# How Much To Convert To SS?



## gb155 (19 Nov 2010)

Im buying a peugeot Elan GT, Just wondered how much its gonna cost me, to convert to SS and what I will need ....TOTA N00b here


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## Rob3rt (19 Nov 2010)

Goes the Peugeot have horizontal dropouts?

If it doesnt, its not a total deal breaker, but it can mean more parts or extra messing about in some cases (to tension the chain).



You could try looking for parts on London Fixed Gear forum in the manchester sub-forum as a lot of polo guys use it and will be pretty adept at strapping together a bike on a budget (in the northwest marketplace thread) or talking to the guys in bicycle boutique behind sand bar as they may be able to help you out.


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## fossyant (19 Nov 2010)

Not another bike......................... ?

As a minimum, it's likely you'll need a new rear wheel (or rebuild into a SS hub) if the existing isn't a freehub (which I doubt).

All starts getting a little messy with chain lines etc, but I'd remove the 52/53 big ring and run it on the smaller one - you'll hopefully be able to fit on either the outside or inside of the spider to improve chain line - although if single speed you could get away with running on a 3/32 standard chain with a few prayers. 1/8th chains don't flex much.


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## mark barker (19 Nov 2010)

Remove gear cables and you're sorted.


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## ColinJ (19 Nov 2010)

I wonder if it was this one off eBay, given that it is your size? 








That should make a very nice SS.

I converted an old steel-framed Basso into my SS. All I had to do was to take bits off and then I got hold of a load of spacers and took all but one sprocket off. A bit of trial and error gave me a perfect chainline. I used a 39 chainring with a 15 sprocket. Here's a picture of the end product. 






And here's how I fixed the sprocket in place...






I did a test ride with the bike set up like that and the chain came off the sprocket twice in about 3 miles. I concluded that this was because cassette sprockets are designed for it to be easy for the chain to move up and down the cassette. Not so handy when there aren't any other sprockets... 

So, I used a bit of lateral thinking and put bigger sprockets from the old cassette either side of the one I wanted to use (after the second photo was taken). They act as guards to stop the chain coming off. The bodge works perfectly. I've ridden hundreds of miles on the bike since then and the chain has never come off again.

Even though my SS has a steel frame/forks, it was surprisingly light once the redundant bits were taken off. I haven't weighed it but I'd guess it is about 19-20 pounds.

I can feel how much more efficient the perfect chainline and lack of jockey wheels makes the bike - it is really easy to spin those pedals round. The gear I chose is perfect for me at about 20 mph (cadence of 100 rpm). I start to spin out above 24 mph (120 rpm). It's okay on shortish hills up to 7% or so, but I don't like long ones or steep ones in that gear.


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## HLaB (19 Nov 2010)

How good are chain tensioners? I was thinking about converting my old sirrus to a SS, it got vertical drop outs however, using a hub converter. Cost wise that doesn't seem too bad new cranks (single chainring) and new brake levers would eventually be needed but that wouldn't have to be straight away I think.


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## ColinJ (19 Nov 2010)

HLaB said:


> Cost wise that doesn't seem too bad new cranks (single chainring) and new brake levers would eventually be needed but that wouldn't have to be straight away I think.


Why can't you use the old cranks and brake levers? I just moved the small chainring to the outside on my chainset. I suppose if you had sti/ergo levers then you'd be carrying unnecessary weight if you didn't replace them with simple brake levers. You can pick up stuff like that really cheap if you shop around. 

I managed to make my SS bike for just £25 (seat post and cables).  I cadged the frame/forks/wheels off an emigrating mate because he couldn't bear to sell them! In theory he can ask for them back one day, but I don't see it happening. The rest of the bits came from our spare parts junk boxes.


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## fixedfixer (20 Nov 2010)

According to another thread the bike should have horizontal drop outs and is approx 1984 vintage. If it has original wheels then likely to be a threaded freewheel hub. If it has been up dated and got a cassette hub then you just need something like a DMR single speed converter (£15.99 from CRC) and shorten the chain. Then you could go for a single drank set but why not just take off the rings you don't need and use the existing as a single? Buy appropriate single sprocket to get the gearing you want.


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## Zoiders (20 Nov 2010)

If it has a screw on block and not a cassette then it will propably be the cheaper option to respace the axle, redish the wheel then add a SS freewheel sprocket or a fixed sprocket. Horizontals mean you don't need or want a tensioner device, the frame (as I suspect) may not even have a brazed on hanger to take one in the first place.

It's a straight fixed/SS conversion, you won't need many parts but you may have to swap out the BB to get a correct chain line, this depends on how the inner ring runs with converted rear hub.


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## montage (21 Nov 2010)

If you go for the new wheels route give me a pm....I got some brilliant ones from a guy on lfgss who I can point you to for £90ish


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## HLaB (21 Nov 2010)

ColinJ said:


> Why can't you use the old cranks and brake levers? I just moved the small chainring to the outside on my chainset. I suppose if you had sti/ergo levers then you'd be carrying unnecessary weight if you didn't replace them with simple brake levers. You can pick up stuff like that really cheap if you shop around.
> 
> I managed to make my SS bike for just £25 (seat post and cables). I cadged the frame/forks/wheels off an emigrating mate because he couldn't bear to sell them! In theory he can ask for them back one day, but I don't see it happening. The rest of the bits came from our spare parts junk boxes.




Cool, probably just me being a perfectionist (although I've never completed the process, just thought about it); I'm not sure that the tripple on the sirrus would work well as a single. Oh and the brake levers, I don't think there's a problem there either just I'd want to upgrade them, my current stis aren't that great with the v brakes on the bike. You're actual proof as I thought it doesn't cost too much (the SS conversion process). Did you use a chain tensioner or did your bike have horizontal drop outs, if so how do you find it?


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## ColinJ (21 Nov 2010)

HLaB said:


> Did you use a chain tensioner or did your bike have horizontal drop outs, if so how do you find it?


I refer you to the photographs in my post above! 

3 of the 4 road bikes I've had in the past 20 years have had semi-horizontal dropouts and that is one of them. No chain tensioner required, just getting the number of links in the chain right. 

If you look very carefully at the picture showing a close-up of one of the dropouts, you'll see that it has a screw adjuster to allow the position of the axle to be fine-tuned. I had to pull the wheel back another mm or so once the chain started to get run-in. The actual wear rate on the SS's chain seems to be very low because of the perfect chainline and because I've kept it very clean.


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## HLaB (21 Nov 2010)

ColinJ said:


> I refer you to the photographs in my post above!




Sorry I didn't realise it was the same one, but a very nice job anyway


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## Ash28 (21 Nov 2010)

This one cost me £25 for the original bike. Binned the wheels and used some I had lying about. £15 for a sprocket and spacer kit. The chainset was a triple from my parts bin, I removed all the rings and bought a Surly stainless steel one for £30, expensive but hopefully it will love me long time. I bought a budget bb for about £7. Mudguards etc I would have to have bought for a geared bike any way. It gets me to work every day and has definitely paid for itself. SS does cost a bit to set up but then the maintainance costs are pretty low. I might treat the frame it to a powder coat in the spring after removing the gear cable guides and hanger.

You could try using one of the freewheel sprockets and the existing chain wheel like I did at first (see pic). This gave me an idea what the bike would ride like before I spent any money.


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## dellzeqq (21 Nov 2010)

seventy quid. Buy a Decathlon Vitamin, strip off all the parts you want, give me the frame!


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## Flying_Monkey (22 Nov 2010)

Chain tensioners work fine if you install them properly. My winter bike is a converted job, and I have never had any problem even in the worst conditions. I used a mixture of spacers and old cogs on the back, and there's no reason other than aesthetic that I can see that you need to use only spacers (mind you, my winter bike's looks are straight out of the forgotten cupboards of workshops and the piles of anonymous stuff in junkyards: I call it 'The Beast').


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