Converting 3x9 to 1x9

Danieljephcott

Hi all,

I’m trying to get my wife into mountain biking, well mainly so when we do little trips to wales or alike she might actually want to come with me meaning I get to play on the bike .

I have pretty much a brand new voodoo hoodoo which ive changes a few items on when I first got it. Quickly changed to a nice full sus so it’s just sat in the garage. Luckily my wife is 6ft so the bike fits her perfectly.

Currently ive added a reverb and changed the front tyre to a high roller II with the rear being an ardent. Both are running tubeless. I’ve just ordered her an sdg allure seat which is meant to be a great comfy seat which will be far better than the crap on her old Carrera hybrid which is going rusty in the shed.

One of the main things that puts her off with cycling is changing gears, no idea why but the 3x9 setup just confuses her. Shes had a quick go on my bike which is a 1x11 and she loves how easy it is. So that brings me on to my question, would a 1x9 setup be easy to do?

The bike comes with shimano atlus which is a 3x9 setup. The front crank being a suntour xcm. Rear cassette being a 11-34t.

I suppose my question is how easy would it be to swap out the front to a 1x setup. Is the xcm riveted on or can I buy a 1x ring and swap it over. If so I would imagine a 32t ring would be ideal.

So then the process I believe is take off the shifter, mech and all cabling. Replace the 3 rings with the single ring and maybe add a chainguide. Shorten the chain and that’s it.

Hopefully it’s as easy as that.

Thanks

dan

JGTR

Why not just tell her not to touch the left hand shifter, or better still just remove the shifter and set limits do it stays in middle ring??

Danieljephcott

JGTR wrote:

Why not just tell her not to touch the left hand shifter, or better still just remove the shifter and set limits do it stays in middle ring??

that's my plan b but would be good set this up properly.

cooldad

Danieljephcott wrote:

Is the xcm riveted on or can I buy a 1x ring and swap it over. If so I would imagine a 32t ring would be ideal.

I would just remove the rings and leave the mech as a guide.

You can tell if the rings are riveted or not by looking at them.

Mine has a similar problem. I just ride alongside and say left thumb or whatever. She doesn't like being scared, so gentle trails and fireroads are easy enough.

Never force them to ride - rather leave them at home to have clean clothes, a hot shower, and a snack ready.

Danieljephcott

cooldad wrote:

Danieljephcott wrote:

Is the xcm riveted on or can I buy a 1x ring and swap it over. If so I would imagine a 32t ring would be ideal.

I would just remove the rings and leave the mech as a guide.

You can tell if the rings are riveted or not by looking at them.

Mine has a similar problem. I just ride alongside and say left thumb or whatever. She doesn't like being scared, so gentle trails and fireroads are easy enough.

Never force them to ride - rather leave them at home to have clean clothes, a hot shower, and a snack ready.

haha that's brill. shes also scared but ive never taken her to a trail centre just a few routes around my area. I'm pretty sure its riveted on which then becomes a pain grrr. thinking its going to be a bit of a faff, I was just thinking it would be a cheap little setup but obviously not.

Maybe I could do some ebaying and see if I can find a 1x setup that might work.

The Rookie

I have some spare cranks I can have a dig through and see what is what.

1x9 works well but as noted, initially just leave it on the middle at the front and tell her not to use it, or remove the shifter and set the front mech using the low screw.

Sunrace do wider range 9 speed cassettes now for 1x9 applications if you decide to push it that way and narrow wide chainrings are fairly cheap these days.

Danieljephcott

The Rookie wrote:

I have some spare cranks I can have a dig through and see what is what.

1x9 works well but as noted, initially just leave it on the middle at the front and tell her not to use it, or remove the shifter and set the front mech using the low screw.

Sunrace do wider range 9 speed cassettes now for 1x9 applications if you decide to push it that way and narrow wide chainrings are fairly cheap these days.

That would be great, see what you have about. I thought initially it was a case of getting hold of a narrow wide and removing the items not needed. I suppose if the bike was higher end it would have been easier as chances are the crank would have been bolted rather than riveted.

For now she can just use the middle cog but if I can get a cheap enough setup then that be great to swap.