Newbie Advice on a Single-Speed Conversion

Avery

Just inherited an old Bike (A Triumph King of Clubs). Best guess is that it is from the 60s.

It is a four speed and I would like to get rid of the old gears and convert it to single speed. I'm pretty new to this so was wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction e.g. What parts I need to get etc.

It was a horizontal drop-out which I believe is beneficial for this!

I'll attach a few photos. I was wondering if the existing crank/chain set is usable on a single-speed? I would love to keep as many of the original parts as possible.









Thanks!

rollingscone

Avery wrote: »

Just inherited an old Bike (A Triumph King of Clubs). Best guess is that it is from the 60s.

It is a four speed and I would like to get rid of the old gears and convert it to single speed. I'm pretty new to this so was wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction e.g. What parts I need to get etc.

It was a horizontal drop-out which I believe is beneficial for this!

I'll attach a few photos. I was wondering if the existing crank/chain set is usable on a single-speed? I would love to keep as many of the original parts as possible.









Thanks!

It depends on the hub. If it's a free hub all you should need are spacers and a chain tensioner.

Tonyandthewhale

It's not going to be a free hub if it's from the 1960's. It's going to be the old thread-on freewheel type. Luckily it may be possible to remove the freewheel and replace it with a thread on single-speed freewheel (like you'd use with a cheap BMX). After that all you need is a single-speed chain.

That crankset should work fine with a single-speed set up once the chainline is OK.

Avery

This is the hub on the rear-wheel.

So essentially, I need to replace this with a single speed hub? Will that fit on the old wheel?

Any suggestions on what I need?

Thanks again for the replies!

happytramp

You don't need to change the hub just the cogs (freewheel). What you need to do is get that freewheel off the hub and put back on one that only has one cog. Like this



You need a special tool to take a freewheel off (different depending on the freewheel) Also different hubs have different threads for their freewheels. I think UK and Italian are the same but French are different.

Any bike shop will have the tools you need and shouldn't charge more than a couple of Euro's to switch freewheels for you.