Single chain ring at front

Does anyone have any experience of running a single chainring with gears at the rear on a road bike?

Due to some knee problems thinking of changing my commuter single speed to 9 speed at the back . Don't really need 2 chainrings so was thinking of keeping just the 42t . Currently using a 9 speed chain with an old Nuovo Record chainring so it doesn't have ramps etc. Will this be enough to stop the chain dropping or am I likely to run into issues ?

Cheers

I'm in the middle of converting a friend's TT bike to 1x10.

Over on TTF there's a lot of chat about chain keepers, N/W chainrings etc.

When I asked on here (was thinking of using a clutched RD), the consensus was that it's only a problem if you have a wide ranged cassette, as this is what allows chain slap.

I hope to have it built up by the weekend: I'll keep you posted...

Been running my cross bike 1x11 with a narrow wide chainring - only dropped the chain when I inserted a considerable amount of mud into the drivetrain...

No clutched mech (just a 105 5800 medium cage one) and using a 11-32 cassette (so pretty wide...)

Cheers Scilly will be good to hear your results

Thanks Dan, I wouldn't be using such as wide range as that. Any idea if narrow wide rings are available in 135bcd? Might be easier to just to stick with a double if I end up having to buy new cranks as well.

I'm in the middle of this (3x9 → 1X9, Shimano Sora road groupset) and I've decided to use the middle ring of a triple, with said ring shifted to the other side of the spider for reasons that escape me now.

I'm basing it mainly on this: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-how-to-convert-your-mountain-bike-to-1x9-or-2x9-gearing-29342/

Won't bother with any chain retention stuff unless it starts dropping