Back From The Dead – Building Bargain Dirt Jump Bikes

Members' FeatureOnline Feature

by ago 11

‘If the kids are out riding, they will never be divided! ‘  Sham69 sang that (or something fairly similar) back in 1978 and it still rings true today! Man am I glad I’m not being raised as a kid in 2021. My generation is the last to be able to remember a world without internet and we’re definitely better for it. I can still remember being stood in the garden and hearing the ungodly squeal of dad’s new dial up internet in the attic, connecting for the first time, the sound of a rapidly changing world seared across my eardrums in real time!  The way I see it the early 90’s were the last golden age to be a child. As a kid I had freedoms that if I had my own kids today I wouldn’t be able to give them even if I wanted to. There were two older kids than me who lived up the road, Gavin and Jamie (shout out Gav for still riding every weekend all these years later!), and we...
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Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Back From The Dead – Building Bargain Dirt Jump Bikes
  • Premier Icon Michaela
    Full Member

    Love this! We just picked up a Giant STP for £cheap and we’re going to nail it together into something we can hurt ourselves on 🤣

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon Matthew Hornby
    Full Member

    Brilliant. These are quickly becoming my favourite articles on the front page. This one makes me want to go and smash up my hardtail and myself on some jumps. 😁

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon tomsir
    Full Member

    Mr dead, could you please do a how to on the mech to singlespeed tensioner conversion. Want to know how you mod the cage! Cheers!

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon Dieter Carroll
    Full Member

    @tomsir

    No problem, ideally an old road mech works best as they have higher spring tension and a smaller, neater body. Because you want it to look smart as well as work well!

    I then chopped the lower jockey wheel off with my Dremel, (you could use a junior hacksaw if you don’t have access to a Dremel.

    Then its just a matter of inserting an old cable into the derailleur with the nipple sat in the cable tension adjuster.

    Pull the derailleur vaguely into line with the rear sprocket and fine tune the chainline with the cable tension adjuster.

    All done!

    I’ve used this type of tensioner for years in the past and it works wayyy better than any of the proper dedicated chain tensioners do!

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon tomsir
    Full Member

    Cheers for that dude. So it really is just chop the bottom half of the cage as short as possible and nothing else? I always thought there would be more modding! Good to know there’s not.

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon Dieter Carroll
    Full Member

    @tomsir

    Yeah man, slice and dice! Unless you’re running it on a full sus then leave the whole cage intact so you have some room for chain growth! Probably should have put that in the article!

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Where is that Like Button?

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon Charlie Hobbs
    Full Member

    Brill stuff man. The noble set of bodging singlespeeds. My first tensioner was called a “spatulator” as the chain guide cage was part kitchen spatula. Little did I know that first single speed was the starting point for a Bikemonger, my career for many years, organising the SS champs, and ten thousand beers.

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon chilternderek
    Full Member

    Great article. Really hits home – my 13 year old can’t get enough of digging and jumping, which is keeping me busy with bike repairs (he’s looking for a jump bike). Time to resurrect one of my old frames!

    Posted 4 months ago
    Premier Icon cheekysprocket
    Full Member

    This story warmed my cockles more than any ‘Here’s the latest greatest that’ll cost you an arm and a leg’ story on here ever did. All we need now here in Calderdale is that pump track…

    Posted 3 months ago
    Premier Icon whonickedmename
    Full Member

    Brilliant stuff – great to see kids being supported like this (as well as your other customers)!

    Posted 3 months ago
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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