London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

Hi,

My first query, so please go easy.
I am building my first singlespeed bike (freewheel, easier on the ancient legs).
I have seen lots of decent new old stock chainsets for sale but they are doubles or triples. Question is: can I buy one and simply use the cranks/spider, replacing the 2 or 3 original chainwheels with a single new one? If so, what are the probs (I am thinking axle length and chainline....)?
Any advice would be welcome.

oldman time to swot up...

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainline.html

I've been looking at the Sheldon Brown articles recently but forgot that the chainline subject was there. Thank you Shinscar. I'd originally thought to buy a new Stronglight chainset and combine that with the Sugino 103mm BB as suggested elsewhere on the forum as it apparently solves the problem without the math! But feel seduced by some NOS Campag chainsets on Ebay and wondered if they'd be an alternative that I might have exploited... Cheers.

whats the frame... someone else might have a similar setup.

You should be able to find NOS Campag Pista chainsets on Ebay easily enough...

Yes, I think that I'm mistakenly trying to re-invent the wheel (er....chainwheel).
I'll simply keep my eyes peeled for a quality track crankset. (Not bothered about the ring as I'm quite keen to splash out on an oval Egg Ring.) Thanks for your time.

There's also our transmission database that may be useful as well

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread3372.html


Should give you an idea of the hubs/bb/crank combinations that play nicely together

PS - Welcome!

Thanks for that.
(Look out for more silly questions before the project's finished !! )

Hey Old man,

I've been riding with what was a double chainring set of cranks for most of two years, no problems. I got it s/h on ebay for practically nothing, took off the big chainring and kept the small one, just using some shorter chainring bolts. To be fair I didn't have a clue what I was doing at the time (this forum didn't exist and nobody had ever told me about Mr Brown). I got the chainline pretty much right by doing some measuring and getting a replacement BB with a suitable axle length.

Only things to bear in mind - 1) it does mean I have a slightly longer than usual crank length (175mm) but as I said I didn't know what i was doing, it was cheap and I haven't had pedal strike in all that time. 2) I have a pretty small front ring which doesn't cause me any problems (38x14 i think it is, giving 73 chain inches) but it does mean you have less scope for choosing ratios and you get pointed at by forum members!

Thanks mdja. I'll post the result when I have one. As for being pointed at: if it wasn't for the bike it would be for some other damn thing. Cheers!