Single speed spacer on the cheap?
 

Hello all,
Let me preface this by saying I admittedly know nothing about bike maintenance or bike maintenance terms. However, I recently began to convert my old road bike which is an old, but in good shape 10 speed by American Rider (whoever that is). Anyway, is there any sort of home depot part I might be able to use to space my gear correctly? I know they sell cheap conversion kits online, but I'm impatient and cheap, very cheap. Any ideas?

I got 10' worth of spacers at Home Depot for about $2 in the plumbing section. I took the rear wheel in with me and found a piece of PVC pipe that fit perfectly. Then used a miter saw to cut the spacer(s) to the needed length. It's worked great for over a year.

^^^
PVC works great, just make sure you have the right tool to cut it perfectly straight. Otherwise, it will suck.

Yeah stop being so bloody cheap. I've seen spacer kits with cog and spacers for $10

make sure you have a freehub if you're going the spacer route. won't work if its the old freewheel type.

Thanks guys, yes, it's a free hub. I'll probably run the pvc route for now. I just don't want to wait for an internet spacer kit to ship, to long off the road.

PVC, Copper tubing could work, just take your wheel into the hardware store and find something that fits snug and call it good.

That bike certainly did not have a freehub on it when new. I would estimate that the value of whatever wheels you have on it now, even if those wheels are trashpicked, are many times the value of the remainder of the bike.

You sure it has a freehub?

And, of course, the cheapest possible way to go singlespeed is to simply use one gear from the cassette/freewheel that is already on there. Shorten the chain, tension the chain, and leave the cassette as is.

jim

My LBS gave me a handful of spacers from busted up cassettes for the asking.