Help to Convert a Spec Hardrock 2009?

[Giant-Churchy]

Hello all,
I would like to convert my Hard tail spec Hardrock 2009.
I use this bike for a small 3 mile commute to work and have always fancied converting it to single speed. I am trying to find out how to convert it. Where to get the components from and what components do I need. I can imagen you always get these types of questions but I believe I know what I need to do just don't know what to buy and where from.

thanks for your help bike pic below thanks all.

 

[chriswoody]

Personally I'd keep it cheep and cheerful. So I would get a Surly Single speed spacer kit:

Single Speed Kit

There are others, but what I like about the surly kit was they had the most number of spacers which really allowed me to fine tune the rear chainline. I'd then buy a single speed cog and fit that:

Sprocket

Again you could break apart your existing cassette and use a cog from that but I found that I was getting a lot of ghost shifting under load and my chain kept flying off. Though it may be a good idea in the short term because you can then experiment with different size cogs until you find the right ratio to suit you and your riding.

Up front you should be able to keep your existing chainset, just ditch the two unwanted rings, if your existing chainring bolts won't tighten up properly with only one ring then you can buy shorter bolts, though that shouldn't be to much of a problem.

The big problem will be the fact that you have vertical dropouts, so you can't move your wheel backward and forwards to adjust chain tension, so you will need to buy or make a chain tensioner. My bike has horizontal dropouts so I don't have practical experiance of tensioners but this one looks O.K. Hopefully someone else can advise you better.

Chain Tensioner

and possibly a special half link chain might also help you achieve the correct tension if a normal chain won't:
Half Link Chain

After that take off all the gear changers, mechs and cables and enjoy!

There is an excellent article on conversions at the head of this section of the forum and Sheldon Brown as always has some good stuff.

Lastly heres a shot of my drive train to give you an idea:

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Thanks alot for your help. Very helpful if I wanted to have a single speed front cassette what would you recommend there. Thanks

 

[chriswoody]

Thanks alot for your help. Very helpful if I wanted to have a single speed front cassette what would you recommend there. Thanks

By cassette do you actually mean the front chainset?

As I posted earlier I would just keep the existing one and ditch the two chainrings you don't need. The front chainset on my bike is a Shimano Sora double chainset with the inner ring removed. There are plenty of places on the internet that will sell single chainsets, I'm afraid I don't have any practical experience of any so can't really recommend one.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Yes I was referring to chainrings lol. Thanks for your help. I have ordered all the bits required. Ill keep you updated with pic too. Thanks once again

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Good luck, you may find tho that being ss needs you to pull on the bars a lot more. The bobbing of the forks got on my tits so I put a set of rigids on.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Good luck, you may find tho that being ss needs you to pull on the bars a lot more. The bobbing of the forks got on my tits so I put a set of rigids on.

Yea I never thought about that, my folks can be locked out but I would imagen there is still slight movement over a rigids. I wonder what set I would need there then lol

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Half my problem is I don't know much about what parts can fit what bikes.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

That's the fun though...the research and trial n error.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

That's the fun though...the research and trial n error.

sounds good.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

@bromptonfb whats your sig all about.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Audaxing. The ones crossed out I've done, the others are booked for later this year.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Audaxing. The ones crossed out I've done, the others are booked for later this year.

? sorry

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Long distance riding events.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Long distance riding events.

is it logging your millage upto 8000mi