Front mech necessary?
TheGardenGnome
Posts: 170
My front mech caved in (I'm not sure why), I removed it so I could get home otherwise my chain would've been chewed up. I can't use any other means of transport so I'm wondering if the front mech is necessary at all or will removing it have compromised something.
0
Comments
-
Your mileage will vary, i or rather my local bike shop converted my old MTB from 3/9 to 1/9 with advice might need a cage catcher to keep the chain on, which thus far hasn’t been the case, bar if it shifts poorly it can jump off, but rare since I feed it new chains/cables regularly!0
-
Obviously it's necessary if you want to change gear at the front.
In addition on some bikes the chain will jump off the chainwheel without some form of a chainguide (like the front mech), but if its not then it won't be a problem. Even with brand new parts and a single speed chainring (longer teeth and no ramps/pins) my commuter would shed its chain on gear shifts when running 1x9.
If you have unboltable chainrings then it's probably worth buying a narrow wide chainring of the right size/fitting and binning the redundant rings, they cost less than £20.Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.0