Saturday, November 04, 2006

I've Been Riding With The Ghost






Finally finished the single speed conversion on my Stumpumper the other night, and I must say I am quite pleased with the results. My goal was to do the conversion for less than $130, and the parts came in around $135.00. I am no bike tech but it was fairly straightforward, big thanks to Sheldon Brown and the good folks at Surly for all their help. I removed the old 8 speed cassette and replaced it with an 18 tooth Surly cog, the spacers are from Gussett and the tensioner is a Surly Singulator. The hardest part of the whole conversion was spacing the rear cog to get a decent chainline, and finding a 38 tooth/94 bcd chainring that fit my old Deore LX cranks. I was going to buy new brake levers, since the originals were the shifter/brake lever combos, but since I was trying to do this on the cheap I decided to just cut the shifters off, it turned out pretty slick. I grinded them down and you can't even tell.

Surly 18t cog- $20.00
Race Face 38t chainring- $40.00
Surly Singulator chain tensioner- $30.00
Chain- $25.00
Seat- $20.00
New chainring bolts- free from local bike shop


Listening to: Songs:Ohia- The Magnolia Electric Co.

7 comments:

ÜberDad said...

Great blog man! Also a great job on the SS conversion. Keep the rubber side down on the way to work!

Rambling Canuck said...

Sweetness! Congrats.

Can you still coast or is it truly fixed with the cranks always going around? Also, is that chain any different than stock offerings? It looks really hefty in the pic.

JMH said...

No, it's not a fixed gear, I still like to coast from time to time. I've ridden a fixed gear before, fun, but not for me. The chain is made for a bmx bike, a little stronger maybe.

For some crazy fixed gear riding, you should check out the following, insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCv2HzeIUVk

Matt said...

I like it! I've never run a BMX chain - only 8speed. No issues. Did you try putting in a half-link on the chain?

FWIW, I picked up the Nashbar kit a while ago - after using the Surly/Gussett combo before. I like the Nashbar setup over the Gussett Spacers and they are cheaper.

Anonymous said...

um, i hate to ask, but is the singulator on correctly? i just remember having one a long time ago, and the chain went behind the singulator and kicked the chain back, now i don't know if surly has a different design, but i don't want anything to go wrong...

other than that enjoy the single speed. their a great style bike. i've been riding them for years, and they've brought me nothing but joy, and pain in the same ride...

JMH said...

Hamad-

Surley designed the singulator to either push-up (as I have it) or pull-down on the chain. The push-up position gives you a little more chain wrap on the cog. Either way works. Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

cool...i was just too lazy to head on over to their site and check it out. have fun...