chain tensioner project

droscher2001 said:

hi,
I ride a spooky bandwagon, for my college engineering project i am designing a chain tensioner that ataches to the chain stay, but im stuck for ideas on designs, If anybody has any opinions on this, or has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated if you could share them with me!

tom

Hello tom, ive been riding trails now for five years and and i think single speed is the best. im currently using a DMR chain tensioner and have never had any problems with the chain coming off. my advice is to design sprung tensioner rather than the fixed ones. they stop the chain from rattling around better.
best of luck with your project,

Martin

My DMR tensioner has given me alittle grief. Even though I run it on my maintence-free SS commuter MTB every time I gotta take the wheel out (replace tube due to puncture or change ratio) which isn’t that often I have to loosen the tensioner . This has finally done the thread in the ‘derailleur’ mount where the DMR tensioner is fitted.

I also bummed around getting the DMR tensioner fitted originally because I didn’t belive they would use such a dumb appraoch to fixing the tension on the spring – doing up the mounting bolt up really tight. So many better options available to provide a more efficent & reliable tensioning.