Thinking of converting to singlespeed

warreng

Hi - I'm wanting to convert a spare bike to singlespeed and I've had a quick gander on Wiggle and CRC. I've found the rear conversion kit but can't find much in terms of replacing the front cassette. can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance. Although, damn you , when my knees go

MountainMonster

Could just take the inner and outer chainrings off, think they need an 8mm ball head tool to get them off, so a standard bike tool. Maybe throw a bash ring on the outer, and your good to go.

warreng

Ah! I see. Thanks

Cheaper too

nicklouse

covered in the FAQs

viewtopic.php?f=40043&t=12534960

not all cranksets have removable or replacable rings though.

warreng

Thank you Nick - apologies

Bike-Rich

I've herd a lot of talk about singlespeed - what is the actual advantage?
I've seen some nice youtube vids where the riders had the ability to pedal backwards in reverse so I suppose it is good for tricks - is that the main purpose?

Chunkers1980

It's 'cool'

Backwards is a fixed free wheel that are quite scary.

It's lighter than geared.

It's low maintenance, and simple.

bails87

Well it's not a fixed free wheel, it's either fixed or free

But yeah, bike-rich you're talking about fixed gear bikes, not single speed.

nicklouse

WarrenG wrote:

Thank you Nick - apologies

not needed.

you aintthe first and you will not be the last.

warreng

Bike-Rich wrote:

I've herd a lot of talk about singlespeed - what is the actual advantage?
I've seen some nice youtube vids where the riders had the ability to pedal backwards in reverse so I suppose it is good for tricks - is that the main purpose?

No advantage that I can see in terms of performance. I've got 3 bikes - one FS and two HTs. One of which is sitting in the shed doing nothing. Rather than sell it I can use it for those occasions where you've got a spare hour for a quick hack and increase the amount of work I'm doing in that time.

warreng

Just done it. Easy enough and fairly logical. The only tricky bit for me was that I needed washers on the chainring bolts to stop them being loose once I'd taken off the outer chainring. Let's see if I can get up Leith Hill now

Northwind

Bike-Rich wrote:

I've herd a lot of talk about singlespeed - what is the actual advantage?

Less stuff to break- quite good for the mechanically hopeless. Saves a bit of weight too. And can add a bit of variety and challenge to your riding.

Other'n that it's just a way of crippling your bike. People say it has fitness benefits or makes you a better rider, but that's not true- all you have to do to get the exact same benefit on a geared bike is not change gear. But on a singlespeed you can't select a higher gear to make a section harder work, and if you can't ride up a section in your one gear you end up walking which is less good for fitness than changing down and riding up. So, it's actually worse for fitness.

Discuss

cooldad

Depends if you have SPD's/flats, wear a helmet/body armour or ride a 29er with Fox/Rockshox.
So many variables.

choldy

I commute to work on a fixie, its a good workout in that there's no coasting and to be honest, I mostly just like the simplicity of jumping on board and peddaling like buggery all the time:O)