I have an 8 speed DH bike and destroyed my derailleur, can i replace it with one of these tensioners off aliexpress to use it as a single speed (with my 8 speed cassette)? Would I be able to adjust the ratio for specific trails on the go? Any help would be appreciated
by _Literally1984
3 Comments
How much rear travel do you have? If there’s a lot of chain growth from the linkage, then you’d probably be better off with a dual pulley tensioner (e.g. Paul Melvin)
Adjusting ratio is also trickier depending on travel and whether it can actually keep tension
I tried this back in the day with a bike that had 4″ of rear travel. It didn’t work because the spring in the tensioner was just a spoke that didn’t have the springiness to withstand the constant deflection so it would eventually just bend and the chain would end up loose. I made some hack ass shit work with rubber bands but it wasn’t exactly great… maybe those aliexpress ones use a better spring design, like a coil in the pivot or just better spring steel.
Tensioners suck, in my experience anyways. You’d be better off getting a new derailleur and using it as a tensioner.