Hi guys, I was wondering if you could give me some help and tips on a project!
I found an old mountain bike in my parents garage that I want to convert to a single-speed road bike. I would buy one, but I'm 6'5 and frames for me are hard to find, and I also really enjoy doing the work! This frame size is perfect.
The challenge with this frame is that is it has vertical slots for the hub/wheels which would make it hard to get the chain tension right. I think making it a fixie is not possible because of this, so single-speed it'll have to be. Here's my plan and please feel free to poke holes in it and tell me where I might encounter problems:
I took everything off the bike besides the brakes. The the rear wheel is a freewheel hub, so I'm planning to get a new wheel that's the same size but has a cassette hub. It's 26 x 1.5 in size.
So assuming I want to use the same crank and cogs with the pedals, I'm planning to get a small gear for the back and get the chain line straight by stacking some spacers on the hub. Then I'll need a chain tensioner where the derailleur used to be and a 3/32 chain to close it all together.
So here are my questions:
Does this sound doable? Is there something I'm blatantly overlooking?
Are there road tires that will go well with that wheel size or will they all be large mountain-bike size?
I saw the small rear cogs for the cassette hub and the tensioner at a local bike store, but I don't know the official names to look online. What are those called?
Thanks for any help and excuse my lack of knowledge or terminology, I did lots of research but I'm sure I sound a bit stupid at some points! I can upload some pics to this post when I get home later.
I found an old mountain bike in my parents garage that I want to convert to a single-speed road bike. I would buy one, but I'm 6'5 and frames for me are hard to find, and I also really enjoy doing the work! This frame size is perfect.
The challenge with this frame is that is it has vertical slots for the hub/wheels which would make it hard to get the chain tension right. I think making it a fixie is not possible because of this, so single-speed it'll have to be. Here's my plan and please feel free to poke holes in it and tell me where I might encounter problems:
I took everything off the bike besides the brakes. The the rear wheel is a freewheel hub, so I'm planning to get a new wheel that's the same size but has a cassette hub. It's 26 x 1.5 in size.
So assuming I want to use the same crank and cogs with the pedals, I'm planning to get a small gear for the back and get the chain line straight by stacking some spacers on the hub. Then I'll need a chain tensioner where the derailleur used to be and a 3/32 chain to close it all together.
So here are my questions:
Does this sound doable? Is there something I'm blatantly overlooking?
Are there road tires that will go well with that wheel size or will they all be large mountain-bike size?
I saw the small rear cogs for the cassette hub and the tensioner at a local bike store, but I don't know the official names to look online. What are those called?
Thanks for any help and excuse my lack of knowledge or terminology, I did lots of research but I'm sure I sound a bit stupid at some points! I can upload some pics to this post when I get home later.