StuInTokyo
Maximum Pace
- Dec 3, 2010
- 1,662
- 62
As I sit here on a cool rainy night, my thought have wandered......
I'm sure it is possible, the biggest problem I foresee is chain tension.
I have my dear old 1988 Cannondale SM500 in pieces, I will attempt a fix on the two cracks in the top of the seat tube sometime in the future, but I was toying with the idea of making this old frame into a single speed or even a fixie (I can hear Tim S cheering already!) Why not, this bike started out life as a MTB, did a lot of that, then a touring bike, a city bike here in Tokyo, I put drops on it and tried to make it a road bike (big fail) and lastly it was a trailer tugging workhorse, heck I think the only duty it has not done is a single speed
As usual I want to do this on the cheap, most any problem can be solved by throwing money at it, but where is the fun in that?
The crank has three rings, a granny gear, a 38T and a 48T, I'm thinking of ditching two of those rings and then just putting a single sprocket on the rear. To do that I will try to use the freewheel hub that is on there with a spacer on either side of the single sprocket locked down by the lock ring that would normally lock down the cassette. Dunno if that would work, but I have a lathe and some delrin plastic (Polyoxymethylene) kicking around that I think I could work on my lathe to make the spacers...?
With 26" rims and 175mm cranks, what kind of gearing should I look at?
About the chain tension, what to do about that? I guess I might get lucky, but....? Half link?
It is just a thought experiment at the moment, but who knows
Comments welcome
I'm sure it is possible, the biggest problem I foresee is chain tension.
I have my dear old 1988 Cannondale SM500 in pieces, I will attempt a fix on the two cracks in the top of the seat tube sometime in the future, but I was toying with the idea of making this old frame into a single speed or even a fixie (I can hear Tim S cheering already!) Why not, this bike started out life as a MTB, did a lot of that, then a touring bike, a city bike here in Tokyo, I put drops on it and tried to make it a road bike (big fail) and lastly it was a trailer tugging workhorse, heck I think the only duty it has not done is a single speed
As usual I want to do this on the cheap, most any problem can be solved by throwing money at it, but where is the fun in that?
The crank has three rings, a granny gear, a 38T and a 48T, I'm thinking of ditching two of those rings and then just putting a single sprocket on the rear. To do that I will try to use the freewheel hub that is on there with a spacer on either side of the single sprocket locked down by the lock ring that would normally lock down the cassette. Dunno if that would work, but I have a lathe and some delrin plastic (Polyoxymethylene) kicking around that I think I could work on my lathe to make the spacers...?
With 26" rims and 175mm cranks, what kind of gearing should I look at?
About the chain tension, what to do about that? I guess I might get lucky, but....? Half link?
It is just a thought experiment at the moment, but who knows
Comments welcome