Boardman Pro Singlespeed

dot1

Bought this from a fellow forumite. Its basically a Carrera Fury with a Boardman Pro frame. Swapped the stem, bars and the saddle and converted it to singlespeed. It's purpose is for riding to work (have you seen the price of petrol?!) and some general trails that doesn't require 6" of travel!

Frame: Boardman Pro 18"
Forks: Suntour Epicon
Bars: Ritchey WCS 20mm rise
Stem: Superstar components Zephir 50mm
Headset: Some cartridge thing
Grips: Superstar components Patriot lock-ons
Bar Ends: N/A

Front Brake Lever assy: Avid Juicy 3

Rear Brake Lever assy: Avid Juicy 3

Hoses: Standard but will probably swap with some white Goodridge hoses I've got laying around

Chain Device: DMR tensioner

Seat: Specialized body geometry
Seat Post: Ritchey Pro

Cranks: Truvativ Firex
Chain: KMC singlespeed
Cassette: Gusset singlespeed converter kit
Pedals: Wellgo B54 (knackered)

Front Wheel:
Rim: Mavic XM317
Hub: Shimano
Tire: Conti Speed King

Back Wheel:
Rim: Mavic XM317
Hub: Shimano
Tire: Conti Speed King

Weight: Not a lot!

MountainMonster

Lovely looking bike, how's it ride with SS?

ride_whenever

Nice, but not enough white / 10

dot1

Haven't taken it on a ride yet but will be soon. Feels pretty nice riding round the road. The gearing isn't as hard as I though it would be. It also helps that it weighs next to nothing!
There is plenty of white on it! I shall be getting some white MG-1's on it when I can be arsed to order them. And white hoses will be going on when I can get the balls to shell out the ££££££'s for the Goodridge connector kits.

Torres

I like it looks classy.

WisePranker

Nice looking bike mate

warpcow

dot1 wrote:

I shall be getting some white MG-1's on it when I can be arsed to order them.

I'd hold off on spending money on pedals until you've had a few rides. Riding SS is one of the few places where the benefits of SPDs are really obvious. Looks really nice as it is now though. Makes me miss my old singlespeed.

freeagent

that is pure bike porn....

dot1

haha thanks!

I've tried SPD's on a turbo trainer and wasn't too keen on them. I should give them another try, but don't know if I've got the balls!

Torres

I don't want this to descend in to another clipless debate, but i ride my singlespeed with flats and have no problems what so ever.

jakeeeeeee

spds would help you alot especially on your single speed btw nice bike

Tom BB

Looks nice

Get yourself some rigid forks for the ultimate 'winter bike' experience :P

dot1

I think I'll try it with the flats on at the moment and see how I get on with it, and then decide what to do with my SPD's. I've got some Exotic rigid forks, but they forks have a 15mm axle so they don't fit! I'll have to stick with locking the forks out and/or pumping them up!

TerryBlato

Love the colors! Sweet ride mate!

WisePranker

What gearing are you running on this?

dot1

32 on the front, 16 on the rear. Took it out for a ride last weekend, was great fun. Singlespeeding wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. However the chain tensioner moved when I cranked on the pedals, so the chain came off and I ended up in a big pile of brambles and twigs :oops:
So will have to think of a way of keeping the tensioner more solid.

Bill-87

That's absolutely brilliant.

dot1

Haha! Cheers man! This is getting a bit of an overhaul. Getting a SRAM mech and shifter and converting it to a 1x9. This is because I've lost all confidence in the singlespeed tensioner since it slipped and I ended up head side down in a bramble bush. So sticking some gears on it and hoping to put in some decent mileage on it for some training for the Alps in august! Planned upgrades apart from the gears are a pair of Nobby Nic's, some white Superstar brake hose and some new brake pads in a bid to get some more power as the Juicy 3's are SHOCKING!

paramart

should have pushed the chain upwards with the tensioner works ok on all the bikes that iv,e seen, i tried it down for a while and the chain slipped and came off,

dot1

Yeah thats what happened on mine. I tried it with the tensioner pushing upwards but it wouldn't make the chain tight enough

Got the rear mech through today (cheers Moster!) Got an X9 shifter coming and a 991 chain as well, hopefully by tomorrow and then I can get back out on it! I'll post some more pics when it's all done!

Anonymous

I've just done something similar (see link in sig) and I found doing a single speed conversion is fiddlier than I thought. Seems you have to get the chain line, and the line of the tensioner just right.

Don't give up just yet. Have you tried a spring type tensioner instead? I got mine from Superstar for £10.

dot1

My SS conversion kit came with only 2 spacers one big and one small, and you just swap them around to change the chain line, but it doesn't make much difference. Getting a spring type tensioner is the next step and I'll see if that works, but tbh I wasn't bowled over by singlespeed! Only tried it on a 20k family route at the local trail centre, but I kept spinning out on the down hills, and didnt find it massively hard on the up hills. I was thinking of buying a larger chainring but then it'd mean I'd have to stand on the pedals when climbing and thats what caused the tensioner to slip last time. And I'd rather avoid another balls to toptube collision!

Time.to.ride

quote: Hoses: Standard but will probably swap with some white Goodridge hoses I've got laying around


Sorry to have to inform you mate but you cannot use goodridge hoses on jucey 3s as i found out, next best thing is something like Gore or similar.
Can anyone tell me the fascination with singlespeed ? You have no gears to change to give you extra momentum or just a change of pace?
Your ride is nice however mate, i like tht alot

dot1

Rubbish! I was thinking of buying the Superstar hoses anyway as getting more hose and the connector's is actually cheaper than buying just the connector kits for the goodridge!
I converted to singlespeed as i liked the idea of not having any gears to worry about setting up and maintaining, its much lighter as you dont have any mechs or shifters or a cassette, and I liked that idea of not having to do any cleaning or maintenance on it, just throwing some oil on the chain everynow and then.

Anonymous

When setting mine up I found a difference of one 2.5mm spacer made the difference between the gears slipping and not.

What gears are you using?

I have a 32T front and have tried a 12T and 14T rear. For me I think a 32T front and a 13T rear would be a good all round compromise.

Time.to.ride

like your thinking dot1 and if you dont believe me aboutthe goodridge hoses& Jucey 3s ask nicklouise or supersonic

dot1

RichardSwt wrote:

When setting mine up I found a difference of one 2.5mm spacer made the difference between the gears slipping and not.

What gears are you using?

I have a 32T front and have tried a 12T and 14T rear. For me I think a 32T front and a 13T rear would be a good all round compromise.

I was using a 32T front and 16T rear. It wasn't the actual gears that were slipping, it was the tensioner that slipped causing the chain to come and me to crash and burn!

Anonymous

dot1 wrote:

RichardSwt wrote:

When setting mine up I found a difference of one 2.5mm spacer made the difference between the gears slipping and not.

What gears are you using?

I have a 32T front and have tried a 12T and 14T rear. For me I think a 32T front and a 13T rear would be a good all round compromise.

I was using a 32T front and 16T rear. It wasn't the actual gears that were slipping, it was the tensioner that slipped causing the chain to come and me to crash and burn!

Ah fair enough. If using a proper single speed rear cog it works better, I used a old SRAM cog of a old rear cassette. Hence the teeth were 'ramped' so it was almost designed to chuck the chain off, probably a good tip is to use a dedicated single speed rear cog (as you did).

samsbike

that looks amazing