converting to single speed........please help

Rudd
Rudd Posts: 264
edited February 2010 in Commuting chat
hello all, I'm considering converting a 1980's steel merlin frame to single speed for my daily commute. I know that in an ideal world a horizontal drop out is ideal but looking at mine they seem to be half way between horizontal and vertical - I think they are campag dropouts. They look like this........

www.flickr.com/photos/89119745@N00/4035332913/


(i just borrowed the picture)

Can I convert these to fixed????

Many thanks......

Comments

  • whyamihere
    whyamihere Posts: 7,714
    Yep.
  • Oddjob62
    Oddjob62 Posts: 1,056
    Nice looking frame. Should make a nice SS
    As yet unnamed (Dolan Seta)
    Joelle (Focus Expert SRAM)
  • unscarred
    unscarred Posts: 208
    Once again, Sheldon is your friend:

    http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html#vertical

    Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem at all. Good luck with your build, let us know how it goes and post some photos! I'm working on something similar myself, so I'll be interested to hear about it.
    FCN 6 in the week on the shiny new single speed.

    FCN 3 at the weekend - struggling to do it justice!
  • Mickey Eye
    Mickey Eye Posts: 590
    Well I've beaten with the Sheldon link but I will give some advice. If you end up using a chain tensioner, like this one for example...
    sts.jpg

    Make sure you get a chain that fits. I decided to get myself a thick gold spank chain. Since I was sticking it on a wreck of a 1990s mtb I thought it would be amusingly ironic. I know, twat right? Of course it was too wide for the tensioner.

    Anyway apart from it not fitting in the tensioner someone stole it. Not the bike, they left that, they stole the chain.
  • Paddy O Dawes
    Paddy O Dawes Posts: 52
    That frame's perfect, as others have said. Don't bother with a tensioner. The dropouts don't have to be horizontal as such, just to have enough fore/aft in them to let you take up slack in the chain by moving your back wheel towards/away from your chainset - which those do. (Only track frame have literally horizontal dropouts - the vast majority of fixies you see out there will be built using frames like yours.)
    "If I had all the money I've spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink."
  • Rudd
    Rudd Posts: 264
    thanks for all the replies - all helpful. It might take a few weeks as the frame is going to be sent away to be refurbed but when its done I'll post some pics. It will then become a regular fixture on the Dulwich to city daily sprint!

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