Best of the Off Road Conversion Kits

After riding the fixed on the road for nearly a year think its time to try and give the MTB a little bit of attention again.

I know the most sensible thing to do would be build up a new rear wheel, but I'd rather spend money on the fixed so have been looking at the convertor kits like the On-One and DMR.

Are any of them discernably better than others?

It's for 6 or 7 year old lx 9 speed hub if that makes any real difference

ta

I have no first hand experience, when I went SS i was building a new bike with a flipFlop hub, but...

The surly one seems best to me http://www.surlybikes.com/new/spacerkit_pop.html as it comes with most varying size spacers to get your chain line right.

The dmr seems to follow this idea to some extent too http://www.simplythebike.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=192

The on one and others have the two spacers only of slightly different sizes giving only 2 chain line options. Perhaps that is enough and the surly is overkill.

I prefered using a gusset wide based cog, and some old cassette spacers, it gives a better chainline.

and I guess the freehub is steel on the shimano, so you shouldn't get a problem with the cog biting in too much, so you don't have to have a wide arsed cog..

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/productresults.php?dept=500&group=J

The Gusset spacer kit has pretty crappy cogs included.
Also as the spacers are only two parts you can't tweak the chainline at all.

Surly's tensioner works well if tight enough but then so did my AceraX derailler bodge.

The Gusset spacer kit has pretty crappy cogs included.
Also as the spacers are only two parts you can't tweak the chainline at all.

Surly's tensioner works well if tight enough but then so did my AceraX derailler bodge.

PVC tubing (I forget the correct diameter) fits over a Shimano freehub perfectly and gives you as much custom length spacer as you need.

Yeah but I'm a citywanker and needed it QUICK!
I was gonna just ask around shops for dead cassettes like I did in Oz but time is money. :)

Yeah but I'm a citywanker and needed it QUICK!
I was gonna just ask around shops for dead cassettes like I did in Oz but time is money. :)

I have fucking hundreds, I have fucking hundreds of everything.

The London fixie site (or also on ebay) has a spacer kit just like the surly one but that costs £10 instead of £25. Add a wide based cog from on-one (only a good idea if you want some other stuff from them as the postage costs are high) and you'll have a good kit. Not sure about tensioners except from my experience of the surly one. It had great reviews but I found it wasn't very reliable. Worked ok fo a while but then the hole where the spring locates stripped out. I might have been running the tension on the spring too high though.

I have fucking hundreds, I have fucking hundreds of everything.

Yeah, I've seen your photos.. I want your house.

are any of the on-one tensioners are any good? as it doesn't seem one manufacturer have all the bits collectively sorted I might go with momentum's suggestions

As hippy says, an old derailler will make a good tensioner, esp' if you're trying to do it on the cheap. That's what i'm gonna do when I rebuild my old bike as a beater.

The thing is the mech itself isn't exactly full of life itself. would something like this do? looks a little more substancial

this isnt a bad tensioner

The Gusset spacer kit has pretty crappy cogs included.
Also as the spacers are only two parts you can't tweak the chainline at all.

Surly's tensioner works well if tight enough but then so did my AceraX derailler bodge.

I have one of them generic single speed kits, they are sold under many brands - mines a 24seven. But they are all the same, simple and pretty good for the intended purpose, for mtb dirtjumpers/street riders to singlespeed there bikes. You dont do much pedalling in that kinda riding, and usually have a strong disc brake to rely on.

The cog that comes with those kits is very thin, some people manage to get them to cut in to the freehub splines just from normal coasting riding.

If you made your bike fixed it would put an enourmous amount of continual force on the splines for pedal braking etc. It just wouldnt cut it, youd kill your splines very very quickly.

it's not to go fixed... Gone for the doofer with londonfixie spacers and a dx cog combined with a new salsa cog,

Shall let you know how i get on