"Ghost ring" for single speed on estay bike

[jaypee]

Anyone used a Ghost ring? You wedge it between the upper and lower run of the chain to get the tension and it spins in reverse, connected to nothing but the chain (apparently!)

Its possible with an estay because there's no chain stay in the way.

Thinking of setting my Cro-Mega up that way but worried it will jump out (particularly off-road).

 

[Canuck]

Like this?
Came across this pic and often thought about trying it myself for the fun of it...neat idea if it work's (...spin's in reverse?)
(sorry for nickin' your pic godders, nice lookin' c.cone! )

 

[jaypee]

You're right, now I can visualise it it would obviously spin the right way.

Unless he carried it that one obviously worked off-road which is encouraging.

And e-stays not necessary, though I've read it makes it much easier in terms of size of ring and getting it in place.

Cheers Canuck!

 

[JamesM]

I use a ghostring on my fixie and it works great. Can be a bit tricky getting it to clear the chainstay on a conventional frame, but as you said, this won't be a problem on an estay bike. Go for it!!!

 

[JamesM]

If I remember correctly the ghostring on the Kona was a cassette sprocket and it eventuallty snapped clean in half. Because of this I used a steel front 30t grannyring from a road triple, thicker gauge metal than a cassette sprocket. Basically use something sturdy as all the force is pushing up and down on the ghostring so trying to fold it in half. BMX front rings would be good and come in some crazy designs too. Oh and it needs to be close in size to your front ring to work well. My front ring is a 34 and as I said my ghostring is a 30.

 

[jaypee]

Great stuff! I'm itching to try it now but realistically I'll need to wait til my course is over in the summer before I get round to building it up

So it doesn't jump out even on roughish ground?

 

[JamesM]

Mine is used on the road but I've banged through potholes, gone up and down curbs, had lots of fixie moments (where you stop pedaling and it tries to throw you off) which put alot of shock loading into the transmission and it hasnt shown any signs of falling out. If the chain is tight it should be fine. To get the chain tight you have to use alot of force to get the ghostring in there. Put it in and move it as far back as you can get it by hand (be carfeull and you can trap fingers). If you think the chain still isn't tight enough then loosen the back wheel off, drop it out slightly (my drop outs aren't totally vertical they are a bit diagonal), move it back one more tooth then put some weight on the bike to re-locate the rear wheel and tighten it up. I did this and the chain is well tight (which is good on a fixie). Also check it's not going to clash with the rear sprocket. When you build the bike and try all this you'll know wether its likely to fall out or not before you ride it. If you cant get good tension you need a bigger ghostring or you have to many links in the chain. I've never really bought all the stuff about high chain tension wearing parts prematurley as the tension you put on the chain when pedaling along is really high anyway. Plus SS bits are much cheaper than geared bike bits too.

 

[JamesM]

Oh and it looks cool!!!

 

[jaypee]

I did some searching a while back and there wasn't much on it on the web so that might be the best advice out there! Cheers Sheldon

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Huh? That's clever...