1 x 9 On Road Bike?

[simon.r]

After years of riding single-speed or hub gears I'm struggling to get the hang of smooth, efficient shifting on my new-ish road bike, equipped with a 34/52 chain-set and a 9 speed, 12-27 cassette.

Doing the maths I reckon a 44t chain-ring would give me a broad enough range of gears for what I need. If not, fitting a 11-32 cassette certainly would.

Anyone running something similar? Any problems with the chain coming off, or premature wear? Do you use any sort of chain retention system on the front?

 

[MacB]

I've done it a couple of times and had no problems and I use whatever is lying around. I currently have one 1x8 setup on the go and it gets bits handed down from other bikes. It's just the very low mileage(your cue 3BM or TC) bike for local shops, hop on whenever and is shared between myself and my eldest two sons.

All of my efforts have included either leaving an outer ring in place or putting a bashguard on instead and I also think a Dogfang is worth it on the inside if there's no granny ring. My ideal is a triple chainset with bash outer, ring of choice middle and then leaving a granny ring in place. You don't need a front derailleur to be able to switch rings.

 

[fossyant]

You will be fine running it.

 

[tyred]

I like this setup. Works very well in practice if you choose the correct chainring size and you appear to have already put some thought into it.

 

[bornagainst]

My bits and pieces bike runs 42x(12-25). Does what it needs to do and no problems.

 

[screenman]

What problems are you getting, I run doubles, triples and singles without any problems at all.

 

[tyred]

With a single chainwheel on a derailleur bike, you may have an issue with the chain dropping off the chainwheel from time to time. You can use an old front mech as a guide, just set the limit screws so it's in the right place and no need for a cable, but in my experience, it's usually because the chainwheel is slightly warped.