Can I use an 8 speed chain on a converted single speed?

Triathlon Forum
1

Question for all you mechanic-folk. I bought my friend’s old race bike which he had converted to a single speed. Took out the large chain ring up front and left one of the smaller cogs in the back. The chain was too long and I wanted to shorten it by one link, which in hindsight isn’t really possible. That and doing it at 3am during midterms week is just as bad as doing it while drunk. Long story short, I got trigger happy with the link tool, and now my chain is too short. Yes let it out, I had a lapse in judgement.

The chain is pretty old and stretched a bit anyways, so I might as well replace it all together. The original chain was a sram PC 1030. Rather than shelling out $35 for a new one, can I buy an 8 or 9 speed and use that while saving a few bucks? I don’t have a whole lot of experience with sram, but if they’re anything like shimano (and I’m guessing they are) there are a variety of different link widths, thicknesses, types, etc. But if this still works, I’d be happy to save myself a good bit of coin.

Thanks!

2

Yup, you can pretty much run any bike chain that will span the cogs. 8,9,10,11 speed chains and 3/32" single speed chains are all good.

3

I use 8speed chains on my SS mtb, cheap, tough as nails and they cope with slight cog misalignments better than the designated SS chains
.

4

Awesome - would an 8 or 9 speed create a lot of noise because of the cog size difference between an 8 and a 10 speed?

5

with your old chain being as stretched as you indicated, I’d replace the cog ( and probably the chainring too ) so that everyting matches up in terms of wear

with that in mind, grab a track/SS cog. shimano make decent ones that don’t cost the earth, a non ramped cog will minimise chain ejection issues under heavy frame flex.
a non ramped chainring will complete the setup .

6

Alright I’ll look into that. Thanks!