Absolutely it's a good idea! I'm a big fan of singlespeeds. I have three including an old lugged Schwinn 4130 chromoly road bike that was rescued from the dump. It has horizontal dropouts which made it a prime candidate for ss conversion. Without horizontal dropouts or track ends, to do an ss conversion you will either need a chain tensioner like the Surly singulator, or an eccentric rear hub. I'm pretty sure that your bike has vertical drop outs, so it will require one of the latter solutions.
There are many good singlespeed hubs out there--Paul, White, King, Surly, etc. If you want to go the eccentric hub route, White industries makes a nice hub. It is a bit pricey though. It's the only eccentric type hub that I'm aware of. If you want to go economy, get a singulator. It works kind like a derailleur that doesn't shift. It's just a spring loaded tensioner. As for hubs & wheels, Surly hubs are inexpensive and well made. I'd give them a best bang for the buck rating. The bearings are kinda small. I was only getting a season or two out of them, but that was on a mtn bike. You should get better life on a road bike. They are cheap and easy to replace.
There are plenty of ss specific wheels out there too or if you're using a tensioner, you can convert a regular cassette type wheel which is what I did on my Schwinn. There are some advantages to singlespeed specific wheels over converted wheels. Singlespeed wheels have no dish which makes them stronger. That's not such a big issue on a road bike though.
For some really great info on singlespeed conversion, check out Sheldon Brown's website (RIP).
Hope this helped.
-Scott
There are many good singlespeed hubs out there--Paul, White, King, Surly, etc. If you want to go the eccentric hub route, White industries makes a nice hub. It is a bit pricey though. It's the only eccentric type hub that I'm aware of. If you want to go economy, get a singulator. It works kind like a derailleur that doesn't shift. It's just a spring loaded tensioner. As for hubs & wheels, Surly hubs are inexpensive and well made. I'd give them a best bang for the buck rating. The bearings are kinda small. I was only getting a season or two out of them, but that was on a mtn bike. You should get better life on a road bike. They are cheap and easy to replace.
There are plenty of ss specific wheels out there too or if you're using a tensioner, you can convert a regular cassette type wheel which is what I did on my Schwinn. There are some advantages to singlespeed specific wheels over converted wheels. Singlespeed wheels have no dish which makes them stronger. That's not such a big issue on a road bike though.
For some really great info on singlespeed conversion, check out Sheldon Brown's website (RIP).
Hope this helped.
-Scott
