Barrettscv 

I may convert one of my bikes to single speed. I want the bike to freewheel. The bike has horizontal drop-outs.

I've ridden the bike without shifting, and in the summer, the 44t chainwheel & 16 cog is a good all-around gear in Chicago during the summer. Nothing steep to climb for 100 miles. However, during the winter, I'm dressed in layers and my cruising speed can drop by 5 mph or more if it's windy. A 39t chainwheel & 21 cog would be better.

The crank is a 130 bcd standard. I have several chainrings, including 50, 46, 44, 39 and 38. I could install the 44 & 39t chainrings and keep the ten speed 11-23 cassette.

Could I also just remove and reinstall the wheel and use either the 44t chainwheel & 16 cog or the 39t chainwheel & 21 cog? Should I just keep the double chainrings and cassette?

91MF

what are you asking? to keep the bike geared or to convert ss?

Barrettscv 

Both ;-).

I would remove the shifters & derailleurs and I would use a shortened ten speed sideflex chain.

homebrewk

Hmm. I have a similar dilemma. I have a geared hybrid bike that I would like to convert to a ss, but I'm probably going to leave 2-3 cogs on the back. Suggestions?

hairnet

double chainrings + Surly Dingle


but that's fixed. Mybe copy the idea with a freehub and 2 cogs.

Barrettscv 

linky not working.

The Dingle would be ideal for a bike already set up as a fixed gear. However, I'm looking to keep the freewheel ability.

hairnet

i edited to add more. clicked on post too quickly

Barrettscv 

What crankset chainwheels and cassette does the bike have now?

fuzz2050

If you have access to a bunch of cassette spacers, or just a bunch of dead cassettes you can make your own freewheeling 'dingle' set-up by just running two (or three cassettes a few teeth apart.

If you want some real fun, if you have two chainrings, you can have run two wildly different gear ratios while the chain length stays the same, you just have to make sure that both chainrings and cogs have the same number of teeth.

Barrettscv 

My thoughts exactly!

Can you change the number of teeth by a differentual of one without resizing the chain? The wheel would just have to be moved within the drop-out.

91MF

if you olny need a few gears why not run a 1X? setup.

i like to spin so i never really used the 52t on my cdale during my commute. ended up just running a 1X7 with the 42t ring. could have probably just set it up with 3 cogs out back. like 13,15,17 or something would have been good for me.

rkd350z

you could ride double chainring. it's just heavier than single chainring.

but make sure the chains line up straight so it has less friction.

and the cassette, keep em. you might be able to use em later

you will realize how heavy those cassettes are compare to SS cassette

I was using my 6spd casstte as a SS gear for about half a year and, when I switched to 16T SS freewheel, it was sooo much lighter compare to getto riged cassette SS
500g vs 100g ish

it's a good training though

Cheers~

Barrettscv 

I ran a 1x10 with a 44t & 12-27 on my cyclocross bike. I really liked it.

However, The bike that would be converted would be my rain & winter bike. eliminating derailleurs and shifters would make the bike a bit more care free and easier to keep clean. I would only be reselecting chain-ring and cogs a few times a year. Cold & windy: 39 & 21t. Warm weather and calm air: 44 & 16t. I could change gearing without any tools in 5 minutes!

Plus, I already have the wheels, cassette & crank. A true SS conversion would require a new wheel.

stanridgespeed 

if the cog in the back isnt exactly lined up with the crank you'll dump the chain every few minutes. the cassette cogs are designed to ramp the chain up and down easily with the rear der. You can buy very cheap thin cogs to slip onto your existing freehub body. may want to explore this option.

Barrettscv 

Aaaahhh...

So the derailleur tension and alignment is needed to keep the chain from riding off of the cog on a modern cassette. Thanks.

clasher

I ran a similar setup to this and and never used the higher gearing combo, but I just used old cassette parts and never dumped the chain once I had the right tension... It's not too difficult to take the time and measure your chainlines and space the cogs appropriately with spacers. There are some fancy kits available for this but I just took parts for old cassettes and did it. I like the idea of using cogs without ramps though.

homebrewk

It has a single chainwheel and 8 rings on the cassette.

Davemutt

Have you considered just swapping either the chainring or cog twice a year? If you're lucky, you might not even need to change the chain length.

Cynikal 

I would do the dingle type of setup. Use both the 44 and the 30 and a 16 and 18 (or 19) on the back. Space the rear cogs 5mm apart on the freehub. With a little experimentation you will find a combo that works with the same length chain. This is all assuming that you are using a freehub and not a freewheel.

ianjk

Even if it is lined up, a good bump can cause it to jump. Easy way to hurt yourself. If it jumps up and chain is strong, you can hose your hub, dropouts, etc. If you chain breaks, you will probably just end up nutting yourself if you are out of the saddle. Like a lot of failures, it usually will work fine while tooling along, but that one time you crank on it, *pop!* *crash* *FFFFFFFFFFU*.