converting to single speed

trek301 said:

don't know if this is possible but can i get some feedback. i have an old Shogun road bike and wanted to convert it to a single speed. it is a triple chainring and i read that i could take the outer and inner rings off and use the middle ring. also for the rear wheel has anyone just used the factory cassette? meaning something like grinding down all the other cogs except for the one that will work with the chainline? looking to do this as a little project with my son and wanted to try to do it with minimal expenses.

You could do what you are suggesting, but ...

To remove the granny, you'll need to remove the right crank arm.

Before doing all the fiddling, why not just remove the derailleurs/shifters AND wrap the chain around the middle chainring + whatever cog lines up & shorten the chain accordingly. That way you will know if having only a single gear works for the terrain your son will encounter.

Heck, I would consider just shifting the chain onto the middle ring & selecting the cog in the back and tell your son to go for a ride-or-two without shifting ...

After a ride-or-two, if the chosen cog on the rear is too hard, then you will know you should get a BMX freewheel with a larger tooth count. If it is too easy, then you can either go with that tooth count, or one that is smaller (16t is the smallest cog available on a "normal" BMX freewheel).

To grind the teeth off the extra cogs on the freewheel is a lot of work ... and, BMX freewheels are not that expensive ... I don't know how good/bad the really cheap ones are ... for some reason, BMXers disdain the Shimano BMX freewheel ... ACS Claw freewheels have a fairly good reputation. After that, the price quadruples for a White BMX freewheel!

If you eventually use a BMX freewheel, you'll probably want to redish the wheel to better align the cog ...

When you remove the outer chainring, you'll need to get shorter chainring bolts OR a set of spacers ... but, essentially, that is what many people do -- however, since the bike has a triple, the middle chainring is probably close to where the outer ring would be on a double, so a new BB and/or crankset may be something to anticipate in the future ...

BTW. If it is a matter of not having the freewheel removal tool OR if the freewheel is essentially frozen on the hub, then you CAN grind off smallest cog(s) & the rest of the cogs will slide off ... after that, I have ground FLATS onto the freewheel body so that I could use a LARGE pipe wrench to remove the STILL WARM freewheel from the hub. A lot of SMALL ball bearings will fall out at some point, so you may want to work over a large box (presuming a hand grinder is being used).

trek301 said:

don't know if this is possible but can i get some feedback. i have an old Shogun road bike and wanted to convert it to a single speed. it is a triple chainring and i read that i could take the outer and inner rings off and use the middle ring. also for the rear wheel has anyone just used the factory cassette? meaning something like grinding down all the other cogs except for the one that will work with the chainline? looking to do this as a little project with my son and wanted to try to do it with minimal expenses.

I'm converting a Shogun right now, 1982 or 1983, PM me.