Surly Singleator Chain Tensioner

Surly Singleator works Great!

Very nice product, well made, works as advertised. It is slightly more noisey than I had hoped, but that is getting picky and could be more a combination of my chain--a K710SL. I have it on a road frame converted to single speed and it works great. Replaced a Gusset Bachelor, which worked but did not have the adjustment necessary with my dropouts and frame.

Long term durability remains to be seen, but I don't forsee a problem with my normal road usage.

Pros: Good looks, spring tension, ease of setup

Cons: Not as quiet as I hoped and I'd prefer silver cog cage with silver arm rather than black cage with silver arm (these are nit-picky Cons, for sure)

Would Buy Again: Yes
Would Recommend: Yes

Reviewed on: April 23, 2014
Reviewed by: JC

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Not a fan

Put this on a recent SS commuter build. On my way home from second commute, my drive-train was getting unusually noisy. Got home and noticed the chain tension was looser than I had set it to. No big deal I thought, probably the spring setting in.

I loosened it, and then got to retensioning. A few seconds later I heard an odd sound and lost all tension. I knew it was fubar.

Took it apart to see what happened. Hard to explain, but basically the spring was slowly working itself out from the small hole in the body in which it fits. It also rounded out the tiny hole in the body such that I can guarantee you there's no way any new spring will ever sit in there correctly.

I promptly returned this.

Everything else about it was fine. I thought it was built well up until I saw what the spring did to the body. I think the spring is a monster :) Too much for the body!

BTW, you don't need their fancy wrench. Any cone wrench of the correct size will work fine.

Pros: Installs well, good quality (excluding my issue). Versatile in how you can to push or pull install and swap the pulley guides for 3/32 or 1/8.

Cons: It could have been operator error, but I just don't trust this device anymore. I think it's extremely fugly, personal opinion of course.

Would Buy Again: No
Would Recommend: No

Reviewed on: November 25, 2011
Reviewed by: Trevor A.

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