I picked up an old titanium hard tail for an awesome deal. It has a 3×9 on it sram xo. How hard and expensive would it be to convert it to a 1×10? Also the grip shifters are sticky so I have to change the whole shifters or can I just put new grips on them for now?
by Appropriate_Ad7703
11 Comments
That’s such a sick crank though
Pretty easy. Need a narrow-wide chainring on the front (or a chainkeeper if you want to be cheap for now). 10 years ago, I saw people using the middle bolts/rings on these XTR cranksets, and cutting off the last set of bolt holes (for the big chainring). Shifters themselves are pretty cheap – I would just buy a new rear shifter. If the RD has a cam you’ll be totally fine. I suspect it doesn’t – youmight be okay with just the narrow-wide front (that’s the setup I have on my gravel bike), but you might consider a front chainkeeper, especially if you don’t swap out the middle ring for a narrow wide.
Personally, I’d get a new cassette, RD, and front chainring with a wider range, but that’s more money obviously. Cheapest good option is front chainkeeper and new shifter, and chop the crankset arms down to the middle ring.
Sounds fun honestly. Those XTR cranks looks sweet if you buff em shiny.
I had my bike transitioned to 1×10 about 3-4 years ago. You’ll obviously need a new crank set. If memory serves, your rear wheel hub will determine what kind of cassette you can put on. I did the research and ordered the right parts, but when it came to installation I realized I was in over my head so I had a bike shop do it. It’s a good upgrade, though.
Microshift Advent X groupset.
1x chainring if you can get one that fits your cranks – otherwise a new crankset and bottom bracket too.
Possibly new shift cable and housing.
New grips.
Probably between $200-$350 depending on how things work out.
I honestly wouldn’t mind leaving as is either but the the shifters are old and have that sticky feeling to them
Easy enough for the cost of a cassette, narrow wide chanring. And possibly an derailleur extender thingy from problem solvers. Jensonusa.com has most of it. You can choose a 28t or 30t front chainring. Since most of these are wear items you won’t replace any components which is a huge plus. And you get the extra cockpit room and ditch the front d
I would never go with a 10sp. They were really cheap for a while and I never did. 3×9 is actually awesome.
That said, 1×11 is probably fairly easy: 11sp mountain fits your hubs, and you’d want the biggest range you can get. A Wolftooth Roadlink would make your derailleur handle the range, and a friction shifter would mean you don’t need a new derailleur.
You could do that with 10sp, but it’s one less.
Again, just replacing the worn triple rings, chain, cassette, and shifters would set you right up.
You can buy Sram 3 x 9 trigger shifters for US$30 brand new off aliexpress
Google: X5 S500 Trigger Shifter 3*9s MTB bike shifters 27S
Technically it is easy, if you think of the narrow-wide chainring; and maybe an extender in the back if you want to ride a wide range casette.
Why do you want to convert? Why to 1×10? Do you want to have a big cassette with up to 42t?
I’m asking because I converted one bike to 1×9, for the interest and the thing doing. I kept my other bikes mostly to two- or three-by.
Do they make chainrings for those cranks these days? I had a set years ago that was worn out and couldn’t find anything that would fit their odd BCD. On mine somebody had taken a grinder to the big chainring and turned it into a bashguard lol.
Instead of 1×10, I changed chainrings from 22/32/44 to 22/30/36. Wasn’t a trivial change, but couldn’t be happier since then.
Added: yes, also Ti hardtail 😁