I've long entertained the idea of converting my 27-speed bike to a 1 x 9 and now that I have (successfully) built up another old frame as a single-speed, I think I'm going to go thru with it. The steepest hills I'm likely to ride 99.9% of the time were doable at @ 25 gear inches (26x28). I calculate that just keeping my 36t center ring and switching my 11-28 cassette to an 11-34 or 12-34, I can get down to 28 gear inches.
I like the idea of functional simplicity and although I'm not truly a weight weenie, I prefer a lighter bike over a heavier one. Finally, for God only knows what reason, Shimano put a grey colored large ring on my otherwise all black crankset. FUGLY. I thought about just changing to a black outer ring or even a bashguard but the 1x9 concept has been brewing in my brain for too long and needs to be indulged. And Bill, don't despair.....I'm planning to set up my newly built single-speed with only a front brake! :) On Sunday, June 15, 2014 7:12:45 AM UTC-5, Tony DeFilippo wrote: > > I finally got curious enough to try removing my front shifting and trying > to go just my center 36T front ring w/ my 8 speed rear cassette. After a > full week of commuting and bopping around on my Saluki I'm a fan but there > are some things that will need to happen. Couple observations; > > -My commute is very flat anyway, I've been doing it on and off single > speed on my XO3 anyway so reducing gears wasn't going to be a problem > -Not having to trim the front derailleur as I shift in the rear is the #1 > plus in my books > -As the week went on I made bolder multi cog shifts with my rear shifter > (silver friction shifter) which definitely added some pep and interest to > my ride > -I'm not sure why it didn't happen till Th-Fri but I started dropping the > chain or ghost shifting the front chain off of the 36T... > > I think I liked the benefits enough to pursue fixing the chain slippage... > I'm curious what others may have found as the best products as there are > plenty out there. I'm running a Sugino triple crank right now 24-36-46. I > think I'd like to go either; > > -single ring chain ring ~40T w/ chainkeeper > -keep the triple, put a ~40T in the middle, replace outer ring w/ chain > guard and install a chain guide/stop > -keep the triple as above, jury rig a FD to act as chainkeeper > > I'm sure there must be others... any thoughts? > > Tony > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
