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Slick New Singlespeed Chain Tensioners from Vertigo Cycles

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vertigo cycles single speed chain tensioner for sliding dropouts

Sean over at Vertigo Cycles is getting into the pre-NAHBS excitement and sent over a sneak peek of the new single speed chain tensioner he made in order to build up a new belt-driven SS cyclocross bike he’s going to show off in Austin. Here’s the story:

I was prepping a CenterTrack driven single speed CX bike for NAHBS and couldn’t find any good looking chain tensioners that would fit the Paragon hooded horizontal dropouts so I whipped these up.   They’re slick enough that I’m going to make a run of them and will have them for sale shortly after NAHBS.

On-the-bike pics  and more design explanation after the break…

Non-drive side above, drive side below.

vertigo cycles singlespeed and belt drive rear skewer integrated chain tensioner

Sean says the end caps are bigger than they need to be, about 7/8″ versus standard about 5/8″, in order to make sure there was enough thread depth on the skewer ends for the tension screws. “The belt drive requires significant tension, I didn’t have any 7075 rod and I didn’t want to risk pulling the threads out of 6061 after spending a few hours making them.”

Want some? Contact Vertigo Cycles from their website.

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michael yozell
michael yozell
13 years ago

Are those dropouts split tot get the belt in?

michael yozell
michael yozell
13 years ago

Got cut off……or did he use a tube splitter?

Either way, very nice looking tensioner.

Day42
Day42
13 years ago

It’s funny sometimes how something so basic can be so beautiful.

Morpheous
Morpheous
13 years ago

Beautiful, elegant, pertinent, and functional. Bravo!

Sean
13 years ago

Michael, there’s a split in the seat stay. Essentially it’s two nested cones with a bolt passing through. the cones take the shear load while the bolt is under tension. If you look closely, you can see the bolt in the bottom photo.

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