I want to to convert my old fisher hardtail to a ss. Can someone tell me how to and what I need. Matt
Here's a quick rundown to do it the cheap way. 1) Buy a rear cog - take out your old cassette and find some spacers and put your cog in place. You'll need to line this up with your middle chainring. 2) Remove granny and big gear - You may need some shorter chainring bolts. 3) Shorten the chain and find a way to tension it. You can use the existing derraileur or buy something like a Singulator. 4) Remove old shifters and cables. That should pretty much do it.
Good place to start and get a overview…Sheldon Brown http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html The on-line retailers have conversion kits. Search for singlespeed conversion kit. $20 to $120. You may be able to reuse and modify your existing components. Without knowing your components it is hard to give specific advise. I am assuming that the frame has vertical dropouts If you are lucky your can shed your granny and big ring and use the shorter BMX chainring bolts and a middle ring to keep your existing cranks (biggest expense). The rear cog on a cassette hub is can be easy. You can post your frame and size on MTBR singlespeed forum and ask for the magic gear ratio so you don't need a tensioner. I do not like tensioners and I would spend the money and get a White Industries eccentric rear hub, but that entails building a new rear wheel. If you want to ride up most of the hills in So-cal on a 26-inch bike 32 x 20 is a good starting point. Many ride 2 x 1 ratio, I am not one of them. http://www.whiteind.com/ENO_Products/eric_disc.html http://www.speedgoat.com http://www.jensonusa.com/ http://www.pricepoint.com I bet that the Path in Tustin would have what you need.
Nashbar used to sell a spacer kit for a good price. They do have a SS conversion kit, which I bought when I did my conversion, but the cogs are junk and so is the tensioner, so I ended up only using the spacers, which still isn't too bad of a deal. I'm not too into the gusset set, since it doesn't allow for any small adjustments to get perfect chainline. I ended up finding the sweet spot at 32x18 without a tensioner for my conversion. I got a Kick Ass cog from Endless, which is a beauty. They also sell a spacer kit which I'm sure will work fine, and it's reasonably priced. If you need a tensioner, I'd highly recommend NOT getting a spring loaded one. Get one that's adjusted via bolts, so it doesn't bounce around. If I needed a tensioner, I'd buy the dmr sts, which you can get for around $30. Here're some links for the products I was talking about: http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...and=&sku=14063&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename= http://www.endlessbikes.com/products/components/cogs.html http://www.endlessbikes.com/products/components/spacers.html http://www.bikemannetwork.com/biking/p/BTI-DM1553 If you wanna learn all about it, go to the mtbr faq. It's an amazing resource: http://www.mtbr.com/faq/ssfaq.shtml. All that to kill a little time early in the morning. Now it's time to hit El Morro for a quick loop!
