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help a fellow soon to be singlespeeder

877 views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  hitechredneck 
#1 ·
I plan on going singlespeed soon enough on my 08 GT Avalanche 3.0 disc but I was wondering, If I go single speed, do I have to run a chain tensioner or can I run the bike without a chain tensioner real clean looking, you know? :thumbsup:

also, what do I do with my cranks?:confused:
 
#2 ·
take the granny & big ring off, and the middle should still work fine as far as the cranks go. may need to get some shorter chainring bolts though.

it is possible to find a 'magic gear'....aka a cog/chain ring combo that fits snuggly (tensions itself perfectly) when you have a new chain. you'll probably need a half-link, and a couple different sized cogs/chain rings to swap back and forth until you find a combination that works...and then you'll more or less be stuck with that. and you may end up buying new chains more often (under $10 for a pc-1, not too big of a deal)....because the chain wear will make the chain look droopy. (functionally it'll be fine...but atheistically it may look funky)

the other option is to buy an eccentric rear hub ($130)
 
#4 ·
I have an '05 or '06 (I think) GT Avalanche 1.0 converted to single speed, running a magic gear of 33:16, with a half link, and dedicated ss cog at the rear. The new chain has a little slop, but it hasn't caused me any problems yet, and I do give the bike hell. I would think that 34:17 would be perfect, as this should eliminate the need for the half link.

But that's assuming that the '08 has the same length chainstay as the '06 (42.00cm), which I think it does.
 
#5 ·
nomit said:
take the granny & big ring off, and the middle should still work fine as far as the cranks go. may need to get some shorter chainring bolts though.
I've found you can usually luck out and use the little washers that space the chainrings to fill the gap when you need shorter chainring bolts. Saves a trip to the LBS and a couple bucks. If they don't have washers or they're the wrong size, just get some washers at a hardware store, no biggie.
 
#6 ·
Stevob said:
I have an '05 or '06 (I think) GT Avalanche 1.0 converted to single speed, running a magic gear of 33:16, with a half link, and dedicated ss cog at the rear. The new chain has a little slop, but it hasn't caused me any problems yet, and I do give the bike hell. I would think that 34:17 would be perfect, as this should eliminate the need for the half link.

But that's assuming that the '08 has the same length chainstay as the '06 (42.00cm), which I think it does.
Can you explain how a half link works? I'm having difficulty picturing this.



My friend and I both have old HT that seems like it'd be perfect for converting SS for the local trails.
 
#14 ·
As a matter of fact i have "said" bike that i turned into a SS last week. I got it from a guy for a good price. Decided that a SS would be fun to build up with parts i had laying around to see if i liked it. So i got this bike 3.0 and trew away the kendas and put on some 2.0 maxis larsons. used a old set of firefex cranks. pulled the granny and big ring and put on bash guard. pulled stock breaks and put on some shimano hydros i had from a take off bike. and the forte SS conversion from perfomance and ditched the stock saddle for a forte carbon one. Into the bike for a total of about 200 bucks. so far having fun, and seeing if i want to stick with this SS thing. Just to warn you with stock fork, wheels, tubes, bars, seat post, and stem, this is a pretty heavy bike. mine came in a around 28 lbs. but i imagine that you could shave weight pretty quick if you changed some things out.
 
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