If you need a new excuse to ride an old frame or just want to winter-fy your hardtail, converting it into a singlespeed could be the answer. DMR’s Combo Kit comes with everything you need – a 16t sprocket, various freehub spacers and their Simple Tension Seeker chain tensioner.
It’s billed as a universal kit for frames with vertical dropouts. But on bikes with thin dropouts – such as the On-One Inbred we tested it on – it can be necessary to take a file to the chain tensioner so it sits flush in the dropout.
We also found that the sprocket’s deep teeth sometimes held on to our nine-speed SRAM chain a little too well, causing a bit of chain pop, though that did improve as it wore in. Using a beefier singlespeed chain isn’t possible because the groove in the roller is too narrow for anything but a standard 9/10/11-speed chain.