Top mounting chain tensioners....suggestions?

[mikesnow]

My setup hopefully by the end of this week....trail pimp on the rear yes i know it's heavy (is it too heavy to be worthwhile building a trials wheel or should i swap it for a dx32?) anyways....one of those rims...basically the cheapest single speed hub i can find (unless anyone has any useful opposition to cheap single speed hubs), and an acs claw freewheel....this with a 2.5 tire and hopeuflly within a couple weeks hs33's on the back.

What's interesting is this morning i smashed my surly chain tensioner off something, so the hangar is bent to shit....so i ended up banging it back a bit and took a bunch of links out and ran a tight chain on the largest sprocket in the rear.....well you guys were all right on the gearing questions....yesterday i could not do a single pedalkick, today with the new gearing (still 32 in front) i can string together probably 7 or 8, some rolling along the ground, others with the little hop.....so basically i'm going to be running an 18 tooth in the rear (fw) and a 22 for sure up front, but actually now that the suggestion has been made i would really enjoy having a 32 as well for manuals and wallride type stuff....so the question is:

What do you guys suggest as a chain tensioning device, cause cause honestly i'm sick of breaking deraileurs and hangars, and surly type things....if at all possible i will be steering clear of any below the cassette tensioners ..........
-what are my options for an above-the-chainstay tensioner?


keep in mind will be taking up the slack between a 32 and 22 as well
thanks again

[trauma100]

Above the chainstay??? ummm havnt seen that done yet :dunno: ..there's to much force applied to the driven side (top) of the chain to warrant any kind of tensioner there... the only part of the chain (vert. dropout's of coarse) is the bottom chain ....that's slack.. or maybe I dont understand :dunno:

[AgrAde]

PHANTOM GEAR

[mikesnow]

just looked up phatom gear, this idea would have never crossed my mind, it's kinda brilliant in a way, is this seen in trials much?

[chronic]

I think I have seen it once or twice in photos.

[AgrAde]

just looked up phatom gear, this idea would have never crossed my mind, it's kinda brilliant in a way, is this seen in trials much?

at one point a few people were like "OMG PHANTOM GEAR ROXXORS" then someone had a nasty accident and noone has used them since, as far as i know.

[WhiteRavenKS]

above the stay? that's held tight by a little thing called you pedaling.

you dont have a lot of options. horizontal dropouts is one but that kind of takes a whole new frame. surly tensioners are made for xc bikes. they arent meant to take any kind of trials/street abuse. i cant blame them for failing at a task they were never meant to take on.

i would look into the rennen (sp?) tensioners. ive been impressed by them on every bike ive ridden with it.

[TooSicKs]

I never had a nasty accident with mine, it just wouldn't fit anymore when i went to the Surly hub. Mine is the old GT pics you see around, I built that out of my torn apart cassette.

You want to go about 10 teeth bigger than your front for it to work for trials, this means you need a lot of clearance. If you run the chainline inwards enough you can clear the stays and make it work rather effectively. It did work better than a tensioner when i ran a 32t non ramped front chainring in between 22/18 gearing.

Why would you want to tension the top of the chain? That's the tight side already.

[mikesnow]

yeah my bad guys.....i didn't think about that hard enough i don't think. Yeah top side is under tension, so it is the bottom half to think about...i was referring more to something that mounts out away from the rear location, preferably something closer to the middle.

Basically i know of the kore reactor (chainstay mounted) although it doesn't look like it allows for lateral adjustment, , the phantom which now seems slightly sketchy, and the rennen rollenlager, basically these are the options as far as i can tell that might help me avoid replacing any more hangars......

there is also the eccentric hub options, but i think that that might be out of my price range at this point, i'll have to check into it,

anyways once again any help is awesome guys, basically saving me pulling my hair out as i learn....oh yeah and as of about 15 minutes ago, my surly is TOAST and a possible beautiful day of riding is as well. all the more motivation to make this shit really work with my next setup.

[Elan]

dx 32 is 100000000000000000000X better than the trail pimp, not to mention, half the price. if you want to clear your mind of derialleur related issues, your only reasonable option is buying a mod.


p.s i dont understand why you dont use a 20t chain ring on the front

[TooSicKs]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/directdrive022.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/directdrive021.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/directdrive020.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/directdrive019.jpg

My current setup for singlespeed direct.

[Elan]

looks like alien shit

[ACR]

you should try a Kore chain reactor. However, try mounting it on the top of your chainstay. I'm not 100% sure that this would work, but it's a good alternative to the usual derailleur hanger mounted tensioner.
Here's a link: http://www.kore-usa.com/dreactor.htm

[hydroboy]

get a steel hanger and a sora.

some people will tell you it will snap your frame, it wont.

[DRUM]

how do we go about getting steel hangers?
take your frames hanger to a machinist/metal person and get them to make a copy in steel?

expensive right?

[PaulG]

err get a bit of steel and and a hacksaw ...

[DRUM]

OMG SORRY

[lucky13]

um,. with that setup,.. wow,.. I'd just get one of those SUUUPppperrr cheap shimano der that bolt onto the axle like a POS huffy/pacific/motiv and use that as a tensioner.

dude,. I'd have to agree with elan on that one,.. It's probly the only thing ya got though huh? Well make the best of it, and DO get a 20t front cog to make up for that LONG chainstay.

jOeL

(don't dude me)

[TooSicKs]

dude, it's mike who needs help, my setup is rock solid, i never have drivetrain issues. I took my der off about 2 weeks ago and went 20t front, i'm happy with my setup drivetrainwise.

[PJL]

Here's a pic of my previous setup, I will get you a pic of the new setup tomorrow. I think this is kinda what you are asking for. http://www.me.mtu.edu/%7Epjlilles/Pics/Bikes/tensioner1_sm.JPG

[hydroboy]

i prefer hacksaw and angle grinder and bench grinder, but thats because i cant use hacksaw for shit.

[hydroboy]

could you post more details about your setup PJL?

Thanks.

[lucky13]

dude, it's mike who needs help, my setup is rock solid, i never have drivetrain issues. I took my der off about 2 weeks ago and went 20t front, i'm happy with my setup drivetrainwise.
Ahh...my bad,.. HA HA,.. in that case: nice POS! LOL,..

takes a lickin' keeps on tickin eh?

lol

[mikesnow]

yeah i like the look of that for sure. is that a kore or is that a custom job?
also toosicks, for your kmc 415 do you know if that width of chain is cool to run with:
-most tensioners
-acs freewheels
-front chainring bashring?

just wondering what else i'd have to switch to run a heavy chain like that

Thanks for all the help again guys, i've learned a shitload since the top of the thread

[TooSicKs]

Mike, most tensioners fit 1/8 or 3/16" chain. To run the fat chain your best bet is this type of setup:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/DSC00001.jpg

ACS freewheel fits, ACS wide fits better, but is not avaialble in 18t.

You may need to space out the chainring to make it clear the bash. On mine i do that by adding more spacers to my profile cranks. Without the profiles, you may have to put spacers between the chainring and the spider to make it clear. My chain rubs my bash until it makes it's grooves, only because i choose not to run a huge stack of spacers, and besides, my bash is so beefy it can use a bit of material worn off it.

You wanna see more of my setup? Look here, http://photobucket.com/albums/y41/bisbee/ ask questions if you have any. The deraileur is sawed off and the cage is inverted. I run 1/4 cage with this setup.

[PJL]

About the tensioner, it is basically a Kore chain reactor with a mount I made to allow it to be fitted to the BT's chainstays, which were too big for the the mounting brackets that came with it. I just used a U-bolt and some 1/8" aluminum that I hacksawed and filed til it looked better. I also drilled a few different holes to allow for some adjustability in how I mounted it with respect to the chainline. I am using a spare roller from another tensioner off a friend's FR bike, it works better than the one that comes with the reactor.

With this configuration I have tool free access to a 16t 'getting there gear' and the 19t trials gear. Also no worries about bad sidehops because there really is nothing you could hit other than the skewer or bashguard.

I also made my own 'derailluer hanger' out of the same aluminum, just took a bit of time, measuring, and filing to make it fit correctly. It's not actually a hanger, just takes it's place in the dropouts so hub has more contact area on the axle. You can see what I mean in the pics.
http://www.observedtrials.net/album/data/500/243tensioner_new_small.JPG
http://www.observedtrials.net/album/data/500/243tensioner_new_small_2.JPGhttp://www.observedtrials.net/album/data/500/243tensioner_new_small_3.JPG

[Poopslush]

Are you running black maggy pads or is that tar?

[PJL]

Running some blue Plaz pads, but the rim looks like that because it has only one grind done so far and the sidewalls were black to begin with.

[lucky13]

Cool, I like the no nonsense setups like that. Used to hate them 'cause of stock rules. But now the rules have changed (in North America at least) and I'd like to get rid of my R-der.

Thanks for all the helpful pics.

[my.ark.4@gmail.com]

TooSicks, the acount needs a password, any chance you could make it public?

[TooSicKs]

Try again

[my.ark.4@gmail.com]

Thanks a lot.