How to set up my wheelset as a singlespeed...

[lee]

so i'm finishing up the paint job on my old Bridgestone frame and ready to build the sucker into a rigid singlespeed...what do i need to do to get the cog set up in the rear....its an old school lx wheelset that i'm using for now (93 era lx with ritchey vantage rims) might use my xt/rhinolights in the future, but for now i want to use the oldschool wheels for bombing around...here's a photo of the beauties in the 7 spd format...much cleaner now, need to true though...any info would be great...trying to do this cheap

[CouchingTiger]

Pretty simple. Just throw the wheel on the frame after the BB/crank/ring has been installed. Sight fron the freehub body to the front chainring and note about where on the body a straight line back from the chainring would land.

Then using a bunch of freehub spacers, space the cog out to that point. You then put enough spacers on the freehub to finish it out so you can get the smallest ring and lock ring onto the freehub. That should leave you with a straight chainline between the ring and cog once the chain is installed. If you need to space the rear cog one way or another to fix the chainline, just swap the cog to one side of a spacer or the other.

For spacers you can either buy alloy ones or tear a bunch of old cassettes apart and use the plastic shims that are bolted in between the cogs (on old LX level steel cassettes).

-Couch

[snembalen]

I have a question along the same line.

I picked up elcheapo singlespeed just for fun, but it doesn't have a chain tensioner.
The bike does have vertical dropouts and a regular type skewer.
Is this setup going to be a problem?

The bike seems to ride fine, but I have read that you need a tensioner on this type of setup. Chain stretch?

Do I need to invest in a tensioner?
Will an old derailleur work?

[CouchingTiger]

Unless the chain is as stretched as it possibly can be and the rings don't wear any more, it will become an issue. Ask PK about how fast a chain stretches.

An old derailleur will work if there is enough throw in the adjustment screws (max/min) to get the derailleur to set where it needs to be in order to be aligned with the cog.

If the derailleur limit screws are too short, you can always buy longer ones and use them. A Surly Singulator also works well.

-Couch