortable at even a smaller rear cog tooth count as your bike has shed some weight.

easiest way is to just remove the derailers (front and back) shorten your chain and set up the one gear you want....that way you can change the gear setup by just removing or adding chain links depending on what gearing you want and you'll already have the different gears on the freewheel to choose from

atleast thats what i did......but my new coaster brake hub is in the mail so im in for a whole different conversion...lol

on the re-dishing....look at your back rim.....see how the spokes are 'dished' on the one side and are more flat on the side with the gears.......with only one sprocket you need to have the wheel re-dished so the rim will be centered around the hub and will have the dished shape on both sides......but with spacers you can leave the wheel the way it is