Yung Piss

I have an older 105 group (minus the cranks) on a 2009 Kona Jake the Snake. It's 5600 series 105. Cranks aren't great, FSA Gossamer. I've ordered the appropriate narrow-wide chainring but need a better understanding of the next steps.

My train of thought for doing this is just remove all the now-unnecessary front shifting parts, unbolt the current double rings and slap on this new ring in place of the large ring. I understand I may need to buy shorter chainring bolts but I'm waiting to see because the description of the ring I purchased led me to believe that it may have extra material to take up that extra bolt length. It was a bit unclear but tomorrow I'll have it in front of me to look at.

Does this sound more or less correct? I know chain line might not be the best but will it be relatively okay? Anything I can do to make it better that doesn't entail more buying? Would I be better served with track/single speed cranks? (have some laying around but wasn't planning to use for this) Again, I'm trying to buy as little as possible.



Lastly, I must write this. Please please PLEASE don't tell me to search the forums. I have done that for two days and I'm not finding clear answers to what I need to know. Frankly I've wasted a lot of time reading people telling other people to "just search for it." If you can directly address my questions with helpful answers, please respond and I will be very thankful. If you're thinking about telling me something else or trying to flex your bike mechanic knowledge in some other irritating way or just want to weigh in and tell me my build idea is questionable, please STFU and keep it moving - that's how we're gonna do it today.

redlude97

Without a clutch style RD the chain can still pop off the N/W chainring. I'd either leave the FD on and adjust the h/l limits to hold it onto the chainring or buy a chaincatcher. You can also modify the RD by opening up the pulley cage and moving the internal spring to the higher tension position

fietsbob

You could sell the brifter set for Money.. and get 1 bar end shifter, the left bar end is simple friction, so almost thrown in for free.
in the set.
and simple aero brakes..

coupster

My current 1x10 bike has the following components.

105 10 spd shifters (left is brakes only, obviously)
Deore M591 9 spd rear derailleur
No front derailleur
Ultegra FC6600 crankset
RaceFace 44t NW chainring (attached to the inner ring position with single ring bolts)
SRAM 11-34 10 spd cassette
No chain tensioner or keeper

I only ride on paved and packed gravel surfaces, so relatively few dramatic bumps. I've never dropped a chain or felt that the chain was less than secure. In fact I really like the pedal feel and silence of the NW chainring. OP, your plan seems perfectly workable to me. I will say that the chain length needs to be spot on. The lack of slop from the NW can make setting up the indexing a bit finicky, but doable.

Yung Piss

Oh yeah that's a good idea. I should have mentioned that I already did that some years back though for the money lol!! The bike has MTB bars and trigger style Tiagra shifters on it. Put an old pic below, looks more or less the same now except different saddle and some other little things...

Yung Piss

Awesome! Very encouraging. I too only ride pavement, love finding some packed dirt but not so easy around these parts. Thinking I won't have chain drop issues and will definitely be getting rid of some links. Interesting about mounting in the small ring position, will definitely do that if it means better chain line. Thanks a lot!

Yung Piss

My fault, I should have mentioned that this won't be used for racing or offroad at all really. Hoping to get away without one of these new clutch derailleurs...

ph0rk

You can go with a chainguide and a nw chainring, but a clutch RD + nw ring is (imho) superior and limits chain slap in addition to good retention.

An extra bonus is clutch RDs can handle much larger rear cogs, if you want to go 11-36, 11-40, or 11-42.

10s 105 should work with 9s XT rear derailleurs - I have one on my 1x10 Cross Check, though I'm using a dura ace downtube shifter.

Yung Piss

New York City is flat as a pancake so for now I'm gonna stick with a 42x12-25. Again for pavement riding I think (and hope) that I'll be fine with all the parts I already own.

squirtdad

That's not how it works on this forum, so you will need to live with it. you don't get to dictate.

FWIW I did this as you described with a 1x8 set up when i redid a bike from the ground up with new everthing but frame/fork/seatpost. The chain line is not perfect, but hasn't seemed to be a problem over over 1000 miles and no drop issues on front chain ring. Easy city riding.

shelbyfv

This may not go according to your demands. Some of the more knowledgeable members may take exception to your snippy attitude and decline to help. Good luck anyway.

coupster

No science or measurement here. The chain line just looked better than the outer position. And I ride more on the lower side of the cassette. WNC much more hilly than flat.