Wondering if anyone is thinking about converting their Rivendell over to a simple 1x drivetrain configuration (single chainring). I did this last year, and it has made riding a whole lot simpler and fun.
I will detail my experiences, which hopefully will be useful to others thinking about making the change. My original drivetrain configuration was: Hunqapillar (54 cm frame) 113mm Bottom bracket Sugino XD2 crankset (double) 34 and 48 tooth chainrings 8-speed cassette (12-32 tooth) To make the change over to the 1x drivetrain, I figured I would just take off the outer chainring and replace with 5 washers of similar thickness. There was a problem though; the “nut” part of the chainring bolts were too long, so had to get some shorter ones. My LBS sold ones that were designed for single speed cranks from a company named “Problem Solvers”; these ended up working fine, though I ended up having to use the old longer crankset “bolts” with my new shorter “nuts”. I took off the front derailer, and went out on a few rides. Everything was fine, except that when doing fast shifts over to the small cassette cogs, the chain would sometimes fall off the chainring to the outside. So I installed a Paul Components Chain Keeper. This device mounts onto the seat tube where the front derailler would normally be, and it covers both the inside and outside of the chain. This worked only ‘OK’ for me. I believe that it is designed for 9- or 10-speed chain thicknesses, so my 8-speed chain was a tight fit. I had to play with it a lot to get it in the perfect position, and even then, it would slightly rub on the chain, especially when riding hard “out of the saddle” which would create chainring flex. So I had to find a new solution. My new solution was to cover both sides of the chain independently. For the inside, I used an N-Gear Jump Stop. I haven’t ever had any issues with the chain falling off to the inside, but the Jump Stop gives me piece of mind. For the outside, I installed a bashguard. I don’t think that just any bashguard will do, it needs to be as thin and small as possible. Here’s why: I never changed my bottom bracket, so the chainring is not perfectly centered on the cassette cogs. Ideally, I probably should have installed a slightly longer bottom bracket to get better chainline, but in my setup, when “cross-chained” from the 34t chainring to the small 12t cog, the chain has a bit of an angle, and a big bashguard would rub. So I put on a ‘SuperLight’ Bashguard from BBG bashguards, size 36 (just slightly bigger than the chainring). This bashguard is half the thickness of a chainring. I then used washers inside the bashguard, to get it just a bit further away from the chain. This has worked great; no rubbing, and no drops of the chain under any conditions so far. Can you just leave the front derailler in place, instead of messing round with these chain protectors? Probably, but then you would have still have to be ‘trimming’ the derailler using your left hand to prevent rubbing. In my setup, the left hand does nothing except braking now. One other thing I did was take a few links out of the chain, since it never leaves the 34t chainring (it used to have to be long enough to accommodate the 48t chainring). The experience has been fun, I don’t see myself returning to a multi-chainring setup anytime soon. In my smallest gearing (34t chainring & 32t cog), it is doable to climb most hills, and in my top gearing (12t cog), it is fast enough for all the flats and moderate descents. On steep descents, I do find that it will “spin out”, but that usually just tells me that I’m going fast enough for my own safety, no need to go faster by pedaling. I hope that this is helpful to anyone thinking about making the switch to 1x this year. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
