Single Speed Conversion Kit

gness

Likes Bikes
Item: Single speed conversion kit
Location: Syd but will pay for postage
Price range/Willing to Pay: cheaper the better
Extra Info: Hey guys I'm building up an old frame as a dad bike now that my 5yo is somewhat confident on the bike. Does anyone have an old single speed conversion kit sitting in the bottom of their parts bin? Will need sprocket, spacers and lockring. Thanks in advance!
 

boyracer

Likes Dirt
Ghetto SS?
Plumbing pipe and an old cluster with lock ring. Punch out the cluster pins to remove individual cogs. 32/16 was good on 26 wheel.
 

moorey

call me Mia
Ghetto SS?
Plumbing pipe and an old cluster with lock ring. Punch out the cluster pins to remove individual cogs. 32/16 was good on 26 wheel.
Individual cogs are too thin and usually chew TF outta the freehub. I used alu tubing offcut for my last ghetto.
@gness, message me Sunday night/Monday if you haven’t found anything, and I’ll have a dig.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
True, I think dedicated SS sprockets are steel.

Pick your ratio carefully and if you get luck with the magic chain length then you might not need an idler/tensioner.
 

goobags

Likes Dirt
I have a handful of spacers, an old lock ring and most likely an 18t SS cog. As mentioned unless you have a frame with inbuilt tensioner you will need a chain tensioner as well.

I can grab photos tonight


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

moorey

call me Mia
I have a handful of spacers, an old lock ring and most likely an 18t SS cog. As mentioned unless you have a frame with inbuilt tensioner you will need a chain tensioner as well.

I can grab photos tonight


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Or, maybe he has sliding dropouts…
 

RichJS

Likes Dirt
Thin cogs could be OK if you have a steel (or maybe Ti) freehub.

One less ghetto, but potentially cheap source of spacers + lockring is old cassettes. Better to have unramped cogs (and chainrings) for SS.

Considered ZTTO or similar new from Alibaba / Aliexpress / etc? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000152533337.html?_randl_currency=AUD&_randl_shipto=AU

~$30 shipped is not a heap more expensive for the whole lot to be sent from China than Aus post-ing something domestically.

There are lightweight Alu cogs - EG this wolftooth (though obvs not cheap being wolfwooth): https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/aluminum-single-speed-cog
 

gness

Likes Bikes
Thanks for the responses guys didn't realise they were so cheap from Ali

Also yes the frame has sliding dropouts. I had a full Alfine build kit ready and it turns out I just can't get the chainline right so just going to settle for ss
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Also yes the frame has sliding dropouts. I had a full Alfine build kit ready and it turns out I just can't get the chainline right so just going to settle for ss
If the rear sprocket is close to the middle of the cassette then you probably have done all you can already. I have a SS with Alfine hub with an old school crankset using the middle ring. It is an 8 speed SS :D The chainline is straight enough but not 100%.

The problem I did run into while SSing it was that amount of chain wrap around the rear sprocket. If the chain isn't wrapped around it enough then it would skip at bigger power moments and scare you plenty. Makes sure that part is taken care of since it can be hard to figure out. A chain tensioner mounted at the rear derailleur removes some chainwrap and does exactly what you don't want.
 

RichJS

Likes Dirt
I bought one of these while waiting for a SS hub for the Pinion bike.
I bought one of those kits, the cog is pretty thin (same or thinner than Shimano DX) but also didn't fit easily on the (Mavic?) freehub that had a couple of burrs from a previous pinned cassette, even after I gave them a litte filing.

All my other SS cogs slid on OK. Used just the spacers from that kit, and bought an old Dice Parts cog from my LBS for that bike.
 

Shorsau

Likes Dirt
Copy Rich..I didn't use the cog either as was after the spacers so I could mount the Gates CDX sprocket. Just tried it on the Novatec hub and it went on fine.
 
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