I've been looking at bikes recently for my commute to work and thought that rather than buy a new one I'd see what I could do with my old Raleigh Montage. As my commute is short and mainly roads/paths, I was thinking about converting it to single-speed one day (mainly due to simplicity of maintenance). That day came sooner than I though as on the first day of my commute the chain snapped!
My question is: how feasible is it to convert it to single-speed bearing in mind I've never done it before, want to spend as little as possible and don't have bags of time in which to do it. I don't really know what parts I need and which I can use off the current bike.
To figure out what size cranks I'd need I'd also hoped to use the bike for a bit in a single gear to see how that feels on my commute. The problem is, I don't think the bike would last on a few test runs (I managed to fix the chain but feels like it's slipping massively when I apply any kind of pressure) and I don't know whether the cranks themselves are worn or whether it's something to do with the gear mechanism.
A silly question: is it possible to remove the gear cables and just manually move the chain onto the cranks I want to try out (my thinking is that is this worked without slipping then I'd know it was the gear mechanism that's faulty).
Should I give a single-speed project a crack or just resign myself to buying a commuter bike? Any help would be appreciated!
My question is: how feasible is it to convert it to single-speed bearing in mind I've never done it before, want to spend as little as possible and don't have bags of time in which to do it. I don't really know what parts I need and which I can use off the current bike.
To figure out what size cranks I'd need I'd also hoped to use the bike for a bit in a single gear to see how that feels on my commute. The problem is, I don't think the bike would last on a few test runs (I managed to fix the chain but feels like it's slipping massively when I apply any kind of pressure) and I don't know whether the cranks themselves are worn or whether it's something to do with the gear mechanism.
A silly question: is it possible to remove the gear cables and just manually move the chain onto the cranks I want to try out (my thinking is that is this worked without slipping then I'd know it was the gear mechanism that's faulty).
Should I give a single-speed project a crack or just resign myself to buying a commuter bike? Any help would be appreciated!