Hack My SS Hack

SlowingDown

I'm pretty lazy so I'm after advice on a plate...here goes.

I've given up on the cr@ppy old SS/fixie I rescued from a bunch of abandoned bikes at work and I've failed to give away my old Cannondale R600 frame/forks/bits...BUT...I still need a rubbish old hack bike that I wouldn't be too worried about losing if it was nicked as I have to make lots of trips to a hospital where I wouldn't lock up one of my other bikes.

Latest plan is to take the Cannondale and various bits I have to put together a cheap as possible singlespeed conversion. I have the frame, fork, headset, bars, chainset, front/rear dérailleurs, brakes, front wheel and possibly a usable rear wheel.

I know tensioners get a lot of flack on here but the cheapest route to getting this disposable hack roadworthy would appear to be to get a tensioner, cog and spacers and go that route (I have no shifters sitting around).

So questions:
What else do I need?
Can I get away with one of the existing chain-rings or do I need to replace that?
I probably have a road bike chain, can I use it?
Are the 15 quid tensioners ok or should I bite the bullet and go for one of the pricier ones?

I'm also tempted to strip the paint of most of the frame to add to its undesirability. Can I get away with paint stripper on an aluminium frame or should I just scrape it off?

mz__jo

I wouldn't take a chance on using paintstripper on an aluminium frame, even if the paintstripper comes for free. You only have to create one weakness and that's it. If you don't want to tag it or rough brush paint it, try electrical insulation tape; this has the added advantage of being ultra-protective and completely undesirable, with a fine choice of colours to boot.
I have no experience of tensioners but apparently the ones to go for block solid with a screw and nut, not the ones with a spring to tension the chain. Nothing too complicated so most should be reliable if the construction is correct and the user is sensible.
You can use a single speed conversion on a cassette hub, I have one from Velosolo (used to be London Fixie) which is quite nice. But if you want to avoid expense you can use your old derailleur chain (if it goes with the original cassette, e.g. 9sp chain with 9sp cassette) simply wrapped round the relevant sprocket and shorthened to fit. Modern easy changing sprockets are not ideal for ss, your chainline needs to be spot on to avoid problems with the chain jumping but it will work.
Your chainset should not pose any problems. I use a double road set reduced to the 42 ring without any trouble. Use washers and the inside position to get the chainline right. You may need to hunt out some short chainring bolts if you don't have any available from your junk ss.
Don't forget, single freewheels only with a tensioner, no fixies.

You could make a tensioner out of a rear derailleur, if you wanted. The only restriction is if the top limit screw won't go far enough to reach the cog that you want to use. Shorten the chain to keep things tight. Not as efficient as a real springless tensioner but a whole lot cheaper. I note that you mark a derailleur in the available bits.

Cheers Jo