This photo is actually of a two speed bike, but its still pretty awesome, so there you go.
HOW TO GO SINGLE
While there are many fancy new Single Speed specific bikes on the market, a lot of the fun with single speeding is taking your favorite old steed and giving it a new breath of life. There are a few tricks to doing this successfully though, as we will discuss below.
front ring
Next we need to get rid of all those chain rings up front. This is sometimes easier said then done, as the bolts that hold chainrings on are easily stripped. Often you also need a special tool to grip the backside of these bolts, otherwise the whole thing will turn and it won't come loose.
Once you have the old rings off, you need to decide what ring to use. You could just use the old middle ring, but the ramps on the ring that allow it to shift nicely mean that it won't hold your chain on as well as a single specific ring. These days there are also a range of 'thick/thin' rings that help hold the chain on even better.
The size of your ring depends on the gear combination you want to go for... lets tackle that separately later on.
Once you have the old rings off, you need to decide what ring to use. You could just use the old middle ring, but the ramps on the ring that allow it to shift nicely mean that it won't hold your chain on as well as a single specific ring. These days there are also a range of 'thick/thin' rings that help hold the chain on even better.
The size of your ring depends on the gear combination you want to go for... lets tackle that separately later on.
WANT TO FINISH THIS?
If anyone is keen to write more about going single, please email it to [email protected] and we will add it to the page :)